The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-25
FIGHTING INDIANS.
DESCRIPTION OF A FIGHT WITH
THE CHEYENNES.
Terrific Charge of Roman Nose
and His Warriors Against
the Scouts.

count of a battle between scouts and
Cheyennes, in which he took part The
article is especially timely in view of
the threatened uprising of the Chey-
ennes in Wyoming and Montana
My first personal knowledge of the
Northern Cheyennes, and, in fact, of
any wild Indians, says General For
syth, was gained on the Western plains
in the year 1867, while serving upon the
staff of General Philip Sheridan. who
was at that time in command of the
Department of the Missouri, with the
headquarters at Fort Leavenworth
Kan, the geographical limits of his
military authority including the States
of Missouri, Arkansas and and Kansas,
the Territories of Colorado and New
Mexico, and the Indian Territory. With
in the limits named, at that time, now
thirty years since, there roamed at will
various tribes of Indians, including
Grows, Blackfeet. Ogalallas, Brule AS
siniboines, Prejant and other tribes of
Sioux, as we'll as Kiowas, Comanches,
ArapahoeS and the Northern and
Southern Cheyennes. But of all the
Indians of the plains, the Northern
Cheyennes stood then, as they do to-
day. head and shoulders above the av
erage wild Indian as to courage, deter
mination. honesty and solderly ability
with, in my opinion, the Brule Sioux
| a good second
To really appreciate these people it is
necessary to study their history and to
| glance at what they have done in years
! past. In 1867, when I first knew them,
| they welded a great influence among
| the wild tribes and were a power on
the plains. They were leaders in the
uprising in Minnesota in 1864 had been
among the hardest fighters in the cam
| paign of 1866 and were now again ag
| gre'ssively determined that the Union
| Pacific Railroad should not cross the
plains through their hunting grounds.
In order to understand their claims it
| is necessary to go back a little. In
1925 there was only one Well-known
tribe of Cheyennes, and at that time
they had no permanent villages, but
were wild and rowing tribe who SUBJ
sisted solely by the chase, whose hab
itat was all that country lying be-
tween the North Platte and the Arkan
sas Rivers, north and south, and they
hunted the country as far east as the
River, and as far west as the crest Of
the Rocky Mountains, from the Red
Buttes on the north to the headwaters
Of the Arkansas River on the south,
and laid claim to all of this immense
stretch of country as their own especial
hunting grounds.
OF course the claim was not always
respected by the Sioux, the Poncas, the
Utes, the Shoshones or the Comanches,
who hunted within. these limits as op
portunity offered, but who We're careful
to steer clear of the Cheyennes who
| they well knew would not hesitate to
promptly run them out of the said
country had they interfered in the
slightest degree with the game any
where within ordinary hunting distance
of the Cheyenne camps. Somewhere
about this time-1S20-a portion of the
Cheyennes, who had by intermarriage
with the Arapahoes, become closely af-
filiated with that tribe, split off from
the main body of the Cheyennes, and,
going further north, the tribe gradually
divided and they became known as
Northern Cheyennes, the main tribe be-
coming Southern Cheyennes, or simply
Cheyennes
In the year 1867 the country west of
the Missouri River. was practically
frontier, once one had passed west of
the river, and was an Indian paradise,
for within a few miles of the advanced
settlements, as the traveller urged his
horse along the trail, plover quail and
grouse sprang into the air with a
startled whirr and fluttered away to
cover in every direction. Wild fiokl
of almost every variety nested and
raised their young fearlessly among the
reeds that bordered the rivers and amid
the lakes and swamps of the south
and west, while great flocks of wild
turkeys Toasted and fattened on the
hazel and pecan nuts in Indian Terri
tory and Northern Texas. The noun
tain streams were filled with fish, and
among the foothills of the Rocky Noun
tains were black, brown and grizzly
bear in abundance; bands of elk and
antelope and herds of deer ranged at
will along the streams, while at times
the great plains were fairly covered
with vast herds of buffalo as far as
the eye could reach. So vast were these
herds that I was once five days in
passing through what was known then
! as the great Southern herd.
What, said one of my friends, could
possibly have destroyed them? 1t was
simple enough. Up to 1869 only suffi-
cient buffalo were killed to supply the
demand for hunters use and for buff
falo sole leather. Instantly the demand
for hides sprang up, the Kansas Pa
cific railway was ready with transpor-
tation to the Eastern tanneries. The
/ IL l.
lily slaughtered and skinned. and from
one station on the lire of the railroad
it is said that 100000 hides were ship
ped East in one year. 1t is easily
seen what became of the buffalo
At the time of which I write the In
dams had every advantage in a cam
paign. They We're we'll mounted, the
plains were full of game-in fact, they
could easily subsst upon the country
they knew all the trails, and they were
well armed and had an abundance of
ammunition. Their partial successes in
1864 and 1866 had made them conf
dent and arrogant, and the construc-
ton of the Union Pacific Railroad
through their hunting grounds exas-
perated them to the highest degree. In
1865 they started on the warpath and
harried the entire Northwestern from
tier. The troops were promptly thrown
forward, and the struggle for suprem-
acy on the plains began. For at least
| two years prior to the time of this gem
eral outbreak much trouble had ex-
listed between the settlers and the In
dams Murders of settlers by rowing
war parties of Indians, reprisals by the
settlers, and engagements now and
then between the Indians and small