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DESTITUTE NEVADA INDIANS.

BY

VERNILLE DEWITT-WARR.

It seems incredible, but alas ! it is all too true.

Nevada, the State of gold, of golden sunshine and golden hearts, rich in her bounty and flaunting to the world her horn of plenty, ever over-flowing in its bounteousness, has allowed starvation to stalk in specter-like horror into her very midst. In the immediate vicinity of her capital city, Carson, the hub from which wise and beneficent laws are supposed to radiate, the enlightened Christian citizens of Nevada allow five decrepit, woebegone, antiquated Washoe Indians to starve—starve from one cold winter to another. Nevada's latest claim to distinction in this line is the manner in which she permitted "Captain Jim" of the Washoes to die. To Nevada belongs the claim of starving him to extinction, as she is

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to-day grinding out the noble souls of the remaining old Washoes. Were I not cognizant that "Captain Jim" and the remnants of his tribe were highly deserving I would not thus plead their cause. In these fragments that are left of the Washoe Indians, I trace the tokens of great and noble spirits, for I have observed them personally. The Washoes were not hostile to the early inhabitants of Nevada, nor were they an Indian enemy whose appearance sudden and unexpected from secret ambuscade resulted in midnight assault. They were a tribe not given to rapine and spoil and outbreaks spreading desolation and dismay; nor did they drink the blood of the mangled victims in transports of exulting rage, as did various tribes now basking in the sunshine of our rich government's protection.

The Washoes were peace-loving, loyal Indians, actually aiding the whites in early skirmishes against the lawless invaders, even to the extent of furnishing guns for which they have never been paid up to date. Those Indians who made vicious warfare on the settlers and ravaged them to destruction are rich in reservations and proper care, while Nevada's Washoes, benefactors of the early pioneers, are destitute and suffering, and Nevada smilingly approves. No, Nevada cannot grant the Washoes a reservation, but it is her bounden duty to succor these five old Washoes for the few ebbing years of their life. "Captain Jim" has come to me with manuscripts of letters bearing the signatures of every Governor of Nevada, excepting the last two Governors, all promising in high-sounding words to aid' and relieve the misery of him and his tribe. Forty years or more he plead for succor of Nevada's Governors, but their promises to him were as vacuous as the desert's emptiness. Thus he died wretchedly and in misery, as the remaining Washoes live. Woe to Nevada for her great neglect!

During the cold and biting winter months these five old Washoes live in Nevada, in abject misery, want and beggary, for each snow blast that blows chills their withered bodies to spasms of shivering, as the fires of life are ebbing, due to no fuel. Cogitate for one brief moment, my friends. Just five old Indians, and Nevada so rich and vast, allowing them to slowly die from deprivation. Such conditions make us, sometimes, doubt the wisdom of an all-wise and just God. In summer time the Washoes migrate to the more genial shores of Lake Tahoe, where California allows the Washoes the benign beneficence of continuing to starve.

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Here, in squalid huts, these poverty-stricken figures are insufficiently protected either by clothing or shelter. They live without any further protection from the inclemency of the elements than a sort of break-weather about three feet high, composed of sage, and erected around them in the shape of a half moon. Sage also furnishes wood for their fuel.

The Washoes live principally upon roots, acorns, pine-nuts, and dried fish, and by the aid of their dogs, a lean and miserable breed, they catch rabbits and other small animals. These old Indians endeavor to fish and cure stores of fish for winter, but in general the season of scarcity finds them wretchedly unprovided. Much credit is due to the regime of the California Fish and Game Commission, which was inaugurated and maintained by a fish commission of high repute in the Lake Tahoe district, who became beloved of the Indians, who watched their interests, aided them and administered justice to the Washoes, as well as tourists and residents, unreservedly, until he was proclaimed their "great white father," but now for the last two years a new commission has prevailed, and is lax, and the Indian is naught.

