Roger Di Silvestro
Page 29
18 Luther Standing Bear, My Indian Boyhood (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988; reprint of 1931 edition, published by Houghton Mifflin), p. 5.
19 Standing Bear, My People the Sioux, p. 9.
20 Standing Bear, My Indian Boyhood, p. 16.
21 Ibid., p. 21.
22 Ibid., pp. 17—20.
23 Ibid., p. 177.
24 Ibid., p. 31.
25 Ibid., p. 37.
26 Standing Bear, My People the Sioux, p. 63.
27 Standing Bear, My Indian Boyhood, pp. 59-60.
28 Ibid., p. 94.
29 Ibid., p. 29.
30 Flora Warren Seymour, Indian Agents of the Old Frontier (New York: Appleton-Century, 1941), p. 267. Prevailing ideas about saving the Indians were outlined succinctly in an article from the Philadelphia Manufacturer and reprinted in the Carlisle school bimonthly newspaper, the Red Man (December 1890—January 1891).
Nothing in the history of the American people is more discreditable to them than the methods employed in dealing with the Indians. The story of our Indian policy is a record of injustice, falsehood and imbecility. The practice we now pursue of maintaining large bodies of these savages in idleness, feeding them at the public cost, treating them as if they were independent, and permitting them to retain their tribal organizations, is probably the worst for them, and for us, that could be devised by the wit of man. . . . The whole body [of 250,000 Indians in the United States] should be brought East of the Mississippi, the tribes should be broken up and the families of each tribe distributed so that they could never again come together. . . . They should be supplied with machinery, cattle and seeds, and proper instruction in the arts of civilization should be given to them, with the distinct understanding that they must either support themselves by their own labor within two or three years or starve. . . . It will produce good results for us and far better results for the Indian, for it will give him a chance, which he does not now possess, of being transformed from a useless vagabond into a civilized and useful man.
31 Quoted in Tom Streissguth, Wounded Knee 1890: The End of the Plains Indian Wars (New York: Facts on File, 1998), p. xii.
32 Quoted in Seymour, Indian Agents, p. 259.
33 Quoted in Linda F. Witmer, The Indian Industrial School: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 18J9—1918 (Carlisle, PA: Cumberland County Historical Society, 2002), p. 7.
34 Quoted in Seymour, Indian Agents, p. 263.
35 Pratt was so proud of the transformations his policies wrought that he gave away before-and-after photos as newsletter-subscription premiums, showing students as they looked when they arrived at Carlisle with long hair and native garb and how they looked after a period of schooling, shorn of their locks and armored in Euro-American clothing.
36 Indian Helper, March 20, 1891.
37 Michael L. Cooper, Indian School: Teaching the White Man's Way (New York: Clarion Books, I999), PP. 48-49-
38 Charles Eastman, From the Deep Woods to Civilisation (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977; reprint of 1936 edition published by Little, Brown), p. 57.
39 Quoted in the New York World, April 25, 1891.
40 Quoted in the Red Man, April-May 1891.
41 Frederic Remington, The Collected Writings of Frederic Remington, ed. Peggy Samuels and Harold Samuels (n.p.: Castle, 1986), p. 63.
42 Copies of the Indian Helper and the Red Man can be found at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Indian Helper is also available online through the historical society.
43 National Archives, record group 35, stack area 11E-3, compartment 3, shelf 2.
44 Red Man, February—March 1891.
45 Ibid.
46 New York World, April 25, 1891.
47 Ibid.
48 New York World, April 26, 1891.
49 Ibid.
50 New York World, April 25,1891.
51 Ibid.
52 New York World, April 28, 1891.
53 The views expressed here are gleaned from a reading of the Argus-Leader and New York World accounts of the trial, including commentary that appears throughout the April and May coverage, as well as accounts provided in other papers, such as the Omaha Bee, Chadron Democrat, and New York Times.
54 New York World, April 26, 1891.
55 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 28, 1891.
56 Plenty Horses, according to some sources, had a dubious control of English, although other sources said he spoke it fluently. His quotes in the press indicate a fine control of the language, but likely were edited by the reporter.
57 Plenty Horses' quote in the previous paragraph, about the military shooting an Indian, is so much like the comment attributed to Miles that you have to wonder if perhaps Plenty Horses read about Miles's view in the Red Man or another publication and paraphrased him.
58 Accounts of the investigation of Wounded Knee abound. For a succinct version, see Streissguth, Wounded Knee, or Robert Wooster, Nelson A. Miles & the Twilight of the Frontier Army (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993).
59 Miles reserved special and personal enmity for Forsyth, who in 1875 had been openly critical of George Armstrong Custer, of whom Miles was a great fan. Streissguth, Wounded Knee, pp. 95-99, offers a nice thumbnail sketch of the proceedings against Forsyth. For more detail, see Wooster, Nelson A. Miles.
60 Robert Wooster, Nelson A. Miles & the Twilight of the Frontier Army (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 188.
61 Quoted in Wooster, Nelson A. Miles, p. 190.
62 Quoted in William S. Coleman, Voices of Wounded Knee (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), pp. 329-32.
63 Quoted in Julia B. McGillycuddy, Blood on the Moon: Valentine McGillycuddy and the Sioux (1940; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990).
