Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-17

V%\@
You know, 1 wasn't the only white
| kid the Sioux had. Another band that
used to travel close to us all OF the
time had a white girl with red hair.
| She must have been about Is. | could
never get chance to speak TO her
for the chief kept her guarded all Of
| the time-and she was finally married
to the chief
But one day. just before ! left the
Sioux, l saw her going down to a
water hole with pail. That was at
| Pine Creek | sneaked down TO the
| hole and had a few words with her.
| She said that she had been with the
| Indians ever since she could remem-
| Der. and she didn't know where she
came from. She said that the chiefs
| people guarded her all the time. She
| said she'd like 10 get away"
And. now. the closing act OF this
weird drama of the plains is the
strangest Of all.
on the day following the appear
ance of the frontpage story about
! Ross Tanner another white man,
! about 65 wears old and looking every
inch an Indian, amhled into the Tri
| bune office and inquired az 10 the
| wherea bouts of Ross Tanner, whose
| picture ndu appeared IN the paper on
! the preceding day.
The managing editor asked him
why he wanted to know. He said
| Because the last time l saw him
was in an Indian camp down on the
| Missouri River in Montana, when he
was Is and l was II. And l recog
nized his face as quick as l saw 1t
in the paper last night. ! was raised
| by the Indians, too-the Crows, who
adopted me when l was a baby and
my mother and aunt had died of
smallpox at Fort Benton
The managing editor. Vernon X.
Knowles, told Mr.. Phillips-John
! Phillips was his name-to go home
and he would have Mr.. Tanner at his
| house within an hour. Then Mr..
| Knowles rushed over in his car and
! got me. more excited than l have ever
seen a managing editor. We drove
! to Tanners home, where We picked
! him up. and the three of us went
| TO Phillips home.
| There we saw such a sight a. We
shall never see again. Both men
recognized each other instantly, and
| they just stood grinning at each
other like two boys. Then tears came
and put their left hands on each
!
| * ~
| DHILLIPS, the typical old Indian
from his head to his moccasined
| feet. motioned to his Indian wife to
bring in chairs. Then. when we
We're all seated. he was the first to
break the silence.
he could say.
Then the two looked at each other,
shyly grinning for another spell
until they really began to believe
| their eyes-and then they started
| talking.
| When they last met. 40 years be-
fore, they were the only two white
persons in a camp of 5000 Indians.
The Crees had stopped off on the
Missouri River to camp over night
with the Crows In the big massed
dance held that night these two white
| boys with long hair had noticed each
other in the glimmer of the freight,
and the next day Phillips went over
to the Cree camp and sought out
| Tanners tepee. Here they told each
| other their strange stories of how
they happened to be in the hands of
| the Indians.
John Phillips had had an uncle
4. who came to America from England
and Joined the California gold rush
| of 1S49. Ten years later this uncle
had sent to Yorkshire for his two
sisters. one Of them a. widow with
a baby boy-the present John
Phillips.
They came to America and Journey
ed across the plains in prairie
| schooner as far az Fort Benton,
! Mont, then only a. trading post,
where a few white men met the In
dian nomads of the plains and bar
tered whisky for buffalo robes. Here
the two women were stricken with
| smallpox and died, both on the same
day.
John Phillips, only an infant, was
left an orphan. There was no one
there to adopt him but the Indians,
so the Crows took him into their
| tribe and reared him as one Of their
own people. He lived with the
Crows until he was q full-grown man.
Then he married an Indian woman
and went into western Canada as a
buffalo hunter with a band of half
breeds.
When old Fort Garry became Winni.
peg he stopped his wanderings over
the Plains, settled down there and
helped to build the Canadian Pacific
Railway. He is there today, hale and
| hearty and veteran OF the Great
! War. One of his sons, born Of his
Indian wife. was killed In the war.
John Phillips knows nothing OF the
fate Of his uncle in California-be-
cause news of the little party Of three
never reached him. Mr.. Phillips thinks
that his uncle must have concluded
that they were massacred by the In
dams en- route across the prairies.
These two men, Ross Tanner and
tanned skin, have now become insep
arabic pals in their old age
Tanner has found his relatives in
far off Texas, well-to-do citizens of
that State. He found them. or rather
they found him, through the magazine
article that I wrote. It took many
months for Louis c. Tanner of Lib
IL erty. Tex. to come upon . copy ct