Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-07-18

1900
We needed no billiard tables, bowling
alleys nor lawn tennis, to keep our
muscles in trim, nor did we sit on the
benches in the park and smoke cigar
rettes and let our fathers support us.
We CHOPPED wood. hoed corn and
MIXED cows. Lots of boys IL or IA
years old took a mans place in the
/. field.
Gathering of Indians.
In closing I want to tell you Of a
gathering of Indians I had the good
fortune to see a few years ago. 1t
, was at Billings, Montana, during fair
f., week. I went there with A. P. john
son to visit George Lamort, Sank
county boy and a soldier in the Bird
Wis Cavalry. The chief attraction
of the fair was Indians and Indian rae
ing. They were mostly Grow Indians
from the reservation, just south OF
Billings. It was announced the first
day of the fair that the Crow tribe
would be there the first thing in the
morning. Johnson and I were up
by daylight to see them come into
town. They made their camp just east
of town, and they began to arrive as
soon as we got to the ground by wag-
ons, carriages, horseback, pole drags,
and by about 10 o'clock there were
200 in camp. The squaws did most
of the work, unhitched the horses, put
up the tents, carried the water from
the Yellowstone river and hustled the
wood The bucks sat around in cir
Giles playing cards and other games
and shouted at the squaws and dogs.
One Of the lesser chiefs of the Crows
wa negro called Smoky" It was
said that he came up the Missouri riv-
er to Port Buford when boy and was
captured by the Crows. He had quite
string of race horses and it was the
big prizes offered by the Fair Associ-
alton, for the horse and foot races
that brought the Indians and horse
men, Marcus DAILY of Helena, had his
horses and several professional foot
races. They had several races for In
dams only. The big race had 80 start
ers. The rules of this race was rope
bride and whip, no saddle 1t was
an exciting race. The riders wore a
single garment, breach clout; they
were lined up in two rows, fifteen in
each row and were started with shot
from a revolver. 1t was mile race
on a half-mile track. At the crack Of
the gun they started to yell and whip
their ponies. Smokey's horse won In
the half mile race Marcus Days fast
Kentucky thorobreds won and he
also won the dashes. When the two
mile race was called the Indians be-
gan to getsbusy. Smoky led out dunn
colored horse on which sat boy about
fourteen years old. He had kinky hair
and l. learned he was Smoky's son.
When they were lined up for the race
the Indians went through the crowd
offering to bet on Smokey's horse,
called Little Blue, against the field.
They bet lot Of money for it looked
good bet, to outsiders, twenty horses
against one Several of Days thor
oughbreds were in the race. They
started at the shot and got away in a
bunch. At the quarter mile post ten
or twelve horses were ahead of Little
Blue, at the half, they were in about
the same position, at the mile, five
horses were punched at least thirty
rods ahead of Blue At the one and
one-half mile, little Blue was close
behind the leading horse, big gray
thoroughbred Little Blue was slowly
gaining on him and the Indians were
yelling and trying to bet more money.
AS they came down the stretch neck
to neck, Smoky's boy used his whip
for the first time Little Blue slow
ly left the big horse behind, beating
by two lengths. Yell, You should
have heard those Indians yell can
hear them yet.
The foot races were very interest
ing, some of them for Indians only AND.
some mixed. The Indians were no
match for the professional runners in
the one hundred yard race. When they
called the quarter mile race the sIn-
dams again became excited and form
ed a circle around a tall, athletic
young Indian. They seemed to be try
ing to get him to run. He kept shak-
ing his head A wagon drove through
the crowd in which was seated Plenty
cues, the old chief of the Crows. We
were told that he was over ninety
years old and that in his prime he
stood seven feet, six inches tall. He
was the only Indian ever saw with
white hair, which was long and reach
ed down on his shoulders. He had a
perfect Indian face as long as cows.
4 L.