Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1894-03-08
head Chief LITTLE FISH.
He Comes to Town, Secs the
Sights and Has a Good
Time.
An Indians Opinion of the
Telephone. His Respect
for Edison.
Recollections Of Genuine
old Settler Of the Buffalo
Days.

There was an animated scene IN the !
Gladstone, Wednesday evening. in which |
the lea aling part was taken by Te-a.waste,
a Sisseton Sioux whose other and Eng
],sb name is Little Fish. He is an old
man IN years, counting them on his !
fingers up to %, but in activity and good
spirits he is as young and spritely as any
80 wear old brave who, not long ago,
rode up and down the valley OF the Jim
in breech- clout after the bounding bison;
or made Sioux love to red-cheeked
squaw in the Dakota moonlight.
Little Fish has mixture of French
blood in his veins, as a slight Partisan
curl to his yet jet black hair. and goatee
Of extra thickness and style, indi-
cate He is straight in stature,
active and quick as ferret,
and his keen eyes are dimmed but
slightly, although many years OF tepee
smoke has filled them with its haze, and
the pipe of kinnikinic has seldom ceased
TO send it's clouds OF doubtful fragrance
into the old chiefs kiln-drled face.
Little Fish wears citizens suit now,
except the inevitable Indian foot gear,
handsomely beaded moccasins. The coat
was cut in soldierly fashion, and brass
buttons indicated certain military rank.
He was proud Of his record as friendly
Indian, and carried in a pocketbook,
wrapped in bright barred silk, letters of
introduction and commendation from
Gen.Sibley and Mrs. Gen. Hancock asking
by those presents that all white men give
Little Fish, head chief at Fort Totten, a
friendly greeting and do unto HIM as he
would do to them.
He has been participant in several
bloody Indian fights; was at the horrible
massacre OF New Ulm in Minn., and says
he fought a sharp battle.with the CHIP
pewas at Spiritwood lake, sixteen miles
from Jamestown, in 184S. For 100 years
the Sioux and Chippewas have fought at
sight, and in this Spiritwood battle the
Chippewas bit the dust.
Little Fish is almost as much at home
at jamestown as our pioneers. A buffalo
head mounted in the office Of the hotel
claimed bis attention, and soon an inter-
estiuR Sioux lecture was begun on the
recollections that the bison's front called
up in the quick mind of the old man. He
told by signs and wonderfully expressive
gestures how his people aud himself had
chased the buffalo and killed many Of
them right on the very spot where the
hotel stands. He said that in winter
with snow knee deep they once sur
rounded large herd IN the bend OF the
river where jamestown is now built, and
in the excitement of the hunt blankets
we're cast of and the butchery completed
with no other covering than the breech
sklns, although the weather was bitter
cold. Buffalo, said Little Fish, once
gathered IN great numbers in the timber
along the Jim river for shelter. He
showed by sign gestures how the bison
tossed up the deep snow with his horns
and head and paved it away with theil
feet to get the covered grass. Buffalo
smell long ways, see little ways" went
on Tea waste in bis quick gesture Ian
guage. It was twenty seven winters
since they saw the last big herds ia the
valley, and then the beet was killed az
prodigaIly by surrounding it and by saw
age butchery, as II want was not on eartt
and the Great Spirit had plenty more
game for his children when they grew
hungry. .....
Although Little Fish has been .
we'll known Reservation Indian fol
many years, aud accustomed to man,
OF the cOntrivances OF civiliza
ton, there are some new things ir
the way OF white mans mysteries tina,
he 10 not entirely familiar with. One O.
them was the electric lights OF the hotel
He was taken to the plant where tht
big wheels put the tremendous speee
into the generators and filled the wlre'
with tanned lightning. He WAS told II
was lightning. but he would not believe
He was induced to take q portion OF thu
electric current on his hand by touching
the flying wheel band. Instantly blue
stresks He'd to and from his fingers ano
Little Fish stood amazed with aston
ishnlent, aud halt fear. He INSTANTLY
wiped of the ends OF bic fingers with .
red cotton handkerchief to get the cleo
tricity out Of them, and laughed ant
looked foolish at the same time, anl
after that walked more carfully among
the machinery.
The telephone was another revelatio,