The Washoes, Nevada's nature children, are objects of charity and plead most piteously for sustenance from the Tahoe tourist; but the tourists are on pleasure bent, and suffering is nil to them. Moreover, it is a monumental disgrace to Nevada that her Indian charges should become the paupers and beggars of America's greatest playground, Lake Tahoe and vicinity. "Captain Jim" appealed in vain to each and every Nevada Governor, with the above-mentioned exceptions. He went in person to Washington, D. C., and plead his cause. This destitute Washoe issue was laid before the late Senator Newlands, who did all in his power, namely, laid the matter before the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where it has stagnated and become musty, while the Washoes slowly perish.

I appeal fervently to the women of Nevada, since every other method of procedure has failed, that you set about to eradicate the black scar on the name of your fair State, Nevada. If you would be aided, interview the superintendent of the Carson Indian School, who has formulated a remarkably effective plan of relief for these old Indians, whose habits he understands so perfectly, but he is helpless without adequate funds, more is the pity, when such a small amount would make so great a relief. The time is ripe. Act now, O women! before this tribe of your wilds, these forlorn beings, perish in their entirety, and thus spread the pall

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of shame that now enshrouds you and the State of Nevada. Nevada, you have the facts ; rouse yourself from your lethargy and erase forever from your history the shame of the ill-treated, ill-kept Washoes by a swift return to fairness and justice in their behalf, and may their few remaining years be prolific with the broad humanitarian acts of Nevada and her citizens.

The Washoe Indians have evidently not been considered the equal of the Pai-Utes and Shoshones, in morals or intelligence. The writer has personally known this tribe, as well as the Pai-Utes of Nevada, for many years, has taken special pains during the past year to get an unbiased opinion from farmers, business men and housekeepers, school teachers on the reservations and of public schools off the reservation, and all unite in the opinion that the Washoes are every way the equal of the Pai-Utes. This is especially true of those who have attended the Stewart Indian Training School at Carson, Nevada, including full-bloods as well as half-breeds. His attention is called to the time of the early pioneer settlement of Washoe and Carson valleys and during years when Indians in Humboldt, Carson and Washoe counties were frequently seriously attacking the settlers. It was seldom that the Washoes were guilty of depredations or killing of the white settlers or emigrants.

The testimony of our citizens now living who were living in Washoe, Lyon, Ormsby and Douglass counties during the exciting days preceding and since the battle of Pyramid Lake, all testify to the loyal stand taken by the Washoes by many deeds of friendship from Washoes and has been acknowledged by all. One incident should be recorded in favor of the Washoes. Old Chief Winnemucca and his Pai-Ute warriors tried very hard to get the Washoes to join them in fighting Major Ormsby, and in their plan to exterminate the whites in Nevada they persistently refused all efforts to get them to join the Pai-Utes against the whites. They gathered about twenty guns and loaned them to the members of Major Ormsby's party just previous to the Pyramid Lake battle. These guns were never returned nor were they ever paid for by the State of Nevada or by the United States. The Pai-Utes have never invited the Washoes to occupy their Walker River or Pyramid Lake reservations, but have opposed efforts of whites to get Washoes to live on these reservations. The United States authorities have unjustly ever failed to give the Washoes any farming lands, and only the Price Nut Mountain,

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near Gardnerville, which only the old Indians consider of value.

There are many Washoe Indians who are successfully farming, having work horses, hogs, cows, poultry, live in cabins and houses with floors and glass windows, have mowing and sewing machines, cultivate from five to forty acres of land, raise considerable alfalfa, hay, wheat and barley. Large numbers find profitable employment with white ranchers all over the State. These statements will apply equally as well to the Pai-Utes and Shoshones.

The Carson, or Stewart, Indian School, at Carson, was established by the United States in 1901. It was for several years under the successful superintendency of Mr. C. H. Ashbury. There is no other Indian school on the Pacific Coast that can show a greater number of graduates for the number of pupils, that have proved good farmers, stock-raisers, carpenters, blacksmiths, saw-mill superintendents and printers. One is foreman of a large bindery. Its girl graduates have proved the equal of the boys" and may be seen in many counties as wives of successful farmers, prosperous home-builders and good cooks. In many of their houses are sewing machines and the wives or children making their own and their children's garments. In the Carson School the girls have been taught how to raise their children, to properly nurse them when sick and to observe the laws of health. As a result, the population of Pai-Utes and Washoes for the past ten years is increasing, the Washoes especially, in contrast with their condition twenty years ago.

