Important Council with
the Indian Chiefs.
THE INDIAN COMMISSION.
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Important Council with the Indian Chiefs.
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The Withdrawal of the Troops and the Abandonment of the Pacific Railroad Demanded.
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SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD.
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North Platte, Neb., VIA Omaha, Sept. 19, 1867.}
5 o'clock P.M.}
The Commission held a council with Spotted Tail, Turkey Leg and other chiefs to-day. The Indian ultimatum is the withdrawal of the troops from the Powder river country and the abandonment of the Smoky Hill Pacific Railroad. They also demand guns, ammunition and presents. The Commission will reply to-morrow. War seems inevitable now.
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THE PRESS TELEGRAM
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"Spotted Tail" and Other Chiefs in Communication with the Commissioners--The Usual Report of Robbing and Scalping--Cholera at Omaha.
St. Louis, Sept. 19, 1867.
A telegram from North Platte on the 17th inst. says that the Indian Commissioners have arrived. Two hundred Indians are there, with Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Swift Bear, Pawnee Killer and Turkey Foot and other chiefs. A consultation was to be held yesterday afternoon. The rescued captives, three white women and three children, were delivered up by Spotted Tail to the Commissioners.
Letters from Fort Dodge say that the Indians are very numerous in that vicinity. The scouts say that the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Comanches and Kiowas have consolidated, and that there are two thousand of them on the war path.
On the 10th inst., thirty miles from Fort Dodge, a train of forty wagons, laden with Spencer rifle ammunition and quartermaster's stores, en route for Fort Dodge, was attacked by Indians and five wagons captured. On the day following another train was attacked, twenty-five miles above Fort Dodge and four men were killed and twelve mules captured. Near Fort Lyon, about the same time, a train bound to New Mexico was attacked by the savages and sixty mules carried off. The stave company's station at Cameron's Crossing was robbed of ten mules on the same night.
The Montana Volunteers, under Colonel Howell, had a fight with Indians on Boulder river on the 30th of August. The troops afterwards found the outfitting tools and a coat belonging to Captains Weston and Hodge, who were reported killed on the 2d August. The coat had several bullet and arrow holes through it. Three men were picked up, all severely wounded, who report that they fought the Indians all the way from Fort Smith, and confirm previous reports about the fights at that post. One lieutenant and three men were killed, and three wounded. All the hay in that vicinity is burned. Colonel Howell has been reinforced with eighty men and a piece of artillery. Captain Nelson is pushing for the Yellowstone against the Upper Sioux and Blackfeet.
It is stated that the Crows, though professing peace, were undoubtedly engaged in many depredations throughout that country.
The Republican's correspondent with the Indian Commissioners, writing from Omaha, says that an officer who has just arrived, after traversing the country from Big Horn river, estimates the number of hostile Indians of the North, at twenty-two hundred, most of whom are under the sway of Red Cloud, the Chief of the Upper Brule Sioux. Several hostile tribes are now concentrated about Rose Brule, on the northern slope of the Rocky Mountains, between forts Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith.
Red Cloud is reported by Iron Ball to have said, "We do not want peace, because when we are at peace we are poor; now we are rich."
Large numbers of Indians congregated at Fort Rice to meet the Peace Commissioners on their way up the Missouri river, and were greatly disappointed when they learned the Commission was obliged to turn back.
A letter from Fort Larned gives an account of the council between Colonels Murphy, Butterfield and Wynkoop, and Satanti, the head chief of the Kiowas, on the 10th inst. Satanti professed the greatest friendship for the whites and promised to send runners to the different Southern tribes, and call them to a council with the Peace Commissioners in October. Medicine Lodge creek was the point determined upon as the place for the grand council to be held with the Peace Commissioners.
Two fatal cases of cholera occurred at Omaha yesterday, J. B. Sutton, a promising citizen, was one of the victims.
Source:
Unknown, "The Indian Commission," New York Herald, Friday, 20 September 1867, Page 4, Col. 6.
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