Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1894-07-12
HATED INDIANS.
H b
A PIONEER TELLS OF A BACK
WOODS TRAGEDY.
Ills hoy Was Taken Prisoner by the Red
skins Tho Father Strikes the Trail
and Escapes with His son-A Rnttio-
snakes Fatal Bite.

IN l0tV' SHlu Ine pioneer, ~
went to Wyoming to follow the line
OF trading, and for a year or two did
pretty we'll My beat lay between
Forts Laramie and Bridgcr, and |
came and went in little gig ! had.
One day | got letter from home
saying that my wife had died, and
that my half brother, as mean man
Us ever lived, had sent my Chris ON
I on to me.
"Wyoming in those days was no
/ place for children, scarcely for white
men at ell, and was naturally an
noyed at the boys being sent OFF
without consulting me as to what
disposition | wished made OF him. |
made calculation based on what
| Henry had Eritten as to when they
would arrive, and, knowing the
route they must travel, | wont down
hundred miles TO meet them.
but | waited and waited for that
emigrant train and it did not come.
After a while there came news that
the train had been attacked by the
Indians and every body killed was
| pretty wild, | can tell you, and made
up my mind to go back to Ono and
murder my half-brother But IN a
day or two there rode into the fort
n half-breed that said he had seen a
white boy with band OF Cheyenues
travelling toward Dakota, and by
questioning him closely, | gathered
that this boy must be Chris my son.
al presently fell in with another
trader named Burns, brave and
good fellow, who had some friends
among the Cheyennes and offered to
go on with me- as he was on his way
to Dakota anyhow We got on then
very we'll for while, meeting plenty
OF Indians who gave us such inior-
nation as they possessed and We
learned that the band with whom the
boy was lay in camp in what is
called the Plateau du Couteau, near
the northern part of the territory
1--WE had gotten within twenty
miles Of the plateau and were eating
dinner about noon one DAY on tho
banks Of the Missouri when all at
once there was a war-whoop ringing
in our ears, and about twenty In
dians rushed out from a heap OF
rocks behind which they had crept
upon us Burns held up his hand
and called How to show that we
were friendly, but even as he did
so, II ball struck him in the breast. lie
leaped four or five feet into the air,
the blood fairly squirting from the
hole over his heart At the same
time l fell with broken leg, and
Burns dead body struck me as he
rolled down. The Indians, thinking
they had killed lis both, came run
ming and seized our horses, but the
chief bent over me to scalp me, when
he perceived that / was still alive.
He drew his knife almost across my
throat, then looked more closely at
me and recognized me He had been
in Fort Laramie the year before and
had been quite friendly with ne.
He ordered me bound, though, and
tied to a horse beside which he rode
as we went back to their camp.
ave got there early the following
morning and my first look about the
camp showed me nothing of the
white prisoner. But toward even
ing another portion of tho band came
in from a hunting expedition. and
with them was Chris, whom l had
left child OF s, but who was now
: about L. dared not approach him
then, but eyed HIM as indilTerently
as no hadine.
= when dark came the chief called
me to hit side for pow-wow,
which, after lasting an hour or So
was endoG by my being dismissed tt
my tent without a guard, and
strolled over to where the boy sal
S pounding corn for squaw How
5 | said to him, but he did not raise
his head until laid my hand on his.
= Then he glanced up at me with tina
same terrible lack-lustre look and
S saw that the poor chi.d's mind hat
given way under his sulferings,
81 had>%onwait some weeks for til,
} sought-for portunity to escape, Blu
all the time | was busy secretins
} provisions and such articles as W,
, would need on our long and har,
l journey that we had before us, A
/ last the night came, had pretend
I ed to sprain my ankle, as an eXcu s.
5 not to join a party that went out o.
S an elk hunt of several days, and onl
y squaws were left to guard us and tn
9 camp, There was no moon and tn
stars even were obscured by tn
clouds when we started. We ha
gone nearly forty miles when. on
. evening a few black specks appeare
. on the horizon, and | knew that GU
a foes were on our trail.
r l descended and we left in C hurry
making FOR little shallow strear
e lowing toward the Big Muddy, an,
d down this we waded for several hur
4 ared yards to throw these huma
t blood hounds off the rack. The