"On the head of Loup Fork, and between that stream and the Niobrara at various localities, are numerous saline and fresh-water lakes. The fresh-water lakes contain a great profusion of various species of water-plants and their peculiar animal life, while those that are impregnated with saline matter present the appearance of desolation, no vegetation growing in their vicinity except a few weeds adapted to a saline soil. In former years these Sand Hills were a famous resort for the buffalo, and even at this time a few may be found, but they have been for the most part driven away by the Indians to other and less frequented parts.

"Among the many objects which come under the observation of travelers in the Dakota country, none are of more interest than the numerous villages of the prairie dog, scattered all over the dry and gravelly plains. Sometimes they are situated upon the high terraces along the rivers, but generally they are upon the high, arid plains, many miles from water. A good deal of a fabulous character has been written in regard to the habits and habitations of this little animal. Some have even observed a councilhouse in the center of the village, which is supposed to be laid out in regular streets, reserving a public square for meetings and discussions for the general good of the community. Others have imagined a particular large, sleek dog to be the chief, and contend that they have seen him receive visits and apparently give directions to many of the citizens, who, after receiving the same, departed to give others an opportunity to state their requests.

"With a zeal for knowledge, and a perseverance in labor, truly creditable in many respects, attempts have been made to dig to the bottom of their subterranean abodes, as well as to drown them out, but most of these experiments have resulted in failure. It does not occur to the laborious hunters that the dog can dig as well as they, and that if their holes are so constructed as not to be affected by the heavy rains that fall on the level places, where their villages are always situated, they would not be likely to be disturbed by a few pails of water.

ET

"The truth is, the animal does not dig deep, seldom more than four or five feet, but penetrates the earth in a horizontal direction. It lays up no stock of provisions for the winter, but lives on the roots of grass, which it reaches by digging up toward the surface when the ground is covered with snow. This explains their extensive burrowing in different directions, seeking support, and crossing each other's routes in many places, leading persons to suppose their different chambers are thus connected for convenience, to associate and talk over their national and domestic affairs during the long winter evenings. The uncertainty of success in digging them out is thus seen, and a man might continue his excavations for miles without securing the inhabitant.

"The dog must have food, and having but little hair upon his body cannot endure the cold on the surface, therefore he finds his food below it in winter, and in his subterranean travels comes across others of his village friends engaged in the same pursuit. In this manner they destroy in the course of time all the vegetation in their immediate vicinity, and are obliged to remove to some other locality, and abandon their holes to the owls and rattlesnakes."

CHAPTER IV.

THE SIOUX AND UNITED STATES FROM 1825 TO 1874.

In 1825 our Government made a treaty with the Teton, Yankton and Yanktonias-Sioux, promising them protection and such benefits and acts of kindness as may be convenient and the President may think just and proper.

The discovery of gold in California led to a vast emigration over the plains, which by driving off and destroying the game, was injurious to the Indians, and in September, 1851, commissioners of the government called together the Sioux, or Dakotas, Cheyennes, and most of

the other tribes southwest of the Missouri and east of the Rocky Mountains, and at Fort Laramie made a treaty with them. The Indians ceded none of their hunting grounds at this time, but granted the right to establish roads and military posts within their limits, and promised to abstain from hostilities. The U. S. commissioners promised the Indians protection from the commission of all depredations by the people of the United States, and $50,000 a year for fifty years.

When the treaty came before the Senate this body struck out fifty and inserted ten years. This amendment was never submitted to the Indians. Not long after gold was found in the mountains of Colorado, and our people rushed in and seized on the best part of it, in violation of the treaty.

