The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1898, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1898. 23 “DEAD” LOGS AND RUM CAUSED THE INDIAN UPRISING. seer Customs They Have in Their *Ghost” Dances and Preparing -for the Warpath. I 7 HILE f the A the immediate cause revolt of the C lians is an effort st some of the brave illicit traffic in whisky, a more serious trouble back of of the Chippewas are imbered, and under the reser- to a | § lands ite lumbermen, of the Indian gents. Most of contract, the ance, as he cuts it, > of the purchase the resident agent, to be held a certai price to in trust for the Indians. This course is taken to secure honest dealing, and | to make ure that ncle Sam’'s red wards receive their t dues. For some years there has been dispute as what is known as “dead- timber com: within the the act, and it was over of this class of trees that which led to the Chippewa * timbet is a ring logs or tr forests unclaimed. s of Minnesota are full of th ees that have be v lightning de which are The > got out at far | e has been P a de ids an helped to the fallen logs, ignc of the Indians to they had the help It was a y_ to but it cut off a ncome from the feeling between fied. The an’s purse, lucrative i the bad n to him, the loss of money. bids, under le to v the aver- = taste of fire water, ssions for mor anything and whisky Indians on Bear 1 it got there nobody se but it is suspected that sorr is could tell an Indian ge trouble, r Island had Then an order ageney to arrest the | and those who were | g them. If whi to make the a e at they might vithout 1y, clasn d that th halfbreec as Deputy United These men, so the ere the chief offende; down” timber di after the commissi led in getting a b from the sale ct Bear r appearance at ect similar to that ¢ torch into a powd nd branch of the Chip- s they are cal'ed, in the ways tors; wear blank- s, sleep in tepe nting, fist bigoshish, Lake, Portage, White F Chippewa, r Creek, De: Farth, and Fond du Lac. The Pillagers belona to the Leech Lake reservation and have great among unru ts ner agen speclally t White Earth, who come tk hose to t Xt he Bear Islanders in love of war and hatred of the white man. All of tk > Indians are of the Chippewa a branch of the famo: Algon- n nation. For years they were loras n the timber regions of king relentless war on Cheyennes and other red- s and driving them to the prairies West. Much of this martial still remains with the Bear I and White Earth Chippewa. e other bands in Minnesota have e civilized and settled down as t f the soil, wearing ‘‘store cl " living in frame houses and ing their children to school the rs and White Earth Indians ingible evidences of ab- ence. To them the white a weak stripling, to be , just as thelr ancestors, Algonquins, treated the plo. ead of the Bear Islanders Is Chief Bog- ig, corrupted into “Bush sky redskin about 40 and chockful of real In- years of a dian deviltry. Bear Island lies in Leech Lake, about thirty miles north of this town, and is difficult of access. ‘When the deputy ma with warrants for the arrest of Bush Tar and nine of his followers, the chief nly defied them. There was (hen ong prospects of a row, but the dep- marshals wisely retreated. and in- ed some of the friendly Leech Lake ans to go and argue the matter their obstinate brethren. As a re- cult of a grand pow-wow, carried on a campfire in regular dime e, all of the suspects surrend- »t Chief Bush Ear. The pris- e taken to Duluth, tried in the al Court, and sentenced to thirty xty days in jail. In the meantime Ear went on the warpath all by He loaded his rifle, breathed e to white men and halfbreeds, ited the turbulent ones in the join him in a foray. Two weeks the time for the periodical al- of money among the Chippe- sh Ear was on hand with ndians at the agency to re- Marshal O’Connor was coming and had Depu- re with a warrant to ar- h Ear was taken into cus- 1s went there 1 charge of f{llicit traffic in : llowed to have a par- followers before he was put marshal did not think re- d be offered on the agency that night Bush Ear was d by his tribesmen went to Bear Island. xt day there was a big 0ld scalps which have © for generations were d squawmen who | | and before she could be dragged away had beaten her into insensibility. There was no recourse to the courts for big- amy, so the Indian woman took her revenge and all St. Paul smiled and the Indian woman was never punished. She was a faithful nurse, however, and we children loved her well and loved her stories, tco. She told us the story of Hiawatha, though she had never read Longfellow, for Hiawatha was of the tribe of Indians who are fighting now. Old Betz was another squaw known to every old settler, and sitting before the fire on long winter nights roasting apples on a shovel