The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-03-15
WAS sCALPED AND LIVES.
Interesting Story of Thrilling Adven-
ture With the Sioux Indians.

scalp which ola BLACK Inunuer, Inc
Sioux chief, tore off my head forty
years ago is getting along" is the
contents of letter which the curator
Of the Omaha public library has just
received from William Thompson,
who now lives in Kingston, England,
but who lost his scalp to the Sioux
Indians and lives to tell of it.
Thompson's scalp has been one of
the curiosities of the Omaha public
library museum for the past twenty
or thirty years and every year, just
after the holidays, Thompson writes to
the curator, asking after his scalp.
81 still take a great interest in that
little piece of skin and hair" be wrote
last year.
Thompson is one of the few men in
the world who have been scalped and
yet lived to tell of it. And when
Thompson left the field on which he
was thought to have been slain he
brought his scalp away with him, but
instead of wearing it on his head it
was stuffed in his pocket.
And not only was Thompson scalped
once, but twice did he lose a por-
ton of his brown hair to the Indians
twice within half an hour.
Thompson was telegraph lineman
in the early days of the Union Pacific
railroad, and, together with three
other linemen, was one day sent out
to repair break somewhere west of
Kearney, Neb. This was in the fall
of 1866, when the country was full of
Indians.
Thompson and his companions went
out on a hand car, and when the
break was located Thompson climbed
to the top of a telegraph pole to fix
the broken wire.
His companions went down the road
a few poles to make other repairs, and
suddenly Thompson heard a rifle shot
and an Indian war whoop. Looking
down the road he saw his three fellow
linemen pumping for life, the hand
car making good speed eastward,
while at the foot of the pole on which
he was perched stood grinning In
dian brave, with dozen more to back
him up. The surprise had been CON-
plete, the Indians crawling up under
the cover of the long grass and get
ting within tomahawk distance before
they we're discovered.
"Paleface come down." grunted the
Indian.
Thompson refused to obey, and
without hesitation the Indian at the
foot of the pole promptly fred bull
let at his head. The shot took effect
and Thompson came tumbling to the
ground, where he had the good sense
to feign death, although only slightly
wounded by the glancing bullet. But
the wound in the head fooled the In
dian.
Just at this moment Thompson's
friends. seeing they had distanced the
Indians, brought their hand car to
stop on the top Of distant grade,
and as they looked back they saw a
tall Indian standing erect, holding
high in the air above his head CORY
scalp, which he shook at them in a
menacing manner.
Il hadn't more than hit ground,"
said Thompson, in relating his exper-
fence, ''before that big Indian jumped
on me, and, running knife around
my scalplock, wrapped his fingers
in my hair, gave a sudden jerk, and,
with a yell, simply tore all the top of
my head off. It felt like a red-hot
piece of iron placed against my head,
but I had sense enough and fortitude
enough to keep still.
81 managed to get a look at that
Indian, and saw him hang my scalp
to his belt.
"But, horrors! A few minutes af-
terward another Indian came along
and took another piece of my hair,
although the first one had got the
choicest piece.
"There l remained on the ground,
playing dead, for an hour or more,
while the Indians piled distractions
on the railroad track Then along
came freight train, ran right into
the distractions, and. was wrecked.
The Indians killed the train crew and
set the box cars on fire. In one car
we're several barrels of whisky, and
all the Indians got rip-roaring drunk
and had big war dance around the
burning train.
During the dance 1 saw Black
Thunder drop my scalp from his belt,
and after nightfall, when there was
no light other than that from the
burning train, I crawled over to
where that scalp was, put it in my
pocket, crawled into the high grass,