The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-19
GREWsOME INDIAN CHARM.

It's Loss Led the Cheyenne Braves to
 Leave the Warpath.
 Of all the grewsome things in the Ma tional museum the necklace presented several years ago by Captain John G, Burke, of the United States army, stands unequalled as monument to h. dian cruelty and superstition. This necklace consists first of all of long buckskin cord made by rolling up a large strip of skin and sewing it along the border so that throughout it's entire length it will measure something over an inch in circumference, or about a third of an inch in diameter This cyl Inder of buckskin is covered with bead work SO that no part of the skin is eX- posed. The beads are sewed on in rather tasteful patterns, the colors Of which are white and blue. thin buckskin string is attached to either end of this thick. bead incrusted cord, by means of which the cylinder is tied about the neck of the wearer.
 Hanging from the underside of this necklace and running throughout it's entire length are twelve human fingers and several small flint arrOwheads of peculiar shape and workmanship at tached by buckskin strings. In the middle of the necklace depend three small medicine bags made of the tanned hide or skin of human beings. These bags contain charm stones and other raraphernalia of the medicine man.
 The human fingers, forming the most conspicuous feature of the necklace, are complete, having been cut off between the middle joint and the knuckle. They have been dried in such manner as to preserve their natural color, finger nails. etc, and look as fresh as though they had been removed only few hours.
 During General Crooks campaign against the Sioux and Cheyennes in 1876 the Fourth cavalry and a detach- ment of Indian scouts under Colonel R. C. Mackenzie surprised and stormed the chief town and principal stronghold of the Cheyennes. During or, rather, after this engagement one of the lndi- an scouts, Baptiste Pouvier, better known as Big Bat, entered the lodge of the chief medicine man of the deserted village, and among other things that the medicine man had overlooked in his hurried flight from the town the scout found this curious necklace. Big Bat gave the necklace to Colonel Burke, who later turned it over to a student of Indian religions and superstitions, and he in turn presented it to the National museum.
 Subsequently something of the histo- " of this necklace was learned. The fingers were those of the famous enc mics noted for their superior courage and bravery whom the Cheyennes had killed in battle during their various wars, while the human skin of which the medicine bags were made was also taken from the bodies of enemies slain in battle. The necklace is very old and was looked upon by the Cheyennes as a thing endowed with miraculous pow CTS. Prior to it's capture by Big Bat it had belonged to a famous medicine man of that tribe, who lad never al- lowed any white man to lay eyes on it, and it's loss put a very sudden and abrupt end to the Cheyenne war. The Cheyennes tried hard to get it back, of- fering a large sum of money and a great many horses for it's return, but this was refused, and since then the Cheyennes have remained at peace with the whites. Washington Post.