at the open fire while the snow was beating against the windows, I have heard my father tell why she is always welcome when she comes to the back door and says she has come to stay a few days. It all happened during the Civil War, when most of the men had already joined Colonel George to make up the | Second Minnesota at Fort Snelling, so that few but women and children were left at home. It was the old story of Indian agents, who kept the rations sent out for the Indians by the Govern ment and sold nine-tenths of it to the traders, who bargained it back to the Indians in exchange for the furs they should have paid for in cash. The Government promised when it JSLANDER AND HIS HOME lies wanted to take him away and shoot | him so they might rob the Bear Island- | ers at their will, and the performance | was wound up with a war dance, When | an Indlan once goes through the evo- lutions of the war dance he must fight, | and that's all there is to it. He may know that he hasn't a ghost of a chance to win, but he is going to fight even if certain death or defeat stares him in the face. It was so with Bush Ear and | his Pillagers. They had danced the war | dance, and in the excitement the whole | 300 of them abandoned themselves to this pledge. Word came to the agency that the Bear Islanders were arming and get- ting ready for a war, and were also sending out runners to the other reser- vations to induce warriors to join their | ranks. It was at this juncture that | Marshal O’Connor decided that ener- | getic steps to put down the revolt mus be taken. Last Thursday he got Deputy | | Marshal Sheehan and a posse and | started for Bear Island under guard of | 2 detachment of twenty United States | soldiers commanded by Lieutenant | Humphrey. The party stopped at | Walker in order that the Indians might | be given another chance to come into ency and submit quietly to Fed- eral authority. Colonel Tinker, inspector of Indian agencies, was at Walker and relieved Agent Sutherland of immedlate charge of the negotiations. Word was at once sent out, calling the Indians of the Leech Lake reservation to a council on Monday noon. Only the agency and Pine Point Indians attended. those of Bear Island, Otter Tail Point and Cass Lake remaining away, and sending an answer of deflance. An adjournment was taken until Tuesday, when word was recelved from Bush Ear that he would not surrender and that his peo- ple were determined to fight to the end. “You may kill us all,” he said, “but it will be in battle.”” After this Inspector Tinker and Marshal O’Connor went alone to a point on the short of Leech Lake near Bear Island, where they had a talk with the unruly Indians which satisfied them that they could be sub- dued only by a shadow of overpowering force. Bush Ear was present at the conference and reiterated his intention to fight, declaring that he and his peo- ple might as well die in battle as to be robbed continually, year after year, by timber thieves. It was then that Tin- ker and O'Connor, after returning to Walker, wired for more troops and made the sortie in which, as told in the telegraphic advices, six soldiers were Killed and eight wounded. It may seem strange to the residents of a great city llke Chicago that they ghould have a real Indian war right under their very windows, but it is a fact nevertheless, and while Uncle Sam is certain to win in short order, his | troops will know they have been In a | fight. The Indian district of Minnesota is only a few hundred miles from Chi- cago, but it is a bad country for white men to operate in, and just the kind of place that timber Indians like the Chip- pewas are at home in. If the war should continue for a week it is proba- ble the White Earth, Otter Tail Point, Cass Lake and Red Lake Indians would join with the hostiles, as they are all discontented and ready to make trou- Dble if there is any show of success. Be- tween them they could muster probably 1200 fighting men. The chances are, however, that one good fight will take the conceit out of Bush Ear and his men, provided the troops are not de- feated. If the soldiers put up a strong front and shoot down a few of the tur- bulent warriors, there will be a howl for peace that .old Bush Ear cannot ’L""‘d“fi dangled, Bush Ear told tes and their halfbreed al-}] ithstand. He has made his followers :elieve they are invincible, but a few well directed bullets would destroy his prestige as chief and prophet. T The squaw winter is just passed in Minnesota now and the Indian summer is blazing in the crimson maples and sighing in the golden cotton.voods as their fluttering leaves drop into the wn grass. All night long the young varriors dance around their campfir swinging and tossing their weapons They have been enchanted by the medi- cine men and anointed. The Indian