The reader's attention is called to the interesting report on these same tribes of United States Indian Agent Major F. Dodge, for the year 1859. (See Superintendent Commissioner Indian Affairs' report, dated Carson, July 4, 1859.)

            It was this character of manual labor school which he refers to which in 1873, Majors Powell and Ingalls recommended the government to establish at Moapa, Lincoln County, southeastern California, for all southern Nevada and southern Utah Indians. Another school for each at Elko, Esmeralda and Washoe counties. President Grant, Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the committees of the House of Representatives and Senate, all endorsed this report and such a bill passed the House of Representatives and would have passed the Senate but for the opposition of one of the Nevada Senators, who offered to support it if he was allowed to dictate the manner in which

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the appropriation was spent. This Senator was a candidate for re-election. The defeat of the bill has kept Nevada Indians in poverty and distress until hundreds of lives within the past ten or fifteen years have been lost on that account.

The Indian Schools.—There are living in Nevada about six thousand Indians, some fifteen hundred being on reservations, the rest scattered throughout the State, living in the towns and in the farming communities. These Indians are entirely self-supporting, with the exception of a very few old people on the reservations, who receive limited gratuities. They all dress in civilized garb and most of them live in small houses, dress and live as well as most people of the same limited means. Their average condition and progress is much better than is indicated by the loafer element that is most frequently seen about the towns, as we see there the worst of the Indians, those living in the farming communities being much better off in every way than those who live about the town, where the associations have been particularly degrading.

Government schools are maintained for the children upon each of the reservations, and at a few places where there are several Indians in a community off the reservations, there being very few Indian children enrolled in the public schools of the State. One such school has twenty Indian children in regular attendance. These schools all attempt to give some of the industrial instruction, though the equipment for such instruction is limited in the day schools and the small reservation boarding schools. There are eight reservation schools in Nevada with an average attendance of 531; enrollment, 589. Two of these are reservation boarding schools, six are day schools, for Indians in Nevada. The principal school is not on a reservation, but is located near Carson, Nevada. This school was established in 1891, opening with an attendance of some sixty to seventy-five pupils. The capacity and equipment has been increased steadily up to the present time, so that there is now capacity for about three hundred children, the attendance having been up to the full capacity for the past several years. The equipment provides for various industrial departments, including carpentry, blacksmithing, tailoring, shoe and harness work, farming and some engineering and plumbing work for the boys, and all domestic lines for the girls, handled by some thirty employes, all of whom are supposed to be teachers in their various lines. The schoolroom work covers the regular grammar grades and each child who

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is old enough spends a portion of each day in the schoolroom and a portion is in some industrial department. Attendance at this school is entirely voluntary and very little effort has been required to keep the school full. The results have been quite satisfactory, and practically all pupils who have remained in the school a sufficient length of time to accomplish results, have done and are doing very well. A number of boys educated there are employed at their various trades or making good use of their own land, and the girls are giving good service in domestic work or in making improved homes for themselves and their families.

Along mechanical lines, Indians are quite as proficient as white children, the boys taking readily to the various trades taught, and the girls taking an interest in making a good showing in sewing, cooking, laundry work, etc. Practically all of the garments for the girls are made in the school sewing room, where the work is done by the pupils under the instruction of an employe. The same is true of the housekeeping, laundry work, cooking and baking, besides which a domestic training department is maintained under a skilled employe, where more individual instruction can be given to girls in small classes. All of the general repair work, whether in carpentry, cement work, plumbing, blacksmithing, tailoring, or shoe and harness making, is done by the boys, and many of the buildings erected during the past few years have been built by the boys under the instruction of employes having charge of that department. The greatest need for the education and general improvement of the Indians, both old and young, is the proper education of the white people who are neighbors to them to the end that they may recognize their merit and forget the prejudice they have against them. The improvement of the Indian is of more vital interest to the community in which he lives than to the general government that bears the expense of his education.

