The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-14
Sioux Indians Rear a
Monument TO Their Braves

en- subsided into grooming, and cover
ing their heads and bodies with their
blankets the grooming sunk into soft
sobbing, while the leader of the women
cast bright colored clothes into the
grave.
The impromptu exhibition over, the
real ceremonies begun. Rev. w. j.
Cleveland, chaplain at the agency,
stepped forward, and resting one hand
on the monument, delivered a short ad-
dress on God Made of Men One Ma
tion"-speaking in the Dakota Ian
guage.
Then Joe Horn Cloud, prime mover
in erecting the monument, stepped out
and with that eloQuence possessed by
savage tribes, said: standing by the
grave where lies my father and my
brother, and gazing upon the battle
field where they died, as did many Of
my people, I have only good feeling
toward the whites, and hope we will
always be friendly"
Fire Lightning, an old chief, said:
For many, many years I have been
friends with the white people. I help
ed make the treaty with them; have
never broken that treaty, and I wish
to end my days as a friend to them"
They Sang America"
After a prayer in Sioux, the whole
lot joined in and sang America" in the
Indian language, but it is doubtful If
my Country, IT'S of Thee" meant
much to the Sioux, who are virtually
prisoners in a large yard.
After the exercises were finished, the
| Indians filed past the monument. and
those who could read English, read
| to the others this inscription: "This
monument is erected by surviving rel
atives and other Ogallala and Chey-
enne river Indians in memory of the
| Chief Big Foot massacre, Dec. 20, 1890.
| Col. Forsythe in Command of u. S. troops
! Big Foot was a great chief Of the
| Sioux Indians. He often said: 7 will
| stand in peace till my last day comes
| He did good and brave deeds for the
white man and fer the red man. Many
| innocent women and children who
| knew no wrong died here"
The Last Stand.
It was the last stand Of the red race
against the white; the fight Of a dying
race against a younger and more Wig
orous; a people fighting for their
posed, this battle in which fell those
braves to whom the monument was
raised.
Their patriotism had been reused to
the highest pitch by the willy chief
| Ta-Tan-Ka I-Yo-Ton-Ka (Sitting
! BulD, who was to the Northern Indians
| what Geronimo was to the Southwest
ern tribes. But Sitting Bull was more
to be feared than Geronimo, because of
his long Familiarity with the white men
and their ways.
In addition to rousing their patriot
| ism, Sitting Bull had anointed each
! brave with medicine" making them
invulnerable to the bullets from the
white mans pistol. And every Indian
Of that band thoroughly believed this.
To accomplish this Sitting Bull orig
! mated the ghost, or Messiah, dance
| which soon spread through the Sioux
nation like fire over the Western prai-
RE. This dance was only a prelim-
mary to being anointed with the "med-
icine'' and was a mixture of the war
and squaW dance, except that the dan
GERS circled around a tall pole on which
! was hung a skin containing the med
| icine. The eyes of the dancers were
continually fixed on this spot, their
eyes thrown upward. 1t is said the
dancers, in time. became actually hyp-
| Noticed and fell on the ground in a
cataleptic fit. While in this state they
had visions of what was to happen
| to the white man who opposed the
Indian when anointed with the "medi-
! cine" These visions were all alike
| Buffaloes would return; white men be
all killed, the Great Spirit had inform
ed them that the white mans bullet
could not injure them any more; and
above all, that Sitting Bull must >be
obeyed implicitly.
Sitting Bulls true object in working
the Indians up to this frenzy was really
to force the government into increas-
ing the issue of rations to the Sioux
by threatening to leave the reserva-
ton and go toward the Northwest along
the Montana Canadian border, where
he had gone with his people after mas
sacring Gen. Custer on the Little Big
Horn, fourteen years before. Scouts
who were familiar with this kingpir
of bad Indians do not believe that Sit
ting Bull intended to fight unless abso-
lutely forced to do SO.
/ After the Indians had danced al