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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1899)
Cbe Conservative * 11 > * kots wore thus embellished and so made to puss current as real certificates of a choice brand of character for their wearers. Each horse depicted on the robe was notice that the owner and wearer had stolen such horse. Finally , after expressions of friendship and good will the expedition in charge of "The Fox" bade us adieu and briskly walked southward on ( heir mission for getting horses away from their traditional ene mies. AUTUMNAL CO1.OKS. It is perhaps worth while to mention that , it being in the autumn of the year , all these Indians were carefully and deftly arrayed in autumn-colored cos tumes. Their blankets , head-gear and everything else were the color of dead and dried prairie grass. This disguise was for the purpose of making them selves as nearly indistinguishable as pos sible on the brown surface of the far- stretching plains. For then the weeds and grasses had all been bleached by the fall frosts. We were given an exhibi tion of the nearly perfect invisibleness of "The Fox" by his taking a pos ition near a badger hole around which a lot of tall weeds had grown upon the prairie , and really the almost exact sim ilitude of coloring which he had cun ningly reproduced in his raiment made him even at a short distance indistin guishable among the faded weeds and grasses by which he was surrounded. HOMEWAHl ) 15OUNI ) . In duo time we reached Fort Kearney and after a pleasant and most agreeable visit with Mr. Heth and his family , Colonel Alexander and Lieutenant Bush , I pushed alone for the Missouri river , by the North Platte route , bring ing homo with me two or three turkeys and a quarter of buffalo meat. About the second evening , as I re member it , I arrived at the agency of the four bauds of the Pawnees on the Loup fork of the Platte river , near where the village of Genoa in Nance county now stands. Judge Gillis of Pennsylvania was the U. S. government agent then in charge of that tribe , and Mr. Allis was his interpreter. There I experienced the satisfaction of going leisurely and observingly through the villages of the four bands of Pawnees which there made their habitation. The names of the four confederate bands of Pawnee Indians wore Grand Pawnees , Pawnee Loups , Pawnee Republicans and Pawnee Pappahs. At that time they all together numbered between foui thousand and live thousand. A I'AWNEE UAVE. Distinguished among them for fear lessness and impetuous courage am constant success in war was an. Indian , who had been born with his left hanc so shrunken and shriveled that it looked like the contracted claw of a bird. Ho was celebrated among all the tribes of the plains as "Crooked Hand , the Fighter. " Hearing mo express a 'or making the acquaintance of this amous warrior and scalp accumulator ludgo Gillis and Mr. Allis kindly volun- eered to escort me to his domicile and brmally introduce me. Wo took the rail which lay across Beaver Creek up nto the village. This village was com- losed of very large , earthen , mound-like vigwams. From a distance they looked ike a number of great kettles turned vrong side up on the prairie. Finally ve came to the entrance of the abode of Crooked Hand. He was at home. I vas presented to him by the interpreter , Sir. Allis. Through him , addressing ho tawny hero who stood before mo , I said : "It has come to my ears that you are ind always have been a very bravo man n battle. Therefore I have made a long ourney to see you and to shako the land of a great warrior. " This seemed to suit his bellicose eminence and to appeal to his barbaric vanity. Consequently I continued , say- ng : "I hear that you have skillfully filled a great many Sioux and that you lave kept the scalp of each warrior slain by you. If this bo true , I wish you would show me these trophies of your ourago and victories ? " Immediately Crooked Hand reached under a sort of rude settee and pulled out i very cheap traveling trunk , which was .ocked. Then taking a string from around lis neck ho found the key thereunto ittached , inserted it in the lock , turned it , and with gloating satisfaction threw back the lid of the trunk. It is fair testate state , that notwithstanding Mr. Crooked Eland's personal adornments in the way of paint , ear-rings and battle mementoes , he was evidently not a man of much personal property , for the trunk con tained not one other portable thing ex cept a string of thirteen scalps. This ho Lifted out with his right hand and held up before me as a connoisseur would exhibit a beautiful cameo with intense satisfaction and self-praise expressed in his features. SAVAGE TROPHIES. The scalps were not large , averaging not much more in circumference than a silver dollar ( before the crime of 1873) ) . Each scalp was big enough to firmly and gracefully retain the scalplook which it original possessor had nourished. Each scalp was neatly lined with flam ing red flannel and encircled by am : stitched to a willow twig just as boys so stretch and preserve squirrel skins Then there was a strong twine whicl ran through the center of each of the thirteen scalps leaving a space of some' thing like three or four inches betweei each two. After looking at these ghastly certifi cates of prowess in Indian warfare said to their possessor : "Do you stil like to go into fights with the Sioux V Ho replied hesitatingly : "Yes , I go into the fights with the Sioux but I stay only until I can kill one nan , get his scalp and get out of the battle. " Then I asked : "Why do you do this vay now , and so act differently from ho lighting plans of your earlier years vhon you remained to the end of the onfliet. " Instantly ho replied and ; ave me this aboriginal explanation : THE nOCTUINE OF CHANCE. "You see , my friend , /have only one ifo. To me death must come only ce. But I have taken thirteen lives. Vnd now when I go into battle there ire thirteen chances of my being killed o one of my coming out of the fight ilive. " This aboriginal application of the loctrinc of chance is equally as'reason able as some of the propositions relating chances found in " ' " o "Hedges' Logic , which I studied in the regular college onrse. There is more excuse for a savage faith in chance than can be made 'or the superstitious belief in it which is lold by some oivili/ed people. AN EAKUIMl EXPEDITION. My last buffalo hunt was finished and ts trophies and its choicest memories safely stored for exhibition or romi- liscenco at Arbor Lodge. More than thirty-seven years afterwards I am permitted this evening by your in- lulgenco and consideration to at tempt faintly to portray the country and its primitive condition at that time .u that particular section of Nebraska which is now Franklin county. But in concluding this discursive and lesultory narrative I cannot refrain from referring to and briefly descanting on mother and an earlier and a larger ex pedition into the valley of the Republi- iaii which set out from Mexico in the year 1540 under the comm n of Cor- ( onado. COKONAUO. That explorer was undoubtedly the first white man to visit Nebraska. In his report to the Spanish government is a description of buffalo which for graphic minuteness and correctness has never been excelled. Thus it pictures them as they appeared to him and his followers more than three hundred and fifty years ago : "These oxen are of the bigness and color of our bulls , but their horns are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their foreshoulders , and more hair upon their fore-part than on their hinder-part ; and it is like wool. They have , as it were , a horse mane upon their back bone , and much hair , and very long from the knees down ward. They have great tufts of hair hanging down their foreheads , and it seemeth they have beards , because of the great store of hair hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have very long tails , and a great knob or flock at the end , so that in some respects they resemble the lion , and hi some other the camel. They push with their horns , they run , they overtake and kill a horse * *