fighters know that it means serious work when the Indians dance their war dance, for their dances are not “to the | lacivious pleasing of the lute,” but are old religious rites born in the Indlan with his bones and blood. The oldest women of the village sit and beat a monotonous sing-song on the tom-toms : nd chant #n accompani- ment of “Ki-yi-yi- which rises and falls at regular interval. The braves, painted and nearly naked, dance an they sing their sacred war song. We have seen how the ‘‘Star-Spangled Banner” can inspire our troops as they go into battle; to the Indian, all his ancestors are calling him; he forgets his civilization and is a free wiid sav- age again as he sings the songs which the Indians never forget. No one does not know the Indian knows how he is moved by these songs, for he knows he is an exile in his own land. He remembers all his wrongs and swears to be revenged. With his knees bent akimbo one brave begins and the others join in: What is this I employ to enchant? Serpents are my friends. And in the pause which follows every brave in the circle prays to his friend, the serpent, to give his aid. They call upon the owl, who can see in the dark; upon the wolf, who never sleeps; upon the flame, which sweeps everything before it on the prairie. The dance goes on and a brave is filled with the inspiration of war and then another and another and they leave off their prayers for aid because they believe the aid has veen granted and with the blood-curdling shouts which old settlers in Minnesota remem- ber they dance in wider circles, stamp- ing out their campfire preparatory to beginning the fight, and chant in their own language: I wish for the speed of a bird, to pounce on the enemy. I look to the morning star to gulde my steps, I devote my body to battle; I take courage from the flight of eagles. I HJnlwll]an to be numbered with the 5] n, For even then my name shall be repeated with praise, and elbows the dance As a child I went to sleep at night with the stories of my old Chippewa Indian nurse. She was a full-blooded squaw who had married a French Ca- nadian who came on snowshoes across the country from Canada. He had be- come very rich selling the furs which his relations with the Indians through his wife made easy of access to him. He had brought back Igter a white woman who was his wife. The Indian woman said little. It was the usual story. She had no redress and knew it. One day the white wife, with her lit- tle boy, was sitting in her carriage ‘waiting before a store on Third street. An Indian woman she had never seen before was sitting on the sidewalk dis- gllylng her stock of moccasins and eaded pincushions and watchcases, which she had made to sell. The squaw on the sidewalk watched the white woman in the carriage, and when the man who had taken her order went back Into the store the squaw threw herself upon the white woman, took away the Indians’ hunting and fishing grounds, to give them annual supplies if the Indians would stay on the reservations, but the Great Father, as they called the President, broke rebelled and began to burn the homes of the settlers and kill them. People came in from New Ulm and from Mankato to St. Paul. They were | afraid of the Indians, and well they | might be. Outside of Shakopee, a lit- tle town between Mankato and St. Paul, lived Mrs. Alice Wilson. Her husband had gone to the war, and she was_left alone on her farm with five | children, the eldest 13 years of age. She made butter and sold it in the city. One night the cows, after they had been milked, refused to leave the calves and go into a separate shed, but ran about lowing and trying to entice away the calves. “Let them stay together,” Mrs. Wil- son said. No one said “Indlans,” but every one of the children thought it. They were alone and five miles from the nearest neighbor. A great fire was | built and after supper the little ones were not undressed and put to bed as usual, but- huddled at their mother’'s feet on the skins before the fire as she sat and rocked the youngest. One lit- tle head after another drooped and when all the watchful little eyes were closed Mrs. Wilson laid the baby down with the others. Then she looked at the hammer and lock of her gun and cleaned it care- fully. Next she melted her spoons and molded them into bullets, quickly dropping them into a pan of snow. Next she took up a loose board in the floor and took out four powder horns and strung them over her shoulder. It was very late and she knew that with the first dawn if the Indians were near she would have to fight while they danced around her burning outhouses. She sat down before the fire again to get a little sleep to keep her strength up when she heard a tapping at the closed shutters; there were no windows in the log house. She was afraid to open