64 Robert W. Larson, Red Cloud: Warrior-Statesman of the Lakota Sioux (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), p. 47-48.
65 Robert M. Utley, The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), p. 14.
66 Ibid., p. 19.
67 For excellent details on Crazy Horse, see Stephen E. Ambrose, Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors (New York: Anchor Books, 1996).
68 Larry McMurtry, Cray Horse (New York: Viking, 1999), p. 44.
69 Larson, Red Cloud, pp. 58-60.
70 Utley, The Lance and the Shield, pp. 3-25. Of course, Lakota warfare was not all gore. They never tortured captives, and they were not without mercy. Even a matchless fighter like Sitting Bull was noted for his merciful qualities. He once not only kept fellow warriors from killing a boy captured from an enemy tribe but even adopted the youngster and made him part of his own family. He was instrumental in forcing a member of his band to release a captured white woman. When Sitting Bull's own father was killed by Crow Indians, Sitting Bull kept his people from slaughtering captive Crow women and children in revenge.
71 Ibid., pp. 108-9.
72 Royal B. Hassrick, The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), p. 96.
73 Ibid., p. 97.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 Ibid., p. 33.
CHAPTER 11. ON TRIAL
1 New York World, April 26,1891.
2 Edgerton had served as a member of the committee that had written South Dakota's constitution and at the time of the trial was head oi the local board of education. Like Shiras, he was a Civil War veteran. During the war, he rose from the rank of private to brigadier general.
3 New York World, April 26, 1891.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Sterling cited a witness as having said that Casey was on a peace mission, but Sterling did not say who that witness was.
8 New York World, April 26,1891.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Presumably Powers is referring to the 1868 treaty. The 1869 figure appears in the newspaper account from which the quote is taken, but may have been an error on Powers's part, or the reporter's, or the typesetter's. In his response, Ballance refers to the 1868 treaty. King Philip was a chief of the Wampanoag and the son of Massasoit, the chief who had helped the Plymouth, Massachusetts, Pilgrims in their first years. King Philip's Indian name was Metacomet. He was called King Philip by English settlers who wanted to befriend him. In the 1670s he led a war against the New England Puritans that ended in his death.
17 New York World, April 28, 1891.
18 He is referring to the treaty of 1877 that ended the wars with the Lakota.
19 New York World, April 28, 1891.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 New York World, April 25, 1891, and Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 28, 1891.
25 New York World, April 30, 1891.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 29, 1891.
29 The statement to which Sterling refers is unclear, since Plenty Horses never took the stand. Sterling may be drawing on one of Plenty Horses' newspaper interviews or on his grand jury testimony.
30 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 29, 1891.
31 New York World, April 30, 1891.
32 Ibid.
33 National Archives, microfilm P2187, roll 46, item number illegible but may be 21358.
34 Record group 107, entry 80, general correspondence 1891: 1641-2841, box 11.
35 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 1, 1891.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 New York World, May 1, 1891.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 30, 1891.
42 Ibid.
43 New York World, May 1, 1891.
44 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, April 30, 1891.
45 New York World, May 1, 1891.
CHAPTER 12. JUSTICE DEFERRED
1 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 16, 1891.
2 New York World, April 29, 1891.
3 New York World, May 27, 1891.
4 New York World, May 26, 1891.
5 See James R. Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), pp. 108,186, 235, and others, as well as Royal B. Hassrick, The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), pp. 20 and 255. No one can say whether Plenty Horses wore these colors with any of this in mind, but surely he knew their symbolism.
6 New York World, May 25, 1891.
7 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 25, 1891.
8 The following trial coverage is from the New York World, May 26, 1891.
9 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 25, 1891.
10 New York World, May 27, 1891, and Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 26, 1891.
11 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 26, 1891.
12 Ibid, and New York World, May 27, 1891.
13 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 26, 1891.
14 Ibid.
15 New York World, May 27, 1891.
16 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 27, 1891.
17 New York World, May 28, 1891.
18 Ibid, and Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 27, 1891.
19 Quoted in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 29, 1891.
20 New York World, May 29, 1891, and Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 28, 1891.
21 New York World, May 29, 1891.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 28,1891. The contrast between this description and that of the New York World suggests that the New York reporter may have been coloring the news or even creating scenes that he thought would appeal to his readers. Pulitzer's newspaper was no stranger to sensationalism, an element that no doubt drew it to the Plenty Horses case in the first place.
25 New York World, May 29, 1891.
26 New York World, May 29, 1891.
27 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 28, 1891.
28 Sturgis Weekly Record, June 19, 1891.
29 Ibid.
30 Bismarck Daily Tribune, June 28, 1891.
31 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, July 2, 1891.
32 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, June 23, 1891.
33 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, July 3, 1891.
34 Sturgis Weekly Record, July 3, 1891.
35 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 29, 1891.
36 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 28, 1891.
37 Ibid.
EPILOGUE
1 Sources for the spirit ride were local newspaper stories and an April 2003 interview with Bir-gil Kills Straight.
2 For statistics on Pine Ridge, see www.unpo.org, the Web site of the Unrepresented Nations and People Organisation. See also www.wambliho.com, a Pine Ridge Web site.
3 Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, May 29, 1891.
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