Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1906-09-05
BADGERS FEAT

Wan" ~AAA
fought the Sioux twelve months in
the year, the great chief, Big Elk,
lay in his lodge on the banks of the
Missouri, sick unto death.
For many suns has the great
man been troubled with a sickness
which the Indians were not able to
overcome. The medicine-men of the
tribe had used all their efforts; had
worked all their charms; had called
on "Pe-a-zhe Wakan," the Bad Spirit,
and upon "Wakan,' the Great Mys-
terry. The chief did not improve.
Even the chiefs own private "medi-
cine" OF charm, was unavailing, and
he grew worse. The entire tribe was
in gloom.
1nen one day. from the south, a
trapper came in his boat, and stopped
to exchange hright-colored calicoes,
mirrors, guns and beads with the On
ahas for their skins Of the otter, the
beaver and the buffalo.
The Indians refused to trade.
Their chief was dying-was on the
very verge of the SHADOW Land
and they could not trade.
The white man asked to see Big
Elk, and he saw that the great red
man was indeed dying. Nothing
could now be done for him.
But said the white trapper,
there is a white man down the Big
River, three sleeps distant; he has a
white powder which would have
cured Big Elk. But it is too late
now. No horse could get back quick
enough. Big elk must die
Badger, a young Indian, who was
standing near when the trapper told
of the white powder which would
have saved Big Enk, beckoned the
trapper to come outside the lodge,
and asked him for the white mans
"sign'' for the white powder.
The trapper wrote the single word
"Quinin" on a paper, and handed it
to the young red man
Five minutes afterward Badger,
armed with his precious piece of
paper, four pairs of m~occasins, a
small quantity Of dried buffalo meat,
and five bright silver dollars-all
the cash the tribe possessed-shot
out from the south end of the In
dian village, and headed toward the
white settlement, one hundred miles
away, at Bellevue, Nebraska, several
r.,iles below where Omaha now
Eialds.
The sun was Just setting in a red
blaze y the Western prairie when
Badger started on the run which
made his name more famous in his
tribe than hat of any warrior Of his
time.
Some time during the middle Of the
next forenoon, probably fifteen hours
after Badger left Big Elk's lodge, old
Peter Sarpy vas standing in his log
trading-post at Bellevue when a
young Indian ran into the room,
handed him a paper on which "Qui-
MIN was scrawled. laid five silver
dollars down, and in the Indian Ian
guage asked him to hurry"
The medicine was quickly wrapped
up, and the Indian, in his own
tongue, which sarpy knew well,
asked how it was to be taken, and
was told to place it in water and
make the sick man drink it.
Badger, for it was the Omaha In
dian who had made the one-hundred
mile trip on foot in fifteen hours,
then sat down, ate a little jerked
buffalo meat, threw away his old
moccasins, which were entirely worn
out, put on a new pair, rested for a
single hour, and started on the re-
turn to the Omahas' village, carry
ing with him the white powder which
was to save the life of Big Elk.
1t was 1-esrly noon when Badger
left Bellevue. He was stiff and tired
from his long run of the night be-
fore. He wanted to stop and rest,
but did not dare do so, for fear of
there was no path across the prairie.
Last night he had travelled by the
stars; to-day he was guided by the
sun. There were rivers to swim and
quicksands to be avoided.
Just after the sun rose next morn
Ing Badger staggered up to Big Elk's
lodge on the Missouri. He had made
the return trip in about eighteen
hours, and had travelled the entire
two hundred miles in t%hirty-four
hours, including the time spent at
bellevue.
But Big Elk lad died an hour be-
fore Badger brought the white med
icine."
That was more than fifty years
ago, and to-dcy, when the remnants
of the Omaha tribe are gathered
round a dance "lodge," and Indians
tell of the great deeds of Big Elk,
the greatest warrior the tribe ever
knew, almost in the same breath an
other Indian will Use and tell the
story of Badger and the fast run he
made in his effort to save the life of
his chief.--T. +. Porter, in the
Youths Companion. 4
HIDING FROM THE INDIANS.
In dealing with the Indians dis
Grafton iS 1S11a11v tho bot+o- ,o,+ Of