The National tribune., 1910-03-10

After a few more days of travel we
saw in the distance what appeared to
be body of Indians. but when we got
nearer to them we saw they were
dressed in Federal uniform. They
marched in no formation. Some of them
were on horses, others on foot. They
had a string of wagons with them, and
proved to be the Missouri outfit. They
had been out from Omaha about so
days, and were almost destitute. About
one-third Of them had lost their horses.
They had famished for want of grain.
A number OF the men were nearly
shoeless. and / want to tell you travel
ing thru that cactus country barefoot
was something awful. When any of
the unfortunate boys happened to step
on one of those cactus partly covered,
they would have to sit for half an hour
to pick the Internal stickers out, and
when dry they would only get part of
them out. 1 Had a pair of fancy mocca-
sins l had bought from an Indian when
we were at Fort Laramie. / gave $3.50
for them. They were the finest ones I
ever saw. and / could have sold them at
any time for twice that. One of the
boys gave me watch for them.
They were also getting short of ra-
| tions. II seemed they had got lost in
EgOing thru the Bad Lands, and had a
| time getting out with their heavy mule
|
number of their wagons with their con-
tents The outfit started from Omaha
with 14O wagons and landed at Fort
| Connor, on Powder River. with 80. They
had to destroy l01 wagons with their
contents. The cause of this more than
anything else was that the men who
| had lost their horses would early in the
morning before the mule drivers got
around, take the mules and ride off
with them ahead of the command.
When the mule drivers reported their
mules missing there was only one thing
| to do; that was to destroy the wagons
with their contents This was done so
| the Indians could not make use of them.
II must be remembered we were in the
Sioux country. and at this time they
were on the warpath.
This command and ours Travelled to-
! gether for several days. One day while
crossing a stream one of the teams be-
| onging to the Missouri command turned
up a rock about the size of your two
! lists, which proved to be a good speci-
| men OF gold quartz Our Indian guide
thought this stream was Powder River,
afterwards we found out 1t was the
Lite MISSOURI. After crossing the Lit
Tie Missouri We saw a chain of hills
ahead. Our guide was puzzled, and did
not know what hills they were Our
Colonel was outdone. The Indian had
told him he knew all about the country.
| FINALLY the Colonel said TO him: II VIII
give you three days to find Powder Riy-
er If you do not find ii in that time
/ will have YOU shot"
Corporal and two privates went
with the Indian, with orders to shoot
him down IL he attempted to get away.
on the third day the detail with the
indian guide returned, and reported
that they had found Powder River
about 80 miles from camp. We accord
ingly struck out for IT.
The Missouri outfit and ours generally
lcamped close together especially If we
icould get water and grass in sufficient
Iquantity. In our command one of our
Icompanies was under arms with horses
ready every night, in readiness to repel
Ian Indian attack.
Powder River at Last.
i Nothing of Importance happened un-
til we arrived at what we thought was
the end of q range of hills. The range
at this point changed its course to more
of a westerly direction, and it took all
day TO get over TO the other side. The
Missouri command proceeded on the
east side of the range. On the other
lside a beautiful view opened before US
As far as the eye could reach one could
see streams indicated by the timber that
looked like dark streaks in the distance
We followed one of these streams for
labout 90 miles before we struck Powder
River.