The Portland daily press., 1895-01-05

the squaws alone swung the glittering
hoe.
These Grow Indians, I take it, bear about
the same relation to yirile Indians of the
Sioux stamp that the genus coryus bears in
Ornithclogy to the white headed eagle.
When one of these Indians takes up bit OF
land and sets up as granger. the govern
ment builds him a nice frame house. AS
soon as the house becomes pediculous the
aboriginal farmer sets up tepee on lis
front lawn, moves his family and his pen
ates into it and turns the government
mansion over to his ponies. I saw num-
Der of instances in which the corvine son
of Agricola had thus returned, hog like, to
bis wallow.
On ration day at the Grow Agency these
genial wards of the nation flock there to a
man and woman for frolic. Each gang is
allotted certain number of cattle, and
they dc their own slaughtering. This is a
gala occasion for the Indian and his dog.
When steer is stricken down he is immedi-
ately evisce1ated, and the leading man
seizes the kidneys as bon bouche. These
are eaten warm and raw, and if the buck
is in high feather he smears mis- face with
blood. The liver and heart of the steer are
eaten ny IT1USSlu0u VI 1SsSSi aSSAcCs hAiio
the squaws squeeze out the intestines and
proceed to devour them with gusto. clean
ing water even being dispensed with.
EVEN sCHooLED INDIAN BARBAR-
JAMS.
Engaged in this sort of barbaric gustatory
pastime will be round Indians who have
been schooled at Carlisle and elsewhe1e q.
IL, hiatt nd RIO hit
here, under the shadow of the handsomest.
Fest equipped agency in the West. and I'M
der the eye Of The finest cavalry barracks
outside of San Antonio. Texas, these In
dams dispose of their dead by ha nging
them up in tree tops. ! saw within Eve
miles of the fort row corpse in tree-a
very becoming place for crow-and
could not regret the scarcity of trees and
similar orname ntation. 1t Is somewhat sat-
isfying to know that these Indians who
cling SO tenaciously TO the skirts of b~fbar-
ism are not fructifying. Their census
shows an annual decrease of from fifty TO
hundred. Their general worthlessness and
the vices and diseases kindly translated to
them by the whites may be depended on to
do the business. and the Grow Indian. like
the Irish wolf dog, will soon be reminis-
cence.
We approached the battle field from the
rear of the Indian position and when we
had climbed to the browning point where
the mon ument stands the picture spread
out before US was complete. l had always
supposed that Custer mad led his little
band into some sort of deep, dark ravine,
and had beeL hemmed in and simply
slaugh terod. Nothing of the kind. This
field is succession of brown rolling hills
divided by gullies and immense crown
aroyas. tending mainly 10 the little river
which sweeps around the bases. Standing
at the monument we had a view OF the bot
tom lands in which the Indians, previous
to The battle. had li!ched their ,illnges.
These were hidden from The view of Gus
ter. as 10 came around the io.Hf OF
mighty liz, Lex, uulil lie WAS actually
engaged.
These eleI Ii u ipe Hills, it may lie re
marked. bold and bleak and destitute OF
shruoiery, ere so cenvolpted and inter-
twircsl hal an army such as Alexander led
into pleeris ia nj hit be hidden behind any
one of them without attracting the atten-
ton of scout hundred yards away. No
pen picture Can adequately describe The
formation of :be field upon which the
fighting took lace. But the story is
plainly told, though no living witness has
told il. Poor Custer WAS tie victim of mis-
information, but it is unjust to his mem
DRY to say that he was reckless or foolish.
He had been Major General of volunteers.
with /. splendid reputation as a cavalry
fighter and on this expedition he was lieu
tenant colonel and in command of the
q. l. Inv in, RI ic "a y-n q
Washington. He was anxious to distin-
guish himself in battle. In the advance of
Terry's expedition he had been pushing
for some days on the trail of band Of
southern Wyoming Indians, marching to
join Sitting Bulls uprising. He knew from
the size of the trail that he had from
twelve hundred to fifteen hundred hostiles
to deal with. His scouting must have been
Ioor, for when the Indian village was To-
Gated he determined not only to attack.
but to capture the entire band.
THE PLAN OF BATTLE.
Reser wing Eve companies to himself he
placed four companies under command of
Ma ior Reno to move on his left flank and
two companies under Captain Benteen, who
was to work around to the Indian right
and was to bag the enemy when the STAN
pede began. With these dispositions he
moved around the point of the. range which
brought him into the view of the enemy.
forded the creek and was at once engaged.
Instead of finding himself confronted by
twelve hundred Pawnees under Santana he
found himself in death grapple with not
less than five Thousand Sioux and Chey-
enne warriors. 1t is in evidence that the
Indians had broken up their villages and
were preparing to decamp when they dis
covered that they only had 'horse soldiers"
to deal with. At the very outset Custer
threw out S trong skirmish line. Every
member of the gallant band was slain and
the little marble stones which mark the
spots where these brave men fell are beau
tifully aligned. AS tie main body moved
into a ction great masses Of the enemy rose
in front of Custer and swung round to his
rear.
On the first hillside he divided his COM
paand and sent two troops, numbering sixty
men, down the left side of the confronting
ridge. while he kept to the right ON almost
uarallel lines, advancing into dry ravine.
Here he met with terrible opposition. and
from this time on he struggled to get upon
nd With