Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-05-23
BURIED IN THE SNOW. il
TlNY DAUGHTER OF RAiN-iN.THE-
FACE FOUND BY CAPTAIN
GEORGE BARTLETT.
New Light Thrown Upon the Mas
xscre at Wounded knee-The Last
S%anguinary Engagement with the
Sioux.

Captain George Bartlett, the exper
shot, who gave the fine exhibition OF
THE grounds of the Gun club the othe;
day, furnishes The Optic with an in
seresting story which puts something
az a. new light upon the last engage
raent with the Sioux-the massacre o
Wounded Knee. AT that time Barr
lett was chief Of scouts in the Dako
sas-
He says that the rehabilitated Sev-
enrh infantry, the famous regiment
that General Custer led to death, was
&@s1eamped al Wounded Knee as guard
over 500 Indians who had laid down
their arms after a skirmish of a few
days before. II was long after the
Caster massacre, but the sting OF
that terrible disaster ranked still in
the breasts of the men OF the fighting
Seventh. They hated the Indians
with q hatred that nothing but blood
casald avenge. The Indians had been
g~fnast-dancing in the bad lands. But
me upiising-the last weak effort of
the hercest of savages-was easily
paal down.
IL vas in the early spring. The
sacw lay on the bad lands. The Sew
esnth were encamped but a short dis
tance from the tepee village OF the
bye. hundred Indians who had surren-
ebered. Suddenly a young Indian,
ssrazed with ghost-dancing, arose and,
apsticU,ating wildly, discharged a rifle
at random. Who gave that fatal order
viii perhaps never be known. The
Gasaonel exonerated himself, the subor-
climate officers were never question
cd But some one Numbered. From
chs blue ranks of the Seventh swept
a. storm of bullets. Men, women and
srkildrea were slaughtered indiscrim-
1nately. In their lust for slaughter,
xIih me remembrance of former in
ssignities still fresh in memory. the
Ts7TD Ieeded not the commands of their
G3fiicers. The majority of the defense
Ees Indians were soon killed or wound
ed A few of the bravest seized rude
@eapons and the few rifles that had
been concealed and strove yainly to
make ahead against the terrible on
ssfanght. The rest fed wildly, many
&rsing shot down as they ran.
When the carnage ceased few of
che five hundred were unscathed.
Early in the evening Bartlett and his
isla3uts reached the blood-stained
Field The dead still lay in winrows,
and many of the wounded were help
Tess in the snow. The captain direct
ed the task OF caring for the injured.
some distance from the field his horse
SHE'D at the figure of a boy some
~ years of age, who had been shot
through the thigh in attempting to
escape. Bartlett picked up the lad
ard as his work was over, rode with
him twenty miles to a permanent hos
Kaitai. The next day, accompanied by
II band of men, he returned TO bury
he dead. More snow had fallen and
the bodies were well nigh hidden in
white sIlrouds. Scarcely had the task
begun, when Captain Bartlett was
zaStOnnded by hearing the cry OF a
A search was made. Warm
and safe protected by the bodies OF
.hree women, huddled together, was
III tiny girl. The captain took the
- the post. Later she was
adopted by the Rev. Mr.. Carson and
wife, still living in Washington, d. G..
The Indian child has grown to be
a. cultured and handsome young wD-
Lately her foster father insti-
zssaed ali investigation with a view to
learnlng, if possible, the parentage
aT the child. 1t has been established
shaf the young woman is the daugh-
Gee of Rain-in-the-Face, the chief next
Sp rank to Sitting Bull in the long
strife between the Indians and the
white man.