The Opelousas courier., 1898-07-09

@~}M thest heights of tn,
s eNNAR Holy Trinity, is tn,
4 MNEHNlN Wachapi India1
! MIHT\< reservation.
: FW It was In the
Wachapi that Judy lived. The tribe
] TO which she belonged had dwelt here
Tor unknown years, beyond the mem;
. Dry even of the gray-haired Judy's
grandfather, C~omachsen, who was sc
} old that his eyes and mouth were lost
, In the burrows of his face. Comach.
sen said that their race had originally
issued from the depths of Mt. Tehatli,
the greatest peak Of the Holy Trinity,
and that that mountain was their
mother and that they were the chill
dren Of the earth. But the mission
aries invariably rebuked him for this
and declared it was nonsense, whereat
Comachsen would shake his head
in senile pity for their ignorance and
answer oracularly: "Was not Judy
the mother of Inotlin, the little Dane
ing Flame?"
Now, the little Dancing Flame had
gone out thirty years ago, which was
nothing to Comachsen, but q great
deal to Judy, and these references to
the ancient sorrow still had the power
to nov her heart. For, incredible as
it might seem, the gaunt and weather
beaten Judy had onoe been young and
pretty. The daughter of a chief, she
could have married any man In the
tribe, but her choice fell on Tuosilt,
the tallest and bravest, and the day
that she knelt before him and held up
to him in her arms the baby-ah, me!
But within a twelve-month her young
husband had died in her arms, shot
to death by the white settlers in the
old war. They called it "the war;"
these Indians, although it was but a
border feud brought about by the lust
of INSCRIPTIONS pioneers for the In
dian lands, and which, further in
famed by the sale OF whisky, burst
forth one summers day in bloodshed
and then settled into months of re-
prisal, with the occasional killing of a
white man and the more frequent kill
ing of a red one, with starving Indian
women and children hiding in the
mountains.
And when, after the death of her
young warrior, the fall passed and
winter came, poor Judy's strength
gradually left her young body, and the
Dancing Flame cried for hunger as he
lay upon her helpless breast, and so
at last the little light had fickered and
gone out.
Soldiers had been sent to the
Waohapi in response to the settlers
demand and had ended the war by
quelling hostilities and bringing the
poor, broken remnant of the tribe back
to their homes in the valley, which
was then made q government reserva-
ton. Since then agents had come and
gone, honest men and rogues, preach
ers, laymen, politicians and reformers,
and through all these changes, good
and evil, Judy maintained a sort of
independence, supporting herself and
the patriarch Of the tribe, her grand
with her own strong hands and
woodcraft. She was silent and repel-
liant, ever rememt ering the great sor-
row of her youth which the grinding
years had not been able to match.
One day the government at Wash
ington reversed its Indian policy and
the agencies in the control of
army officers, and a Captain Baynot
was detailed for duty at Wachapi.
Now Judy had always been on good
terms with the soldiers at the military
post near the agency. They bought
her fish and other small wares without
haggling, and Mrs. Donovan, the wife
IF the quartermaster sergeant, taking
pity on 'sthe lone, lorn haythen," often
hired her help on cleaning days, and
n course Of time taught her good,
strong barracks English, with an Irish
accent, which accomplishment Judy
'arefully concealed beneath the dig
,ity of her original ignorance.
Shortly after the arrival Of the cap
however, Judy, for the first time
n her life, q taken sick with pleu-
isy, whereupon the new agent hear
ng from the doctor that there was a
woman lying seriously i'll in a wicking
lear old jacks ferry, rode thither to
investigate. Entering the smoky in
erior, he noted with a comprehensive
Glance where rain and wind found
heir way in through crack and Granny
# the ancient lodge, and the damp
less, dirt and desolation Of it all, and
orthwith ordered Judy's removal to
empty log house near the fort. .
There were no "ifs" or lands" or
by your leave" but she was taken ]
lp bodily within the hour and con- :,
eyed to the clean, dry house. Here, I
nth an iron cot, a chair and table, a |
ire cracking on the hearth, the smoke ,
+ which went ont through the chin t
and a young Indian woman to
AXE care of her, the astonished Judy /
Or the first time in her life had her a
'eary body made comfortable and her i
'ants supplied by others. '
As . consequence Judy's mind was '
lied with suspicion and her ewes t
ratched each movement of her bene- c
actors with eeaseless vigilance in the d
fort to discover the secret motive of \
heir conduct which she dimly fancied U
ad some design on that mysterious G
aing, her soul. But her soul was s
OF referred to, either by Mrs. Bay 4
OF, who sent her good things to eat, Ii
r Mrs. Donovan, who came in oc- n
asionally ito hearten her up a bit, q
OF. by Archie, the captains child,
;urdy little chap of SIX years, who 9
ole into the hut TO solve the mystery