medicine.
Mr. B. Now I want the mules your young men run off the other night.
Dog Tail. May-be-so-me-yan-na-me-bring-a-heap-o'-mules. Young men got 'em on the grass. May-be-so-one- day-may-be-so-two-days-me-come, heap-o'-mides.
Mr. B. Captain Beardslee will hold six of thy men until thee make thy young men bring in the mules.
Dog Tail. We want six hundred dollars in money, and then we will bring in the mules. We have made your hearts glad with the white squaw and papooses, and now you must make our hearts glad with money We will bring the mules to-morrow, sure, and all the time be good Indians, if you will give us six hundred dollars. I don't want it all myself. Squaws and papooses get it to swap for blankets, calico, sugar, and coffee.
Mr. B. What say thee, General, in regard to this demand from Dog Tail ? Will thee be satisfied ?
General I have no objections to giving them something for their services in helping us to get our mules back. I think it will be well enough to give it to them when they return the mules. I am of the same opinion now that I have always entertained-it is a very bad policy to pursue. It only helps to perpetuate the ransom-traffic between ourselves and the wild tribes.
Mr. B. Well, Dog Tail, you have been a very good Indian to-day, and I will give each of you three chiefs two hundred dollars if you will bring in those mules. I have no money, but will give you orders on the trader, and he will let you have what you want. Now you must bring the mules in ten days.
Dog Tail. Oh, yes; me have my young men bring in heap-o'-mules. Me-give-'em-to-big-white-chief. Heap- good-mules-and-heap-o'-good-big-white-chief. Good-bye, good-bye.
[Shakes hands all around.
SECTION II.
OTJSTEE'S LAST BATTLE AGAINST
SITTING BULL.
CHAPTER I
The Record jrom 1868.
With the incidents of the memorable Indian fight of June 25th, 1876, between Lieut.-Colonel G. A. Custer, with five companies of the 7th Cavalry, and Sitting Bull, the invincible chief of the lawless hordes of hostile Indians who infest the north-west plains, the world is already familiar. Scarcely yet can the American people contemplate with calmness the wholesale butchery of a brave officer of the cavalry service, together with nearly three hundred men of his command. The gallant struggle of the doomed battalion, enclosed in that living cordon of wild and yelling savages, from which none escaped to tell the story of their fate, is without parallel in the history of the western world.
The tale of their dashing onset, their reckless charge into overwhelming numbers of merciless foes, their glorious stand when hope was gone, their valorous defense, and death, sublimely courted in the charge and on the skirmish line, has been told and re-told. Never, while the world stands, will be forgotten the tragic fate of the chivalrous three hundred, who fell with their gallant leader on that bloody field of unequal strife. History has recorded imperishably the grandeur of their final charge. Their dauntless death is celebrated in song and story. Their names are household words in every home, and their memory is embalmed forever in the grateful admiration of their countrymen.
major-general george a. custer.
But of the minor events that form the links in the lengthened chain of circumstances that led to the final result, and brought about the bloody catastrophe, little is known to the general public. To present these minor facts in concise form is the object of these pages. To that end we shall state succinctly : First. The operating causes that led to the war with the Sioux and their allies, and which culminated in the sending out by the Government of the expedition of 1876; and secondly, the occurrences by which Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Custer incurred the bitter enmity of the Indian warrior Rain-in-the-Face-who slew him on his final battle-field -and which led to the outpouring of ostensibly peaceful bands of Agency Indians, to join the hostiles in their march to intercept the white warriors.
It is a fact not to be gainsaid that open hostilities on the part of the Sioux were provoked by the violation, on the part of the Government, of the treaty of 1868, by the stipulations of which the territory of the Black Hills and adjacent region were declared an inviolable part of the Indian reservation, sacred to their use, and not to be trespassed upon by white men. Forts Reno and Kearney were abandoned, and the whole country given up to Sitting Bull, the leader of the scattered but powerful bands of hostiles who infested the western plains.
Three years later (in 1871) it was adjudged expedient by the Government to break the provisions of the treaty of 1868. The officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad, then in process of construction across the continent, in the spring of 1871, applied to the Government authorities at Washington for military protection and escort for a surveying party to be sent out during the summer of that year to explore and mark out the unsurveyed portion of the projected road-a line extending westward from the Missouri River in Dakota to the interior of Montana, west of the Yellowstone River. Authority was duly granted : the rights of the Indians being deemed of minor importance in the grand scheme of opening up the vast and fertile fields of the new north-west to railroad enterprise, with its attendant train of settlers.
The expedition, conducted by engineers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and escorted by United States troops, left
Fort Rice in June, 1871, and completed its mission in safety -no Indians molesting them, or interfering in any way with their progress.
Again, on July 25th, 1872, a similar expedition left Fort Rice, and returned in October, 1872, having successfully accomplished the exploration and survey of a route through Yellowstone Valley, reaching to the river of that name, and to the mouth of Powder River.
This party encountered many hostile Indians, and their return march is described as a series of skirmishes.
When near Fort Rice, on their return, Lieutenant Adair, of the 22d Infantry, and Lieutenant Crosby, of the 17th Infantry, were killed-the latter being shot, scalped, and otherwise mutilated-by an Indian called ' the Gaul,' a notorious criminal and consumer of Cheyenne Agency rations. This murderer has since surrendered himself to the military authorities, and is now a pensioner, as before, upon the bounty of the Government.
In July, 1873, a third expedition left Fort Rice on a similar mission-the engineers and surveyors of the N. P. R. R., under the direction of General Rosser, the troops, comprising the escort, under command of General Stanley, and accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Custer with the 7 th Cavalry Regiment. The force consisted of about 1,700 men- cavalry, infantry, a battery of artillery, and a detachment of Indian scouts.
This party encountered hostile Indians near the Yellowstone, and on August 4th, several companies of the 7th Cavalry, under Custer, had a sharp engagement with a body of Sioux, under Sitting Bull, resulting in the loss of one soldier, surprised at a spring, the wounding of Lieutenant Bra-den, and the murder of Dr. Houtzinger, veterinary surgeon, and Mr. Baliran, sutler of the 7th Cavalry-they being unarmed, detached from the main body, and unsuspicious of danger.
The expedition returned to Fort Rice during the latter part of September-the engineers having fully completed their explorations, and mapped out in detail the future course of the road.
As may well be imagined, these frequent invasions of their territory by armed troops, awakened the most bitter resentment in the breasts of the hostile Indians, and when, in 1874, in obedience to the demands of the press, that the territory of the Black Hills should be explored and opened to settlement, it was decided by the Government to