them, but called, “Who is 1t?” “Sh-sh—open him.” She knew it was a squaw, but fearing she came with the braves Mrs. Wilson, with her gun, opened the door and looked out. No one was in sight and when the light from her fire cast a re- flection on the darkness a figure crept stealthily around the corner of the house. “Sh-sh. I Betz—ole Betz.”" And it was “Old Betz." She told Mrs. Wilson that the Indians were mur- dering the settlers and burning the houses, but that she would have time to escape as they ‘were coming from the north and all in one band. Bundling up the children wakened from their sleep Old Betz carried one on her back and Mrs. Wilsen carried the baby while the rest walked the five miles to the next neighbors. And so Old Betz went from one house to another warning the settlers to fly and telling them which way to go. Old Betz dled when I was a little girl, but I remember her funeral well and how the men and women she saved that night when hundreds of settlers were massacred vied with one another to show their respect. Then General Sibley, Colonel Sibley then, raised an army of old men and young boys and drove the Indlans back to their reservation and brought back prisoners, and thirty-nine were hanged at_one time in Mankato. Bishop Whipple was among the In- dians then and tried to reason with them, but it was not easy for him to Continued on Page Thirty-two. ' A\ cAMP ON léf;cfi LAKE=. every promise, and at last the Indians | THOUSANDS PERISHED FOR THIS $4.000.000 DIAMOND. Was a Famous Tribe "Talismaa™ in Africa Till It Fell Into the Hands of Oom Paul Kruger. Who Gave It to the Pope. Pope Leo XIII has in his collection of | gems a diamond valued at $4,000,000, given | o him by President Krueger of the South | African “Republic.—Press dispatch from Rome, August 28, HE history of the valuable s(one! which . now rests within the| sacred confines of the Vatican at | Rome is written in the blood of | thousands of human beings. It | is a record of tribal warfare. cruelty. | heroism and savage witchcraft unsur- | passed In the annals of modern times. | Nations have gone to war for the pos- session of the stone, and entire tribes have been annihilated while trying to ! o ) “WHO WAS THE CA Wit Wj*ma PILL protect it. The history of the famous Kohinoor is commonplace when com- pared with that of the unnamed dia- mond that is the pride of the Pope's collection. Only one person in South Africa knows the story connected with the diamond before it fell into the hands | of “Oom Paul” Krueger, the grand old man of the Transvaal republic. Not even Krueger knows anything of the antecedents of the gift he made to the head of the Catholic church. And still more astonishing is the fact that not more than two or three of Krueger's intimate friends knew until recently that he had ever such a valuable stone in his possession. What object Krue- ger had in giving the diamond to the Pope, whose “emissaries had always been treated with scant courtesy in the Boer country, is & matter of great his- tory. " The one person who can give the his- | tory of the Pope’s diamond lived a year | ago at a place in the Orange Free State named Driekonjes. It is fifteen miles west of Kroonstad, a town on the railway which connects the gold flelds of Johannesburg with Cape Town. Driekopjes has but a few buildings, and these are occupied by Boer farmers and diamond diggers. It is in the midst of a level plain whose sunbaked earth yields great quantities of = small dia- monds to those who have the patience to dig for them. During nine months of the year the plain is-an unending stretch of brown, dead grass. over which the heat of the sun and the dust bearing wind storms are twin rulers. ‘When the rainy season comes the plains’ desolate appearance is changed green grass extending as far as the eye can read. It is in that out-of-the-way place that James Mallon, Charles F. G. Bishop and John Fitzgerald, diamond ‘“‘dry dig- gers,” graduated from the Kimberley fields, have been trying for four years to find the diamond-bearing vein that would make millionaires of all of them. The “spruits,” or creeks, yield enough small diamonds to keep the men going while = they prospect for the “big pocket” that they believe exists in the neighborhood. The 'writer met Mailon, Bishop and Fitzgerald in Johannesburg nine months" lago, and was invited by them.to. visit’ into that of a vast garden of velvety | their “diamond farm,” as they call it. “You have seen ‘Oom Paul' and the rest of our celebrities down here,” they said, “and if you come to cur farm we will show you the most interesting nig- ger in South Africa.” His name,is Memela, and although he has lived almost eighty years his mind is as active as when he was a Kehla, or head man, of a Zulu tribe, exactly sixty years ago. The life in the open