Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-08-14
SHEEP SHANK HANK
HAD LIVED ON MUTTON TILL HIS
TONGUE WAS COATED.
It Was i'm the Piute-Bannock war OF
1s7s-CoInmn Of Cavalry
Under Col. Summer.

"A -. -. 49,.
$500, Vse' i''ieAl oii'ciais aau
pioyest were yesterday AFTER
liooh satnsred IN the office of United
states commissioner SIaden, engaged in
eAecrating the waiter girl service to be
round in many of the hotels at the
peach, says the Portland Telegram.
Then the conversation drifted off to
Meacham and the toll road run by old
man Meacham during pioneer days, vixen
nghting Indians was of more Importance
IMAM question of table service. Each
mad some "Reminiscences OF the old stage
station to tell. but the following by Cap
tam Sloden was considerably the best:
~ was the Piute-Bannock war Of
1913, he said. Il was stationed at Fort
Walla Walla at the outbreak of hostiiities
and with my company joined the column
10 cavalry under Colonel sumner. For
months we had been in the mountains
nghting the Indians, and at the time u
speak of had practically brought them
under subjugation, so many of the Piutes
having crossed back into Nevada that
the tghting might be considered over.
The Bannocks and Piutes for some
reason had, during the war, shown a
bitter antipathy to sheepherders. sheen
and sheep men generally, probably on ac-
count of the grazing sheep DESTROYING
the range for the Indian cayuses. For a
sheepherder to be captured meant death
by fearful torture, and the hamstrInging
of the band of sheep in his charge.
suppose no less than 60 herders died at
the stake or by even worse torture dur
ing the uprising of 1878. We had come
across the charred bodies of two and even
three of these unfortunate men, each one
of whom had been killed by a separate
means of torture, the numerous camp
fire remains and tepee tent pegs left in
the ground showing that the hostiles had
held huge orgie during the burning and
otherwise disposing OF the captives.,'
WELL at last we had been ordered
home. Our route from Fort walla
Walla was by the Meacham toll road to
Pendleton, and thence UP the Umatilla
valley. It had been a matter of remark
among the officers and men of the com
mand that not sheephearder was eft
in the country alive. Judge. therefore
of our surprise when, just before reach
ing Meacham station a tall. gaunt form
broke through the chapparral bordering
the road, and, addressing Colonel Sum-
ner as 'Gineral,' inquired: Be youse
soldiers goin' on ter Pendleton?'
'"The colonel replied that we were.
"'Well, you know old Jim Burkhardt
in Pendleton, don't yer?'
Sumner, who knew about every man,
woman and child in the Umatilla valley,
answered that he did.
Then / want yer ter take this mes
sage ter Jim Buckhardt: Yer tell the
ornery old that onless he
sends some grub aout to Sheen shank
Hank, at Camp TO- I'm gWin ter let Their
hol band go ter hell an come in
(" How long since he sent YOU any
grub? asked the colonel
cts past two months now, an I've
been livin' on mutton till my bloody tom
que is coated with WOOL answered the
herder.
Seen any Indians
"Injuns? Nav. I've bin in a canyon
upon tn headwaters of TIL creek with
tn band, an most of TIL time couldn't
ketch err sight of tn sun till near mid
day
/" Ever say your prayers?' went on the
colonel
What tn hells prayers got ter do