The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-23
Strange Phases Of
1nd7an Character.

conduct he would not visit her again.
He remained away and the girl was
kept under a close watch for several
days, but one night she again eluded
her guards and escaped. When her alb
sence was discovered the next morning
1t was naturally surmised that she had
again gone in search of her white ply
stefan. Old Spotted Tail and half the
tribe started after her. They had not
proceeded many miles before they came
upon her lying by the side of the trail,
dead.
The death of his daughter made a
wonderful change in the character of
Spotted Tail. He became a quarrel
some, turbulent and ugly Indian, and
he began TO lose friends and followers.
A rivalry for supremacy sprang up be-
tween himself and Grow Dog. Each
threatened to kill the other, but Grow
Dog was too quick for his antagonist
when they met one day and Spotted
fails spirit took flight The trial of
Grow Dog, on the charge of murder,
became celebrated and the plucky fight
made for him by Judge Plow-
man of Deadwood has become
a matter of history. He was first tried
by his own people and let off with u
fine of many ponies. which ne paid. He
was afterward arrested by the civil
authorities, tried, convicted and sem
fenced to be hung. He secured a new
trial, was again convicted and once
more sentenced to be executed. Judge
PIowman went to Washington to lay
the case before the supreme court
and instituted habeas corpus proceed
ings to secure the Indians release on
the question of jurisdiction. One day
while Crow Dog was walking in the
corridor of his Jail half breed came
to him and told him he would surely
have to pay the penalty of his crime.
I'm
Crow Dog escaped, and subsequent
events proved that this stoical Indian
who was credited with having d heart
of marble, was possessed of as tender
feeling as was ever experienced by q
white husband and father. He struck
out on foot over 200 miles of country to
the reservation. He spent one day at
his tepee bidding his family what he
regarded as his last farewell and then
mounted pony and returned to jail
with the expectation of going to the
scaffold. In response to the question
why he made the trip and returned so
soon. he replied that he did not want to
die without seeing his Squaw and pa
poose once more. One account of his
escape is that he made repeated eff
forts to get permission TO visit his fam
lily for the last time in company with
an officer, but the law would not per-
nit 1t. Grow Dog had the united sym
pathy of the people about the jail, and
they had such utmost confidence in his
honor that they deliberately gave him
an opportunity to escape, knowing he
would return.
The supreme court decided the case
in favor of Crow Dog on the ground
that he had once been in Jeopal uy
when he was tried by the Indian
court. and he was released. Seven
years later | met Crow Dog at the Pine
Ridge agency. His experience had civ
iiiya6 him and had a N
old woman of him. / actually saw him
splitting wood, doing chores around his |
squaw's tepee, and carrying a baby. |
He had become good Indian and was
hitting the pipe of peace.
Indian pride and love Of family was
never more strongly demonstrated than /
in the case of Great Elk "A Cheyenne |
chief, which related 10 me by Cap
tain Edie of the hospital corps, stat oned I
at Fort Ieavenworth, at the time Of the |
occurrence about to be reconnted. AT the I
close of the campaign of 1876 the captive /
Cheyennes and others were taken to Fort I
IeavenWorth to be transferred to the In I
dian territory. The transfer was regard
cd by the proud Cheyenes as the greatest +
degree of humiliation and degradation, /
and Great Elk made several murderous
assaults on his guards in an effort TO es-
cape. Before the final transfer was made I
from Fort IeaYenworth to the Indian ter
ritory, the authorities at Washington de-
cided on separating members of the diff
ferent tribes, sending the Cheyennes to
the territory and returning the other In
dams to the North. Great Elk had
Sioux for a squaw, by whom he had two
boys, and when he learned that the diff
ferent tribes were to be separated the
idea took possession of him that his wife
and children would be sent back and
would escape sharing disgrace with him.
The hope gave him great pleasure and
undisguised satisfaction, which, however
did not last long, for he was informed
that families would not be separated and
that as long as he lived his wife and chill
dren would be with him. This Informal
ton gave Elk new thought. He went to
one of the soldiers and offered him a bride
of all his possessions if he would shoot
him. The soldier declined the proposition
and to force him to shoot Elk made an
assault on the soldier, but the latter re-
eeiyed assistance and the Indian was
again frustrated. The knowledge that his
family might escape being sent to the
territory If he We're dead made him re-
solve upon seif-destruetton. One day he
walked into the hospital and before his
intentions were apparent To anyone he
had seized "A pair of sissors. and throw
ing back his blanket, he stabbed himself |
in the left side and then tore Il horrible !
cash clear across his body. lie was dis
armed, but fought desperately against the
efforts of the surgeons To sew up his
wound and several times tore it Open
He said he wanted to die so that his wife
and children would be returned to their
home in the North, but in spite of himself
he finally recovered and with his family
and the other captiyes was transported to
the Indian territory, where the Great Elk
lived for less than year. when he died
disgraced and broken hearted COPE
ENcLANo'S IDOL a GAMBLER.