has preserved his vigor and strength to a remarkable degree, and of all the negro employes on the farm none is more agile than he in operating the diamond-washing machine or the sieves of the dry sorters. MR \\\\"\\{ X MM \ ‘BOG-AH-MA-GE-SRIG S USE OF ALL THE TROUBLE Afi(iR COUNTRY. Subsequent events have proved that Memela’s story was not one of those Zulu legends that are so common in Sotuth Africa. The anncuncement. from Rome has proved that Krueger had the diamond. at one time, even though he made the evasive yet truthful reply last November. Memela: was averse to talking in the presence of strangers, but the gift of a few coins and several packages of cigarettes, of which he, like all Afri- ‘cans, is very fond, caused him to be- come more talkative. “Nkosi” (master), he replied, “it is a tale of many words.” And indeed it was a ‘‘tale of many words,” for the old man consumed eighteen hours in relat- ing it. Deprived of many of its minor yet interesting details, and with the addition of dates of which he was ig- norant, Memela’s story is given as he recited it. In the opening years of this century the King of the Zulu nation was Chaka. Local history calls him the Napoleon of South Africa. His subjects were as nu- merous as the palms in the coast land which he occupied, and his well-trained army of warriors was as invincible as the waves of the ocean that washed the shores of his country. Memela’'s father ‘was one of Chaka's head men, and this honorable office descended to the son when the old man: died. About 1820 Chaka sent a large body of his warriors with peace offerings of many cattle to Moshesh, the King of the Basuto nation, which dwelt 300 miles to the westward. The object of the expe- dition was to form a coalition between the Basutos and the Zulus for the pur- pose of exterminating the Pondo tribe, ‘which in some way had aroused the en- mity of Chaka. King Moshesh, being poor in cattle, was unable to make reciprocal peace offerings of that nature, but fulfilled the obligation imposed by native cus- tom In a more striking way. He sent to Chaka the greatest gift that one King could make to another—the royal talisman. That talisman is the dia- mand referred to in the dispatch quoted at the head of this article. The return of this expedition forms one of Memela’s earliest recollections, he having been about eight years old at that time. The story of the acqui- sition of the diamond was told to him by his father, who accompanied Din- gaan and was one . of that leader's council. . 3 When Dingaan returned to Dugaza, Chaka's capital, near the Umyoti River, the King became very angry be- cause of the failure of the expedition and the reported refusal of Moshesh to send a peace offering of cattle. After the fruitless expedition to Mo- shesh’s country Chaka sent out his hordes of warriors to conquer the land to the west of Zululand. It is esti- mated that in his wars of extermination he killed a million blacks and held the power of life and death over tribes oo- cupying 200,000 square miles of terri- tory. So absolute was Chaka’s power, and so desnotic and tyrannical was he in his dealines with his chieftains, thas they wearied of his-rule and became terrified by his bloodthirstiness. — Dingaan originated the plot for the assassination of his brother, and re- ceived the assistance of all but one of Chaka’s ill-treated wives in carrying it out successfully. Dingaan was ignorant of the intrinsic value of the talisman which he wore suspended from his neck until 1830. At the close of the year 1837 Piet Reitief and a large party of Boers, with thirty slaves, crossed the Draaksberg into the territory of Dingaan, for the purpose of establishing a colony. In this party were Paul Krueger, then about 12 years old, and his parents. Reitief applied to Dingaan for a grant of territory, which was promised on condition that they should recover for him some cattle stolen from the King by a neighboring tribe. Then began the war between the whites and the blacks, which cost the lives of more than 600 Boers, who had flocked together from Cape Colony and what is now the Orange Free State to avenge the death of Reitief and his comrades. On December 16, 1838, Commandant Pretorius, who afterward became first President of the South African Repub- lic, with 460 mounted Boers, encoun- tered Dingaan’s army of 12,000 strong on the banks of the Umhlatoozi River, and in a fierce encounter routed the Zulus, who left 2000 dead on the field. Dingaan led his defeated army into the moun- tainous region of Zululand, where his power was further weakened by the de- sertion of his younger ‘brother, Um- panda, and 4000 of his best warriors. Umpanda made peace with his former enemies, the Boers. and, uniting his forces with those of Pretorius, signally defeated Dingaan. The Boer