Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-02
FOUND SWORD 4.
Of GREAT age
Supposed to be That Of a Soldier
of the Revolution Who Was
Banished.
TOLD TO GO WESTWARD
Then to Bury Weapon With Point
to the East; Indians Have
Legend About It.

Rhame, N. D., May 30.-A few days
ago while Henry Holm, who works
the ]. II. frey farm 10 miles north OF
of Rhame, was breaking some new
ground, he turned up q relic dating
back to Revolutionary days in the
form Of a sword, bearing the thirteen
stars, and with an inscription on n
of the flanges Of the hilt, so erased
and worn as to be u1intelligable.
When he attempted to pick up the
sword, the blade crumbled away in
rust, the hilt alone remaining as evil
deace. This is of bronze, and Of a
design peculiar to swords of that per-
iod. The sword was buried about six
inches deep in the soil, the point of
the blade pointing due east.
Near Old Fort.
AbOat IL miles west where the
sword was found is the remains OF an
old. breast works fertilization dating
away back to the latter part of the
eighteenth century.
4s& th4.5 verifies Legend.
The finding OF this sword seems to
be the verificatiOn Of an old legend
handed down by the Indians Of that
section from generation to gener-
alton, and which was thought to have
had little If any foundation of truth
up to this time. AS told now, how
ever, by Chief Two Bare Spots, o1e
Of the last remnants OF the early In
dian inhabitants of this section, the
story has a new phase of reality.
sa A the Indian Tells II.
Told in the flowery, idiomatic lang
uage of the Indians through the med
iuin Of an interpreter, the story has a
simple charm to it, which is interest.
ing, even though there should be no
foundation of truth to it.
MANY, many great suns ago, said
the old Indian, while the buffalo
were still on the plains of the Da-
kotas, and before the white men came
to disturb the peaceful life of his red
brothers, a white MAJ came among us
with a band OF 20 Indians, and pitch
ed his tepees near where the Little
Beaver joins its waters with the Lit
tie Missouri. The. white man was
always sad, mixed never with his red
brethren, and was known to us as
Sore Heart"
The story of the white mans com
ing might better be- told leaving out
the figurative expressions of the In
dian.
A Lonely Man.
Sore Heart was apparently a SOL
der in the Continental army which
spent the winter Of 1777-7S at Valley
Forge. In a quarrel with one Of his
brother officers, to whose sister Sore
Heart was to have been married,
Sore Heart drew his sword and slew
the other. A court Of inquiry was
held, the result of which was a decree
that the murderer should take with
him q few of his Indians and travel
$50 leagues west towards the setting
sun, where he should bury the sword
with which he committed his crime,
with the point towards the east 1t
was apparently thought that he would
die in the attempt e~xpiating his
crime. t.@.i W.. q. s.. r..
According to the old Indian legend,
Sore Heart did as commanded, dying
of a broken heart, a few months after.
wards. '....@n s:'r
j. H. frey, on whose farm the
sword was found, is immigration ag-
ent for the Milwaukee road at Aber-
deem, s. D., and now has the hit Of
the sword in his possession.