The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-08-08
PASSING Of AN
INDIAN FIGHTER
Old Bill Chance, a Noted Enemy of In
dams, Now in Sunset Of Life.
INDIANS ALWAYS BLOODTHIRSTY
This Old Citizen OF II, Has Fought in
nany Indian Wars Describes
Graphically the Red Man and His
Cruel Ways.

characters in the Northwest is
Bill Chance, who is spending the
evening of his days in Seaside,
coutent to let the strenuous life he
has lived be only pleasant men,
Dry.
Bill Chance is a man of striking
appearance, six feet two inches
tall, and although seventy seven
years old, straight as an arrow.
He is probably more familiar with
the Indians and the Indian wars
of the coast than any man living,
having been an active participant
in almost every war with them
since he crossed the plains in 1852.
He speaks several Indian dialects,
and is as familiar with the Chinook
jargon as he is with English.
During the Rogue River Indian
war he served as a volunteer and
participated in the battle of Hun
cry Hill, one of the most sanguin-
airy fights of all that cruel cam
paign. His description of the
atrocities he witnessed is so vivid
that listening to them almost
makes the auditor feel he was
present. II have seen," said he,
children wearing swaddling
clothes whom the murderous
brutes had taken by the legs and
beaten their brains out against a
rock. And yet many people in
the East, actuated by a feeling of
sentiment and ignorance, have
lifted up their hands in horror at
the thought of white men thirst
ing for the blood of those fends.
AS matter of fact the men who
know the cruelty and bloodthirs-
tyness of the red men have no
more hesitancy in killing an Indian
than they would a RATHER. Of the
two the rattlers are the less dam
gerous and more honorable: they
always warn before they strike;
an Indian, never. r."
Another thing you must OBJ
serve. An Indian is always an
Indian. No difference how much
of the veneering Of civilization he
may have acquired; no difference
II he was taken when a pappoose,
raised to manhood by a white fam
lily, without ever seeing one of his
kind, latent lies the Indian traits,
ready to burst forth in deeds of
cruelty and hate without a mo-
ment's warning. I may make an
exception to this IN favor of a
squaw, but never with the bucks.
II belonged" said Bill. ito the
Ben Wright expedition and was
one OF the thirty men engaged in
the so-called Ben Wright massacre.
Wright was severely censured for
this by the United States officials
and stigmatized as a murderer. A
howl was raised throughout the
Eastern press, many insisting that
he be.court-martialed and shot.
THE whole secret of the killing
of those thirty Indians lay in the
Indians treachery. We had these
Moloquas (since known as Modoes)
penned on a peninsula that ran
into lake, near Lost River, about
two miles this side of the Cali
fornia line. Escape was impossi-
BILE, 50 they sent a messenger, un-
der flag of truce, asking for a
peace conference, to be held at -
O'Clock the following day, which
Wright Immediately granted. The
significance of the hour did not
occur to him. At the noon hour
the men would be engaged in eat
ing dinner or attending to their
horses, thus being entirely off their
guard.
During the night the squaw
came into camp and informed
Wright that the Indians would all
attend the council; that they would
wear their blankets, under which
their firearms would be concealed,
and at a given signal from the
chief all the whites were to be
murdered in cold blood. This,
you observed, after promising to