New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-07-06

wv YHEN went west the last slSo'
M Indian wars had just come 10
w an end, but there were still spo-
radio outbreaks here and there, and oc-
casionally bands of marauding young
braves were a menace TO outlying and
lonely settlements. Many Of the white
men were themselves lawless and brutal
and prone to commit outrages on the
Indians Unfortunately. each race tend
ed to hold ali the members of the other
race responsible for the misdeeds of
few, so that the crime of the miscreant,
red or white, who committed the original
outrage too often invited retaliation upon
entirely innocent people, and this action
would i'm its turn arouse bitter feeling
which found vent in still more indis-
criminate retaliation. The first year was
on the Little Missouri some Sioux bucks
ran off all the horses of buffalo hunt
er's outfit. One Of the buffalo hunters
tried to get even by stealing the horses
of a Cheyenne hunting party, and when
pursued made for cow camp, with, as
a result a long range skirmish between
the cowboys and the Cheyennes. one
of the latter was wounded; but this par
ticular wounded man seemed TO have
more sense than the other participants
in the chain of wrongdoing and dis
eliminated among the whites. He came
into our camp and had his wound
dressed.
RANCH ON DEAoWoop TRAIL.
year later was al a desolate little
mud road ranch on the Deadwood trail.
It was kept by very capable and very
forceful woman, with sound ideas Of jus
tice and abundantly we'll able TO hold her
own. Her husband was a worthless
devil, who finally got drunk on some
whiskey he obtained from an outfit OF
Missouri ull-whackers-that is, freight
ers, driving OK wagons. Under the slim
illus of the whiskey he picked quarrel
with his wife and attempted to beat her
She knocked him down with stove lid
litter and the admiring bull-whackers
bore, him off, leaving the lady in full
possession Of the ranch When / visited
her she had a man named Crow Joe
working for her. a slab-sided, shifty-eyed
person, who, later, as / heard my fore
man explain, skipped the country with
a bunch of horses! The mistress Of the
ranch made first class buckskin shirts
OF great durability. The one she made
for me, and which used for years, was
used by one OF my sons in Arizona
couple of winters ago. 1 had ridden
down into the country after some lost
horses, and visited the ranch TO get her
10 make me the buckskin shirt in ques-
ton. There were, at the moment, three
Indians there, Sioux, well behaved and
self-respecting, and she explained 10 me
that they had been resting there waiting
for dinner and that white man had
come along and tried TO run OF their
horses The Indians were on the look
out however. and, running out, they
caught the man: but, after retaking their
horses and depriying him of his gun, they
let him 60 Il don't see why they let
him CO." exclaimed my hostess. Il don't
believe In stealing Indians horses any
more than white folks: so l told 'em
they could go along and hang him-Id
never cheep. Anyhow, I won't charge
them anything for their dinner" con-
cluded my hostess. She was in advance
OF the usual morality of the time and
place. which drew a sharp line between
stealing citizens horses and stealing
horses from the government or the Ind
ians.
RUSTLERS AND STRANGERS.
fairly decent citizen, Jap Hunt, who
long ago met violent death, exemplified
this attitude toward Indians in some re-
marks 1 once heard him make. He had
started a horse ranch and had quite hon
cstly purchased a number Of broken
down horses of different brands, with the
view Of doctoring them and selling them
again About this time there had been
much horse stealing and cattle killing In
our territory and In Montana, and under
the direction OF some Of the big cattle
growers a committee of yigilantes had
been organized to take action against the
rustlers, as the horse thieves and cattle
thieves were called. The vigilantes. or
strangers, as they were locally known.
did their work thoroughly; but, as always
happens with bodies OF the kind toward
the end they grew reckless in their ac-