In February, 1861, the Indians at Fort Wise, Kansas, were asked for and ceded enough of their possession to make two great States in the Union, retaining only a small district for themselves. The Sioux were not party to this treaty but the Cheyenne were. They continued peaceable until April, 1864, when, on a false report, they were attacked in their camp at daylight, many of them killed, and their property destroyed, and in November following, a camp of about 500 men, women and children, who had been persuaded to camp near Fort Lyon, under promise of protection, were surrounded by the cavalry under Colonel Chivington. All he caught were horribly massacred. A war ensued which cost the U. S. Government thirty millions of dollars, and brought conflagration and death on the border settlements.

The utter futility of conquering a peace having been demonstrated, peaceful agencies were resorted to, General Harney, Sanborn and others were appointed for the purpose, and in October, 1865, succeeded in getting the Indians to sign a treaty, when the war instantly ceased.

Previous to the signing of this treaty gold had been discovered in Montana, and emigrants and explorers were pressing through every part of the Dakotas west of the

Missouri, killing and scaring the game. So when the Indians were assembled to make a new treaty or to renew the old one, they remonstrated against this, insisting that the right to make roads, etc., formerly granted, had reference only to the country south of the Platte, and many of the chiefs in signing the treaty protested, saying, "the emigrants must either go south of the Platte, or north of the Missouri, for it would be ruinous to them, if it passed where they were accustomed to camp in winter, namely, near the Black Hills, or the country drained by the Powder river and Big Horn; and a part of their people who occupied that country would not suffer emigrants to pass through it." They nevertheless abstained from hostilities during the following winter, though suffering severely, as they believed, in consequence of the white man's incroaching upon them.

The commissioners who made the treaty in 1865, in their report say: "Before these routes between the Platte and Yellowstone are established, and occupied by our people, justice to the Indians and safety to the whites, in our judg ment, require some arrangement in the form of compensation to those tribes that now depend on the game of that country for clothing and subsistence." (See Report of Secretary of Indian Affairs, 1866, page 172.)

No such arrangement was made. In March, 1866, Gen. Pope, commanding the Department of the Missouri, issued an order to establish military posts near the base of the Big Horn Mountains, and on or near the Yellowstone on the new route to Montana. In June, Col. Carrington, in command of the 18th Infantry, was ordered to garrison Forts Reno, Phil Kearney, and C. F. Smith, in the country which the Dakotas refused to yield. They protested in vain.

In the meantime the Civil War was finished, and thousands of emigrants rushed through the country. In July the U. S. troops having proceeded to occupy the country, war commenced, which culminated on the 21st of December in the destruction of Lieut.-Col. Fetterman and his soldiers.

The Sioux having thus shown their ability, as well as will, to hold the country, in July following, Congress determined to endeavor to obtain by peaceful means what the army was unable to gain by war, and passed an act to appoint what has been called the Peace Commissioners, which act was approved July 20th, 1867. Men of the highest standing in our nation were appointed on this commission, namely: the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Chairman of Senate Committee of Indian Affairs, Gen. Sherman, Gen. Kearney, etc.

This commission succeeded in making treaties with some bands of the Sioux, but could not induce those organized in active hostilities to come to the council, namely the Sioux and Cheyenue of the North. Red Cloud, then regarded as the principal chief, sent them word that his war against the whites was to save the Powder river valley and the Black Hills, the only hunting grounds left them from intrusion. That whenever the military garrisons at Fort Phil. Kearney and Fort C. F. Smith were withdrawn, the war on his part would cease, and he would then meet them in council.

The commissioners in their report show that garrisons were sustained there at great expense, and utterly failed to accomplish the object for which they were established and recommended that the demands of the Indians be complied with. The next year, in accordance with these recommendations, a treaty was made and signed by Red Cloud, and the garrisons withdrawn, and the war ceased.

The commissioner of Indian affairs in his report for 1875, page 5, speaking of this treaty, says: "The treaty of 1868 also stipulated that the country north of the Platte river, in Nebraska, and east of the summit of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, should be held and considered unceded Indian territory, and no white person or persons should be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the same, nor without the consent of the Indians first had or obtained, should pass through the same.

"The Sioux have constantly affirmed that this provision

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