Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1898-08-20
SOUTH DAKOTA.
Present Conditions Compared With
Those of 1890.
Correspondence Richmond Palladium.

hose OF 1891.
Richmond Palladium.
ROSEBUD AGENCY, SOUTH DAKOTA, }
August 10, 1898.
This reservation is the home of what
was once known as the Lower Brules,
now called Rosebud Indians. Ii ex-
tends from Big White river on the
north, south sixty miles to the state of
Nebraska, and from the Missouri river
west one hundred and twenty miles
and has an area of =, 800 600 acres of
land. The general lay of the country
Is rolling, though there are large
stretches of valley and level praiyie
land. Much of il is worthless, being
nothing hut beds and hillC cks of sand.
Not twenty per cent. is arabic, and
this per cent. is rendered worthless for
fai ming purposes because of the lack
of rain; yet, taken as a whole, 1t is a
fine grazing country-that Is for lin
tied number of cattle.
The whole surface of the reservation
is now covered with buffalo, blue, and
q wire grass. and / have never seen it
as beautiful as at the present. 1t Is
one vast rolling, wide-sweeping green
meadow field, charming to look at and
encouraging to those who have
cattle thereon and to those who ex-
pect to make it their future home
and engage in the stock industry
The agency is thirty-five miles north
of Valentine, Nebraska, the nearest
railroad station, and is reached either
by stage or private conveyance. 1t is
located on a small plateau, skirting
Rosebud creek and takes its name
therefrom. This is the agency oil
which | had temporary charge, IN the
| fall of 1890, when the Souix war so
called, broke out and some of the
| scenes and incidents of that perioc
have been brought fresh to my MIND
| by being here at this time. | remem-
Der how the very atmosphere seemed
charged with the elements of fear ano
| apprehension, how good many spoke
| in bared breath. expressing fear tina
the Indians might come down like 8
| wolf on the fold upon the agency
some night, scalp the force. burn thu
buildings and play havoc generally.
| am reminded of little inciden
| personal to myself, how in compan,
| with Mr.. Cation, the boss farmer,
| started one afternoon for Black Pipe
where Short Bull and his ghostldancer'
had their camp, and were doing al
sorts of naughty things according Il
report, for the purpose of holdins
| a council with this naughty
| little warrior, and see II
could not induce him and hi:
followers to quit and be good. How
when we reached Cut Meat schoo
house we concluded to stay all night
and go on next day, and that abou
dark, a policeman came riding up IL
hot haste and handed me a letter from
the clerk, Mullens, in which he SAT-
"vou had better come back, Short Bull
has called out his men and the soldier
are comiugu How that Cation, NJ
sooner than he read the letter, immedl
ately jumped up and said let us go
aud started for the stable to gear III
the team and hitch them to the buggy
etc. Now of course | was not alarmed
but it did seem to me he never woul,
get ready to make the start and
never have been able to account 30
this hardness only on the grounds tina
The was 80 frightened at the unexPecte
isnEn Of Attslhs ut Il me &c IN ali this matte
is, that al that time and even the othe
day when | saw him this lueiden
WAS referred to, he still insited il
public and private that | was so scared
that | did not know whether | was il
the body, or out of it, and was quit,
l incompetent to tell what his state o
mind was. Such is life, however. an,
/ a - L.
Int We can,
| ! was sent here for the purpose O
making thorough inspection of tn
agency and to do SO, was compelled L
travel near four hundred miles owe
the reservation.
In visiting the Ponca sub issue sta
ton, which is the camp of Chief Swift
Bear, a camp q hundred miles from tn
agency, we had quite an outing. Tn
agent, Major McChesney, accompanie,
me. We had a double seated spriu,
wagon, IN which were the interpreter
| the agent, his son and myself. The,
we had supply wagon drawn by foul
big mules, with Omaha Boy as driver
and 3 policeman on horseback. TIL,
second night out We were caught in ;
4 =
fearful lightning and thunder, and il
| the morning some were laying in pnd
| dies of water though not drowned. W,
| all took the storm as one of the incl
| dents of an outing and did not com
plain.
Lewey found it difficult TO start 8
| fire IN the morning. but by patient
continuance IN well doing he at last
got one under headway, and it was not
long until we sat down. or stood as We
liked, and partook heartily of coffee.
fried bacon. Boston baked beans and
hard bread, after which we loaded up
our camping fixtures and started on
our journey. About p. m. we reached
Ponca sub-station, the objective point
OF our trip, and at 5 sat down to a sup
per prepared by the farmers wife
that was indeed appetising and
enjoyable. Ponea and the val
ley along 1t is the home
of Chief Swift Bear and about FIVE
hundred of his people. They have
taken their allottments and have gem
orally settled on them and are making
some progress towards the white men s
civilization and away from their for
mer mode of living. Chief Swift Bear
Is an old man and loves to tell about
the times when be was young: When