Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-26

they stand pretty high around here.
but you haven't told me the story
yet" said l.
"Oh. yes. Well. it was this way:
The government had been trying to
remove the Ogalala Sioux from the
old Red Cloud agency to the Missouri,
which it finally succeeded in doing.
But. with the usual bureaucratic bril-
liancy, no decent provision was made
for the Indians on their arrival at the
desolate place in the dead of winter,
AS chief clerk of the old agency, l
went to look over the new camp. The
people all f1ocked to see me and were
fierce in their denunciations of the
Great White Father Red Cloud
showed me a telegram from Commits
sioner O'Beirne. then at Sidney, Da-
kota. which read:
ITO Chief Red Cloud: Your saw
mill and machinery are on the road,
and will arrive in a few days. l will
soon be with you and see you safely
through all your troubles"
with a look of lofty contempt on
his fine face. the noble old chief said
to me: We don't want sawmills. My
people can't eat machinery. They
want food. They're starving, and
they're getting ready to go on the war
path
Hold on. chief said 1, Let me
see what can be done I Immediately
sent a horseman 65 miles through a
binding snowstorm to Fort Robinson
and got authority to transport food
from two supply stations for the hun
cry Sioux BY urging plodding teams
of oxen to go 20 miles day and half
wild horses to pull 100 wagon loads
400 miles in Is days, my men and sup
plies at last reachen the agency. But
even then there would have been no
peaceful ending of the affair if the
meantime 1 hadn't ridden out and
seized upon a band of cattle. which
my cowboys drove into camp. hastily
made into beef, and handed out to the
poor victims of bureaucracy.
"'You are my best friend Red
Cloud often said to me after that. 4
would do anything for you
Now Red Cloud had under his
charge a niece of his. Weah-Wash-Tay
the Beautiful One. of whom l had
come to think a lot So when he said
he would do anything for me, l said,
AN right, chief; let me marry your
niece
"He looked me up and down and
all over, and thought he was going
to take me apart to see what made me
tick You see, being a Sioux princess,
the Beautiful One would never have
been permitted to marry me, in spite
of the chiefs friendliness. but for the
fact that had a little lineage to boast
Of on my side. 1t counted with Red
Cloud to learn that I descended from
big chiefs who fought in the American
revolution and was a cousin of Cen
eral Custer. whom the Sioux RAGS
though they slew him. always respect
ed. Besides all that, Red Cloud knew
that It was to me that Crazy Horse.
the real leader of the Custer massacre,
$50 he gave his consent. and the
Beautiful One and I were married on
a wild night when a blizzard ragged
over the prairie and it was cold
enough to freeze the words in the
minister's mouth 1t was a missionary
named Robinson who married us.
We'll do I member when the preacher
asked Who giveth this woman to be
he wife of this MANI how the old
chief doomed out. 'Me-Red Cloud!'
he had on all his savage regalia that
light. and he made quite a speech, in |
which he said in his own language: |
White man. as thou doest to her. the |
asst of a royal line, so shall the Da- |
lotas do to thee
'T shook hands with the chief and |
old him I would stand by my bargain.
That was 80 years ago, and l guess |
We stood by it all right
In testimony to this he waved his |
land to his wife. who stood on the |
,orch, and she waved hers in return
FOR the Beautiful One is still the
Beautiful One to her husband. and this
n South Dakota. where, in the 30
ears that Jordan has lived happily
With his Indian wife, thousands Of
White couples have been uncoupled
nd gone their separate ways.
But l suppose there are those who
yilI call the Jordan marriage, however
Apply. a deplorable case of miscegen
ton, and will say that all such radical
linglings are to be uncompromisingly
1t is interesting to recall
hat this condemnation has been By
o means universal. Who would say
Or example. that John Rolfe, the hus-
and of Pocohontas, and the first
quaw man of history, was in any way
egraded by his marriage with that
oble Indian woman? On the contrary
nat is his chief claim to distinction,
nd there are aristocratic Virginians
nd others today who are proud to
-ace their descent from him and his