The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1896-05-02
INDIAN ~PLEASANTRleS.


and n Rec Fooled q Trader.
IA member of the Canadian
mounted police. Lieutenant McDon-
ough, told NO. said Captain Par
tello, at the Officers club. 1.-THE fol-
lowing incident of a band of Crees
and a solitary Piegan Indian, which
is novel and interesting. 1t occurred
about 100 miles from Fort Walsh.
A band of Cree Indians woke up n
snowy morning to find that about
one dozen of their choicest ponies
had been run off during the night.
Pursuit was Don organized, and
within q few hours a fresh trail was
found in the snow. After following
the trail some 80 miles 1t entered a
river bottom and headed for a wood
ed island in the middle of the river.
"Smoke was seen rising from the
trees, and an opening. which SEEM
ed to be the mouth of a cave, appear
ed in plain view. Presently a single
Indian, a Piegan. showed up in front
of the opening. He was in wal
paint. and there was q dog at his
heels. Pretty oon the dog scented
the Crees and began growing and
barking. The Piegan looked up,
glanced a moment about him and
then instantly entered the cave. In
about ten seconds another Piegan
came around the rocks and also
went in, then another and another
and another, there being but a few
seconds between them. The Crees
lay silently in the bushes, Watching
and counting. until upward of so
Piegans had come around the rocks
and gone into the cave. and still
they kept coming. What seemed re-
markable was the fact that all these
Indians were, TO NIL appearances. ex-
actly the Same size, were dressed
and painted alike, each carried a ri
He, and, most remarkable. each
seemed q little lame in the left foot.
limping slightly.
They were a gaudy crowd, and
the Crees counted 70 of them. The
superstitious Crees naturally CON
cluded that the evil spirit had some
thing to do with 1t, for there. was
no doubt that there were 20 Piegan
Indians on the island who were OK
actly alike.
80 thoroughly were they filled
with the idea that tho devil was
mixed up with the mystery that
even when the re-enforcements ar
rived, which vas in a few hours,
they were reluctant to attack the is
land. That night one Cree, less su-
perstitious than the rest, crossed
over the ice to investigate. On ap-
preaching the supposed cave he was
surprised TO find it was nc cave at
all. but simply an opening leading
some ten feet into the rock, where
1t made a turn and came out on the
other side. 1t required but a glance
to understand what had seemed SO
mysterious before. There was but
the remnant Of a single campfire,
the ponies were gone. and not an
Indian was in sight The apparent
presence of So other warriors was a
sharp trick on the part of the Pie
gan warrior to deceive his enemies
and gain time for his escape, which
he accomplished in good shape.
"While it is true that most red
men are ridiculously superstitious,
and others again so stoljd and indif-
ferent that you might enter their
presence with a brass band, throw
h~andsprings before them, smile,
weep, have commissions or do some
other outrageous thing and yet they
will sit and look at you with a cold,
reserved glance and d~isinterested
eye, still there are more who have
the bump of humor pretty we'll de-
veloped and are intense wags in
their W way. The trader at Fort
Berthold, on the upper Missouri,
oauubt a Tortar ona 1av