, 1901-10-24
AN INDIAN MYSTERY
WHITE SQUAW OF CHIEF BROk-
EN- HORN BELIEVED TO
BE LOST SISTER.
Stolen from an Emierant While Cross
ing the Plains to CaIifornia-Mrs.
Cook of Davenport, Whose Little
Sister Was Stolen by Indians, Will
Make Effort to Establish Identity.

date OF the 18th, tells the following
story:
Some further facts have been as,
%celtained concerning the squaw of
Broken Horn, an old Arapahoe Indian
living on the White river reservation,
who is believed to be a white woman
II to have been stolen when a child
from an emigrant on the plains. Her
features and the tradition of the tribe
point clearly to white parentage; but
after a residence of almost forty years
in tepees the white squaw, as she is
commonly known on the reservation,
speaks only the Indian tongue, and
Processes to have a recollection of
nothing else than squaws, warriors
and medicine men.
Attention was attracted to the white
squaw a little more than IA year ago,
when a small band of Arapahoes came
to Casper, a town on the border of the
reservation, to sell some trinkets. She
was a member of the band, and almost
Immediately drew remarks from Wis
itors. She seemed also as dirty and
sunburned as the other squaws, but
beneath the darkened skin were traces
of a different race. Her hair vas light
in color, finer than hat of the other
women of her tribe, and her eyes were
a clear blue. At the same time, she
appeared to be a favorite in the band,
and received more consideration than
is usually given to a full-blooded
squaw. Her clothes, blankets, and
even souvenirs, were of a better quail
ty than those OF her associates.
Interested IN her a number of resi-
dents of Casper started an investiga-
ton concerning her %parentage and
following tradition:
While passing through the state
thiTty-five years ago a train of emf
grant wagons was attacked by Indians
and all of the whites were killed e
cept one little white girl. She was
taken away by the warriors and then
she was taken in charge by an old
chief and grew into a typical Indian
maiden. She was hen given in mar
riage to Broken Horn.
! Such was in brief the story printed
at that time by the Natrona County
Tribune III Casper, a story that may
end in uniting two sisters separated
thirty-fve years ago by an Indian at
tack on an emigrant train. For, by
the help of some western editors, the
little paragraph headed "A White
Squaw" travelled from town to town
until at last it was reprinted in the
columns of the Salt Lake Tribune, a
COPY of which was sem to Mrs. A. NJ.
Cook of Davenport, Iowa. She lost a
younger sister in an Indian attack,
and for t~hirty-ive years she has
sought some trace of the missing girl,
| So when her friends SEN her a copy
of the Utah paper, Mrs. Cook wrote tS
the editor of the Casper paper:
Il am very much interested in this
news, for | was captured thirty-five
years ago on Rock creek, Wyoming,
and also my younger sister Lizzie. !
never saw her again after 10 o'clock
that same night"
Mrs. Cook put herself in communi.
cation with several Wyoming people,
including Captain Nickerson, at pres.
ent agent of the Wind River reserva,
ton. Her capture occurred when she
was 10, while her family were on the
way from Illinois to California. On
the plains her father Joined an OK
train of seventy-five wagons. and con
tinued with it to Rock Creek station
in Wyoming, thirty-one miles east of
Fort Hallock. Just as the party had
camped for the night and the entire
Fletcher family-the maiden name Of
Mrs. Cook-were on the bank of a
stream, a war party of 300 Indians
sprang from the hillside and attacked
the whites. Fletcher and his three
sons escaped to the wagons with many
other ~emigrants; but the mother was
speared to death, and n Of the In
dams seized Lizzie, the younger
daughter, pulled her upon his horse
and rode OFF. Mary Fletcher, the Mrs.
Cook of today, was carried off a pris'
oner to a mountain retreat.
Mary Fletcher, who lost sight Of her
younger sister that night, was put on
a pony and adopted into the tribe as
an Indian girl. After she had seen
a scalp dance and q skirmish with sol.
diers from old Fort Laramie, she was
painted red with stripes Of black and
green, and her hair was colored with
SCOT water. She had fourteen ponies
to pack on days of march, and was
sent with the squaws to gather wood
for the fires. Once while returning
from a camp in Colorado in crossing
a stream, she was carried away by
the current on a cake Of ice. At the
sight the Indians laughed heartily, but
when she leaped from the Ice and
swan ashore she was welcomed a q
heroine.
In the spring of 1866, not quite q
year after her capture, she entered the
tent Of an Indian trader, who had Wis
tied the tribe near Fort Dodge, on the
Arkansas river. Instead Of using the