Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-12-13

Point. Next year-next June-when
Marshall graduated Jessie was to go
and see that wonderful spot, and go
she did with Pappoose, too, and though
it was all as beautiful as Pappoose
had described, and the scene and the
music and the parades and all were
splendid, there was no deliriously
lovely hop, for in those days there
could be no dancing in the midst Of
examinations. There was only the one
great ball given by the second to the
graduating class, and Marshall had so
many, many older girls to dance with
and say good-by to he had only time for
few words with his sister and her
shy, silent little friend with the big
brown eyes to whom he had been SO
kind the previous summer, when there
were three hops a week and not so
many hoppers in long dresses. Still,
Marshall had one dance with each, and
introduced nice boys from the lower
classes, and it was all very we'll, only
not what Pappoose had painted, and
Jessie couldn't help thinking and say
ing it might all have been so much
sweeter. if it hadn't been for that odious
Miss Brockway, about whom Marshall
lowered altogether too much, but, like
the little Indian the girls sometimes
said she was, Pappoose looked On and
said nothing.
All the same, Mr.. Dean had had a
glorious graduation summer of it,
though Jessie saw too little of him,
and Pappoose nothing at all after the
breaking of the class. In September
the girls returned to school, friends
as close as ever, even though little
cloud overshadowed the hitherto I'M
broken condolences, and Marshall
joined the cavalry, as old Folsom had
suggested, and took to the saddle, the
prairie, the bivouac and buffalo hunt
as though native and to the manner
born. They were building the Union
Pacific then, and he and his troop,
with dozens of others scattered along
the line, were busy scouting the neigh
borhood, guarding the surveyors, the
engineers, and finally the track-layers,
for the jealous red men swarmed in
myriads all along the way, lacking
only unanimity, organization and lead
ership to enable them to defeat the
enterprise. And then when the whist
ling engines passed the forks of the
Platte and began to climb up the long
slope of the Rockies to Cheyenne and
Sherman Pass, the trouble and disaf-
lection spread to tribes far more nu-
merous and powerful further to the
north and northwest; and there rose
above the hordes of warriors chief
whose name became the synonym for
deep-rooted and determined hostility
to the whites-Machpealota Red
Cloud)-and old John Folsom, he whom
the Indians loved and trusted, grew
anxious and troubled, and went from
post to post with words of warning on
his tongue.
"Gentlemen," he said to the commits
sioners who came to treat with the
Sioux whose hunting grounds adjoined
the line of the railway, tits all very
well to have peace With these people
here. 1t is wise to cultivate the friend
ship of such chiefs as Spotted Tail aud
Oldham Afraid of His Horses, but
there are irreconcilables beyond them,
far more numerous and powerful, who
are planning, preaching war this MIN
ute. Watch Red Cloud, Red Dog, Lit
tie Big Man. Double, treble your gar
risons at the posts along the Big Horn;
get your women and children out Of
them, or else abandon the forts entire e
ly. I know those warriors well. They
outnumber you twenty to one. Re
enforce your garrisons without delay
or get out of that country, one Of the
two. Draw everything south of the
Platte while yet there is time"
But wiseacres at Washington said
the Indians we're peaceable, and all
that was needed was new post and
another little garrison at Warrior Gap,
in the eastward foothills of the range.
Eight hundred thousand dollars would
build it, provided the labor Of the
troops was utilized" and leave a good
margin for the contractors and the
bureau" And it was to escort the
quartermaster and engineer officer and
an aide-de-camp on preliminary survey
that c troop of the cavalry, Capt.
Brooks commanding, had been sent on
the march from the North Tlatte at
Fetterman to the headwater" of the
Powder river in the Hills, AND with it
went it's new first lieutenant, Marshall
Dean.