commandant declared Um- panda chief of the Zulus after extract- ing from him a fee of 36,000 oxen for the assistance given him in deposing Din- gaan. - Dingaan’s ® assassination took place before he could realize his ambi- tion of defeatin~ his brother in battle. The youngest of his sixteen wives be- came enraged whén he showed a prefer- | ence for an older wife, and thrust an assagai through his heart. Memela, being the lawful successor to the King. took the talisman from the neck of the dead Dingagp and strajzhf- way set out to find Umpanda. hoping that that chief would appoint him headman of one of his tribes. Distinctly remembering the efforts of the two prospectcrs to ‘obtain the talis- man when it was the; property of his king, he had taken the precaution to hide it under the skins that hung around his hins, and consequently feared no harm from the. Boers on its account. The Boers provided all the focd that the starving Memela could eat and then compelled him to assist in driving the cattle. Thereafter Memela, the former head- man of the mighty Zulu nation, was the slave of the despised white men. ‘When the Boer trekkers finally reached a fertile spot a short distance beyvond the mountains they determined to settle there. Thus they lived for several years un- til they felt strong and numerous enough to establish a government. This was done without ~the knowledge of Great Britain, which claimed sover- eignty over the land. During that period Memela and young Kruegir became very friendly with one another, and the negro’s wound was thorouchly healed. He begged for permission to return to his people in Zululand, and when the re- quest was refused he deserted the cat- tle he was guarding against a night attack and started without provisions or water on the four hundred mile journey to Zululand. He was overtaken before he had gone a half day’s journey and was subjected to most inhuman punishment by the re- vengeful Boers. For days he was com- pelled to ‘perform the work of an ox in one of the transport wagons. The yoke was placed around his neck. and whenever the ox at his side drew hard- er on the yoke than Memela the driver cut open the negro’s bare hack with the lash of a long rawhide whip. This torturous nunishment was con- tinued for four days, until Memela dropped to the ground from exhaustion. To hasten the healing of the wounds on the negro’s back and on the shoul- ders where the yoke had worn into the flesh the Boers applied large quantities of salt. which increased the pain a hundredfold. Being unable to move, much less capable of walking, Memela was bound by his wrists and ankles to the axles of one of the wagons. The party had by that time crossed the Vaal River into the country ruled over by Moselikatse, an old Zulu war- rior who was driven northward by the bloodthirsty Chaka. Young Krueger, more kind hearted than the others, secretly volunteered to assist Memela to escape. The two went to the river, a half day’s journey dis- tant, with the avowed intention of shooting the bucks and deer that con- gregated at the licks. - When they reached the river the fu- ture President of the Boer republic gave to the negro a large gun and all the provisions that he carried, and bade him follow the'course of the stream by night and hide in the caverns by day in order that pursuing parties might not recapture him. Memela's joy was unbounded, and to show his gratitude to his savior he took from his groln skins the diamond talisman and gave it to Krueger. The two separated, Krueger to return to his people and assist several years afterward In driving Moselikatse out of the country into Matabeleland, and Memela to reach a point near the riv- er’s course, where he found a small tribe of peaceful natives, who wel- comed him in their kraal. There he has since lived, and there less than a year ago he showed the purple stripes of the driver’s lash, and the indelible scars on his shoulders, ankles and. wrists. Forty years have passed since ‘the diamond left Memela’s hands, but he has forgotten little that he knew con- cerning it. According to his descrip- tion of it, the stone was so large that he could barely’ encircle it ‘'with his thumbs and forefingers. It was whiter than any of the small diamonds that the three diggers had ever found on the Driekopjes farm, and consequently must have been of remarkabie bril- liancy, as the Vaal River stones are of the finest quality ‘mined in South Africa. It was an octahedron in shape and had no apparent blemishes. Memela has become familiar with dlamonds since he has worked for Mal-' lon, Bishop and Fitzgerald, and as he had the famous talisman in his posses- sion for many years its'distinguishing characteristics naturally became indel- ibly impressed upon his mind, so that :lteul‘l able to glve a good description