The Portland daily press., 1896-02-12
INDIAN PLEAsANTRiES.
How Single Piegan Passed for Seventy
and Crow Fooled Some Coxeyites.
(Buffalo Exress. )

a AAOL1pCi VI GAS OaAautdA 1NOAAuCA
Police, Lieut. McDonough, told me, u
said Capt. Particle, at the Officers Club,
tthe following incident of band of Gre
Indians who woke up one snowy morn
ing to find that about one dozen Of their
choicest ponies had been run off during
the night. Pursuit was soon orgagnized
and within few hours fresh trail was
found in the snow. After following the
rail some thirty m lies it entered river
bottom and headed for a wooded island
In the middle Of the river.
s'Smoke was seen rising from the trees,
and an opening, which seemed to be the
mouth of cave, appeared in plain view.
Presently a single indian, Piegan,
showed up in front, aud there was dog
at his heels. Pretty soon the dog scented
the Crees, and began growing and bark
ing. The Piegan looked up, glanced
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 an
another and another. there being but a
few seconds between them. The Crees
lay silently in the bushes watching and
counting, until upward of fifty Piegans
had come around the rocks and gone into
the cave. and still they kept coming.
What seemed remarkable was the fact
that all these Indians were, to ell APP
pearances, exactly the same size, were
dressed and painted alike, each carried a
rife, and, most remarkable, each seemed
little lame in the left foot, limping
slightly.
sThey were a gaudy crowd, and the
Crees counted seventy of them: The 81
perStitious Crees naturally concluded
that the evil spirit had something to do
with it, for there was no doubt that
there were seventy Piegan Indians on
the island who were exactly alike.
$50 thoroughly were they filed with
the idea that the devil was mixed up with
the mystery that even when the re-ep-
| foroements arrived, which was in few
hours, they were reluctant to attack the
island. That night one Cree, less SUI
psrstitious than the rest. crossed over the
| ice to investigate. On approaching the
supposed cave he was surprised to find
it was no cave at all. but simply an open
ing leading some ten feet into the rock,
1 whSre it made turn and came out on
the other side. 1t required but a glance
to understand what had seemed SO mys.
terious before. There was but the rem
nant of single camp fire. the ponies
were gone, and not an Indian was IL
sight. The apparent presence of sixty
nine other warriors was sharp trick or
| the part of the Piegan 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 arr
ridieulously superstitious, and Others
again so stolid and Indifferent that YOU
might enter their presence with a brass
band, throw hand springs before them
smile, weep, have commissions or do some
other outrageous thing, and yet they will
sit and look at you with cold, reserved
glance and disinterested eye; still, Their,
are more who have the bump Of humol
pretty well developed, and are intensi
wags in their own way. The trader a.
| Fort Berthold, on the upper Missouri,
caught Tartar one day.
ga Cree Indian had given him consider
| able annoyance by hanging around thu
store in half drunken condition, anf
was told that in case he was seen agar
] with a bottle it would be taken away
from him and thrown into the fire. A
| few days afterward the Indian appeared
| with pint flask in his blanket as usual
| The trader was as good as his word, anG
| demanded the bottle, which was giveI
4 up without a word of protest, and then
| the redskin started for the door. The
| trader threw the flask into the stove and
out came the windows, the trader follow
ing. Had he stopped to investigate be.
fore throwing, he would have found the
flask contained gunpowder, not whiskey.
'tSorne of Coxey's foot tourists in ca ST.
ern Montana were badly sold last spring
| by mischievous Grow Indian, who
moved a sign on tho road to Billings
reading "Six miles to Billings" and
stuck it up in strange place. The
weary Commonwealers travelled siz
days and nights before they reached that
town"