Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1921-11-24

company New York; is chapter In whlch halh'
ln-the-Face tells how he ran 300 miles on snow
shoes in q blizzard in three days-by far the most
remarkable run in all history
Ugh what discussion that chapter mas raised
su over the West! For the West will never get
through talking about Custer ana the pat'ie u
Little Big Horn River June 25, 1876
Now of course anyone who has ever Travelled
OH snowshoes and has been In South Dakota
blizzard has positive opinion as to the truth OF
the Indians story. incidentally the WORLDS record
for hundred mile run is 10 $3.50 However, the
story of Raln-n-the-Face serves double purpose
It makes interesting reading and 1t has brought
out some reliable facts concerning the legehd THAT
the Sioux chief boosted that he would Kill custer
and eat his heart-and actually did carry out his
boast.
According to the story told to Colonel Shields
by the Sioux in December, 1873 or 1874 Whlle
ouartered with portion of his tribe at the otaho-
ing Rock agency, about 70 miles south OF Dis
morck Rain-n-the-Face got into an altercauon
with four white men and killed two OF theln III
self-defense as he claimed. He was captured, tax
en- to the agency, and thrown into jail, "a tenn
norarv unfinished log structure without noof.
There were six or eight inches of snow on the
ground that had blown in through the openings IN
the walls and the prisoners only means OF Keep
ing from freezing was to keep walking constantly
about the ROOM" This cruelty to Indians was prac
ticed on the orders of General Custer then In COM
mand at Fort Lincoln, near Bismarck. General
Custer ordered that "if alive, Rainln-the-tace
should be thrown into Jail and punished as severe
ly as possible, pending the time when the court
martial could be convened and the culprlt dis
6osed Of In legal way. And this meant OF course
that he would be hung shot" When this order
was read to the prisoner, "Rain-in-the-tace swore
vengeance on General Custer as the author or MS
gufferings He swore that If he ever got out he
hon oh If mos
sible and If not, then at longer range; that he
would cut his heart out and carry 1t away as
trophy"
Some time before the Custer massacre, RAIN
ln-theFace escaped from his prison with the as
sstance of two friends, who "handed him pair
of snow-shoes and blanket In which a piece OK
dried buffalo meat was rolled" The buffalo meat
fell out as he adjusted the blanket, and so he
started out Into the desert In the midst OF
bowling blizzard, at nightfal with only one
blanket without mouthful of food, without a
weapon of any kind, when the temperature was
probably forty degrees below zero and the wind
was blowing thirty miles an hour" HE told me
the story of his great run and Will tell 1t to
you in his own words as nearly as l can recall
Them" reports Colonel Shields
'I asked him, through an interpreter, Where
did you go when you escaped from the jail al
Standing RockT He said:
"T went to the camp of my friends, at the base
Of Woody mountain, in Canada
How far is thatr l asked
"Three hundred miles as the crow files
"'How long did 1t take you to make the RUM
"Three days and nights
"Do you mean to tell me that man can rul
a hundred miles in twentyfour hours, on snow
shoes, and another hundred in the next twenty
four and another hundred In the nextT
"He said, L did It,
&c How often did you sleep on the wayT
"I didn't sleep at all. knew dared not sleeI
dared not sit down to rest, for If / hat
under the terrible fatigue and hunger and strai
from which ! suffered, would have lost conscious
ness stupor would have overtaken me- and
would have frozen solid In half an hour. wa
fleeing from the persecution, the wrongs, the on
RACES inflicted me and my people by the whit
men. was going, to my friends and had dete