University of Virginia Library

MEDICINE BLUFF, WITCHITA MOUNTAINS, April 4, via KANSAS CITY, April 20.

THE Indian chiefs Roman Nose, Little Big-Mouth, Yellow Bear, and Old Storm, with six hundred of their people, the Arapahoes, came in yesterday and reported themselves as ready to go on their new reservation, north of the Cameron River. At the suggestion of General Hazen, I had a talk with their principal chief, Little Robe. I told him what the President had said in his message, that he would favor all efforts to civilize, Christianize, and admit to the rights of citizenship the Indians, and asked him if he thought that his people would care to learn to read and write, plough the field, plant corn, and live in cabins. He said that his people wished to follow the face of the white man, and learn his ways; that they would welcome teachers on their new reservation, and treat them as good brothers. General Grierson, in command here, built new bridges over the streams, located his new post, and is nipping in the bud all licentiousness in the camp.

"What a strange spectacle greets the

eye—a level plain, dotted with 'huge hay-stacks!'" exclaimed friend R—; "but how symmetrical and beautiful; thirty to forty feet high, and as regularly built as though they were laid out by rules of geometry!"

As we near them we soon discover that our hay-stacks are the houses of the Witchitas, built of straw, thatched layer upon layer, with stout bindings of willow-saplings, tied together with buffalo-hide or stripped hickory. Out of the top the smoke issues, and around an oval opening or door at the side, a crowd of naked men and women hover in questioning solicitude at our coming.

On one side of the door a porch is erected, running along some twenty feet or more, with coverings of small branches for shade, and a raised floor of hickory poles, two feet from the ground, for a summer afternoon's siesta.

The men are good-natured, and the women cheerful, though more naked than any we have seen. They invite you with much politeness to walk in; and, accepting their hospitality, you find yourself in a commodious, clean, and comfortable dwelling.

In the centre is the fire, small and economical as the Indian always makes it. Around the sides the beds are fitted up on bunks raised three feet from the floor, built of split-boards, tied together with cords made from buffalo-hide. The floor is hard-packed earth, clean as it can be. The builders have wisely and unconsciously made the best of their circumstances. The grass, willow-saplings, buffalo-hide, &c., are all found close at hand; and out of these, which would have been to us impracticable materials for house-building, the Witchitas have constructed most convenient habitations.

Watermelon patches with neat fences are near at hand. The fields show marks of earnest cultivation, and the people, though evidently very, very poor, are yet glad-hearted and hopeful.

Driving back home at a rapid pace, our teams started from the willow brakes great flocks of plover. The General let fly his shot, and we had eight as fat and delicious birds for supper as any one click of the trigger usually brings.

As the twilight deepened, we left the straw-houses, cool verandas, naked men and women, gardens, and plover of the poor Witchitas, and it was quite dark when we returned to the Agency building. An Indian lament over the death of a warrior arrested our attention, and mingling with the plaintive cry of the "Whip-poor-will," in the ghostly branches of the cotton-wood near by, lent a melancholy tone to the close of the day.

The Indian women were in a smoke-blackened tepe across the Washita. The flickering light of their nearly extinct fire revealed their shadowy forms kneeling prostrate on the earth, cutting themselves with knives, and pulling their hair. They sobbed and cried with a grief piteous to hear.

Turning from this painful picture, we went into the Ranch. It was in this Ranch that General Hazen informed me he held his final talk with Black Kettle, the chief of the Cheyennes, when he came to sue for peace, and search for his Reservation. As the General had kept notes of the interview, and the name of this chief already occupies a place in our Indian history quite as notable as that of Black Hawk, or Red Jacket, I requested copies of them from him, and with some other papers, necessary to a clear understanding of the facts, submit them.