The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-11-18

breast. lie mas Deen JalleQ anu Will De
hung. 1t is one of the saddest and most
terrible tragedies that has been re-
ported since the whites began trying
to save the souls of the savages.
(By Winifred Black.) .
This is the story Of Tixico, a chief Of
the Indian Arapahoes, and of Lydia,
his beautiful white squaw. He was the
bravest and the worst indian of his
tribe.
The Indians called her the Pale-Face
Goddess.
1t is a true story, n it is not quite
ended yet. She was found last week
with a dagger wound in her heart. She
plunged the dagger into her heart her.
self.
Tixico is under arrest at Tecumseh,
in Oklahoma, for shooting their baby
as it lay playing upon it's dead mothers
breast.
This tragedy of two souls-Christian
and savage-began in Chicago.
Lydia Lyons was the prettiest girl
on the North Side a few years ago.
Her father was Major Henry Lyons,
a. mar of position and influence.
Lydia Lyons had a comfortable home
and hosts of friends.
She was an enthusiastic, impulsive
little thing, with a pair of long dashed
blue eyes, that had a trick of blazing
into remarkable brilliancy under any
strong emotion.
One day, after she had been to a
dance the night before, she went to a
parlor meeting where a missionary told
some pretty stories about the work OF
the Indians of the far west.
All the women at the meeting were
very much interested in the mission
work.
They bought hand worked slippers,
n plated baskets, and told each t
err how sweet the missionary speaker
was, and how they wished they could
be noble and disinterested like her. And
then they went home hung the In
dian bead work and plated baskets in
their rooms beside the dance programs
n the college colors, and forgot all
about the Indians and the woman who
told them about them.
Lydia. Lyons did not forget.
She bought books on the American
Indian and his mode of life. She read
missionary tracts about the blessed
ness of work among the wage She
went to see the missionary speaker,
and one day she went to her father
and said:
I'm going to be a missionary to the
Indians. I'm tired Of doing nothing but
have a good time. I want to be Of
some use in the world. Will o help
me?"
Brave old Major Lyons looked at his
frail little daughter.
Her cheeks were flaming and her
blue eyes We're ablaze, but she spoke
very quietly.
And Major Lyons said yes"
So he sent his daughter to the Illinois
Training School for Nurses.
He thought the hard work n the
discouraging drudgery Of the hospital
wards would cure her of her wish to be
q missionary.
He was iStaken
Lydia Lyons was a born nurse, the
doctors at the. hospital said, and when
she graduated h went straight to
Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and began
her work.
She went out with the soldiers, and
rode all through the Indian Territory.
She preached to the Indian braves
and went into the struggling tepees
and nursed the Indian babies. She
showed the squaws how to take care Of
their funny little brown babies, white
woman fashion. She showed them how
to write. She gave them yards and
yards of new red calico, and showed
them how to make dresses out Of it.
She taught them how to wash with a
WaSnDOdrO, ana now 10 CLEAN AOuSS,
and how to make bead work notices
with God is Love" on them.
The Indians sat in a solemn circle
and listened gravely to the preaching.
When she had finished, they filed
past her in a long, trailing line.
Each Indian as he passed the white
squaw with the speech like the winds
of the evening"" held out his hand.
If Miss Lyons dropped a few cents
into the hand the warrior stalked on
in digniied silence.
If she let the outstretched palm re-
main empty, the warrior spoke guttur-
ally and regarded her with small eyes
of suspicion.
The squaws sat by the door Of the
tepee and looked at the white squaw
with the busy hands," and let her clean
the tepee, and build h fire, and wash
the babies, and when she was gone they
laughed together and rubbed the ba-
bies with the Oil of the prairie dog to
keep them from taking cold, n they
took the new little wooden socks off
the babies feet and tied the babies up
in their bark cases and sat down and
marked the bead work notices, saying
God is Love-" mi when the notices
were finished they took them to the
settlements and sold them, and bought
fire water and brought it home to the