The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-23


clines to support the popular notion
that nothing good can emanate from
the American aborigine. In an expert
ence, more or less extended, / have had
opportunities to study the Indian char
acter, and my conclusions are that the
old aphorism, that the only good Indian
Is dead Indian, may be subject to
many exceptions. | have met with nu-
merous instances in which nobility of
character, honor, devotion to friend and
family, and all the virtues of manhood
and womanhood We're exemplified in the
Indian.
One of the most sublime and tragic
instances showing the tender side of
Indian nature, that came under my OBJ
servation, was the case of Bright Eyes,
a young Ogallalla Sioux woman who
was fatally wounded in the battle at
Wounded Knee on that dreadful De-
cember day in 1890. Bright Eyes was
strangely beautiful. as Indian beauty
goes, and before the uprising was an
attractive figure about Pine Ridge
agency. She had a father and brother,
also devoted lover, who was known
among the agency people as Charlie
Swift, otherwise Swift Eagle The three
We're deep in the Ghost Shirt frenzy and
firm believers in a coming Messiah. The
natural intelligence of Bright Eyes
taught her to have little faith in the
virtues of the Ghost Shirt but she had
a III III DGlIel III SOIIlc h1lu III aH iHuldH
Messiah. When the trouble at the
agency broke out the father. old Mo-
nonka, the brother, and Charlie Swift,
joined Big Foot's band of Indians, who
showed resistance to the agents au-
thority and prepared for the march to
the Bad Lands One night Bright Eyes
had dream and a spirit warning that
her people should not go upon the war
path, but should be friends with the
white people and the soldiers. She was
so much impressed with the dream that
she told those nearest to her about it
and warned them to pay heed to it. She
pleaded with her relatives and Swift to
remain peaceably in the agency, but
they We're so thoroughly gone on the
Messiah craze that they paid no atten-
ton to the warning. When Bright
Eyes saw that the men were determined
in their course she even applied, in her
despair, to Agent Roger and told him
of the warning she had received from
the spirit world but all to no purpose.
and when Big Foot's band began the
march for the Bad Lands old Mononka
and the two young bucks were among
them. Bright Eyes followed them, still
pleading with Swift and warning him
of certain destruction for all engaged in
the rebellion. The three men probably
laughed at her, for each wore one of
the sacred and bullet proof ghost
shirts.
The next seen of Bright Eyes and her
three companions was when the noted
Seventh cavalry overlook the Big Foot
Indians and marched them back to
Wounded Knee, where they We're sur
rounded by the forces under Colonel
Forsythe and an effort was made to
disarm them. Bright Eyes once more
made hopeless plea to father. brother
and lover not to resist She seemed to
know what was coming and might have
saved herself, but she preferred TO re
main by the side of her ghost-shirted
lover. Yhe fatal moment had arrived.
The treacherous Big Foot had given
the command to fight and Indian bull
let's began TO pour into the ranks of the
soldiers. In a moment the bullets, like
hail. were returned. Bright Eyes and
Charlie Swift We're in the front ranks
on the Indian side and when the guns
of the soldiers began to speak Bright
Eyes sprang in front of her lover of the
ghost shirt to shield him from the bull
lets with her own unprotected body
Swift was killed by several bullets that
passed clear through the body of his
sweetheart. When the wounded were
gathered up after the battle Bright Eyes
was found among the few that were
still alive. though she had no less than
seven bullet wounds in her body. With
the others she was taken to the agency,
where she was placed in the hospital.
She lived for several weeks and suffered,
heroine she was.
Another pathetic story is that con-
corning the romantic love of the daugh-
ter of the noted chief, Spotted Tail. l.
was at the time the latter was at the
height of his fame as the head of a
large band in South Dakota, and not a
very long time before he fell victim to
Crow Dog, his rival chief. The only
relative Spotted Tail was known to have
z~I,k- n
centered all his affections, and she occu-
pied a position in the tribe becoming the
emily child of "A great chief. The old
man had great expectations, even to the
extent of having his daughter succeed
him in authority, scheme not opposed
by other influential men in the tribe, for
the young woman was dearly beloved
by her people. All the wealth in ponies
old Spotted Tail accumulated We're ac-
CURED for the girl. and like fond and
doting parent he often pictured the flu
ture of his child when he would per
haps see her at the head of his own
people or the rich wife of some power
full and great chief. His dream was
rudely and sadly shaken when his
daughter took sick and rapidly grew
worse in spite of all the medicine men
and their pow-WoNs and learning in
their peculiar art of healing Old Spotted
Tail finally took the advice Of a white
friend and sent for a white doctor, who
lived with his wife and family in a
small town many miles distant. The
doctor came and pronounced the case
one of quick consumption and hopeless. /
Old Spotted Tail was broken-hearted |
when he learned the truth The doctor
did what he could for the girl and upon |
the earnest solicitations of the old chief /
he spent several days at the resarya-
ton and promised to return every few |
days to see the patient. During the few I
days the doctor spent by the cot of the |
sick girl she conceived for him yio-
lent passion. a despairing love. The I'M
tutored child did not disguise her feel |
ings: perhaps she could not. In her /
she thought that the daugh- /
ter of great chief had but To ask and t
nothing could be refused her, even to |
the extent of a white husband, who al /
ready had wife and family. She /
made known her love for her physician /
and asked him to marry her. The ply /
stefan, first in kindness and then in /
anger. after he had made several trips /