The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-17
Killed Indian
When Eleven
Buffalo Bill Tells of His First
Experience Shooting
Redskins.

i was barely II when L shot my first
Indian He was chief I knew that
from his headdress. His name l never
learned. Here is the story:
My parents, with their seven chill
dren, had moved from Iowa to Kansas
three years earlier Ny father had
taken up claim in Salt Greek Valley
and built comfortable home. But he
was not to enjoy the good days that
seemed to be dawning for us.
Kansas just then was torn by the
nti-slavery- pro-slavery feud. The party
that wanted to make Kansas a slave
state were in the majority in our neigh
borhoOd. Nv father believed slavery
was wrong, and he was not afraid to
say so. He made an anti-slavery speech
once at the nearest post traders store
and was mobbed One of his audience,
Charles Dunn, stabbed him in the side
l stood unarmed over my wounded
father s body and tried with my child
ish strength to fight off his assailants.
think it was the sight of little boy
risking his life for his father that made
the crowd draw back and let a friend
and myself get the wounded man away.
But the pro-slavery people made
other attempts to kill him. The effort
to avoid his enemies and to bring an
anti-slavery element into Kansas com
bined with the knife wound to shorten
my father s life. In 1856 he induced
60 anti-slavery families to settle in
Kansas. The next spring he died.
| was the oldest son, just H. Ny
fragile little mother had no one but me
to turn to for help in supporting her
large family To make matters worse
the estate became involved in litigation
To save the home money must be
earned. | could ride any horse alive. |
had knack of shooting straight, and |
knew something about herding cattle. /
thought these qualities might earn me
living. They did.
A firm of overland reighters-Rus-
sell, Majors and Waddell-were at
Leavenworth. One of them, Mr.. Ma
jors, had been a friend of my father. l
asked him for a job as extra on one
of his wagon trains The pay was $40
a month; a fortune it seemed to me
then. The work was the sort usually
intrusted to a grown man, and it meant
not only perpetual hustling, but lot of
danger as well. For the plains in those
days were anything but free from In
dams. The latter thought frightened
even my brave mother. Boylike, / was
delighted at the idea.
Mr.. Majors said he would take me on
as extra - for one trip. If | did we'll
1 could have a regular job. 1 resolved
to do miracles as an extra. - The
train was made up of 25 loaded
wagons, each carrying 1000 pounds, |
each drawn by six yoke of oxen and
guided by bull whacker' "a driver
with long, loud cracking whip. Then
there was bunch of loose cattle. On |
this occasion the train was made up |
of only three wagons, and we were driv- |
ing large herd of beef cattle to Fl. |
kearney for the use of Colonel Albert |
Sydney johnson and his command. l |
was only one of several ''extras - Ny |
duties were to take orders from one end /
of the long train to another, and make |
myself generally useful when we pitch
ed camp. 1t was a busy but stupid trip
till we came within 20 miles of TT. /
Kearney. Though we always set guard /
no Indians had appeared.
One noon we stopped for dinner.
While we were loafng about on the
grass waiting for the pot to boil | heard
a sCathing volley of shots from a copse
Some bullets and a dozen or more ar
rows whistled into camp. Every body
had jumped up at the first shot But
three of our men tumbled at once as if
they had been tripped up. Then a.num-
per of things happened almost too
quickly to describe.
Two bands of Indians were galloping
toward US. One band stampeded and
an off our oxen, while the other
rushed us. Our men gave them a
warm welcome and sent them back on
he run. But the fight was not over.
The braves only cantered out of
'ange. There they were Joined bv t
'thers. They outnumbered US eight or
en- to one. We could not hope to stand
gainst such a multitude We boIted
or a nearby creek. with the savaqes
It our heels, and found shelter behind
he steep banks From there we opened
ire again and drove the following red
kins once more out of range. / blazed
way with the best of them, but in the +,
onfUsion no one could tell whether he
" some one else dropped the man he
Ired at. So ] cant say whether or not
did any execution. | used to like to
hink so.
Frank Mccarthy. our boss, said our
me chance was to follow the Platte ]
River To Fl. kearney. keeping out of
light between its banks. So the
wenty-mile march began. through
,nee-deep water, over powders and ]
!iprery, sharp pebbles. Half day we