The Stewart, or Carson School, was under the superintendency successively of Mr. Goodnoe, W. C. Gibson, Eugene Nead and James K. Allen, until, in 1903, Mr. C. H. Ashbury, who came from the Western Shoshone Reservation Boarding School, with a good record for efficiency and great faith in the possibilities of the Indian children, who continued as superintendent until 1912. The amount and character of the labor performed by these Indians, especially while at the school referred to in detail above, will compare favorably, all things considered, with white pupils and graduates from, similar schools. The Carson School is com-

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posed largely of Pai-Utes, though there are many Shoshones and Washoes. The latter tribal graduates stand as high in deportment or studies as the Pai-Utes, and there are many cases where they have far excelled the Pai-Utes. A few cases of graduates are mentioned to support this statement.

A former Carson and Truckee girl, whose mother is Indian, surmounts obstacles that thwarts others, once inmates of Indian schools, is Dr. Elizabeth May. She graduated from the Central College of Osteopathy of Kansas City, Mo., June 3, 1913. Her mother is a full-blooded Indian woman of the Washoe tribe. When this girl was thirteen years old she left the Carson Indian School. Coming to Truckee to spend a summer vacation, she found employment in the family of Gen. and Mrs. C. F. McGlashan, and was by them sent to the Truckee Public School. She entered the seventh grade and led her classes every month until she graduated from the grammar and high schools. During her four years' course in high school she led her class each year. For two years she was president of the student body of the high school. She passed the freshman year at the University of California, receiving the assistance of a "Bonnheim Scholarship." Leaving the university at the close of the year, she took the entire medical course of the Central College, graduated with honor, and is now practicing her profession in Kansas City.

Frank Rivers, a Washoe graduate of the Carson School, served an apprenticeship in the Carson Bindery, and is to-day assistant foreman of the Nevada Press Company, of Reno. Wm. Washoe is a leading trusted employe in the Verdi sawmill. Richard Barrington, of Loyalton, California, is another graduate of Carson School, and is to-day the superintendent of a sawmill near Loyalton. He served as clerk of the Republican Central Committee of Loyalton. Hector Thomas, another graduate, learning while at the Carson School the trade of carpenter and joiner, by faithful attention to business is now a successful contractor in Oakland, California. Richard Bender, another Washoe graduate, is a good farmer and is an efficient employe in the Carson School. He possesses a good education and is a United States Indian police officer. John Moore, a Washoe graduate, is a good blacksmith and extra carpenter. Isaac Johns, a graduate of Washoe, is a blacksmith and machinist in the service of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Jeff Davis, a Pai-Ute, graduated as tailor and farming and today is an all round good farmer. Harry Sampson, Pai-Ute, just graduated as printer from the Carson

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School, joined the union and is now engaged on one of the Carson papers as printer and is also leader of the Carson Brass Band. This school has two military companies, fully equipped, and compares favorably with the State military. They are under Mr. Gershingher, the disciplinarian of the school. Miss Daisy Washington, a Washoe, graduated from the Carson School, attended Haskell Indian School, Kansas, and graduated in the regular and commercial courses. She returned to Carson, became a clerk and stenographer at the school, resigned in 1913, and now holds a position as stenographer in San Francisco. John Hicks is a Washoe graduate from this school, where he learned the carpenter trade, and finds steady employment and supports his family comfortably, as well as do the others mentioned. Nearly all these Indians are good musicians, playing in brass bands composed of white men and play different instruments.

Ghost Dances.—A ceremonial religious dance connected with the Messiah doctrine, which originated among the Paviotso or Pai-Utes, Esmeralda County, Nevada, in 1888, and spread rapidly among other tribes, extending as far as the Indians of Oklahoma, until it numbered among its adherents nearly all of the Indians of the interior basin from the Missouri River beyond the Rockies, including the blanket tribes. The prophet of the religion was a young Indian about thirty-five years of age known among his own people as Wevoka (meaning Cutter), and commonly known by the whites as jack Wilson, from having worked in the family of a ranchman named Wilson. He seemed to have established his reputation as a medicine man when, about the close of 1888, he was attacked by a dangerous fever. While he was ill an eclipse of the sun spread excitement among the Indians, with the result that Wevoka became delirious and imagined that he had been taken into the spirit world and there received a direct revelation from the god of the Indians. In brief, the revelation was to the effect that a new dispensation was close at hand at which the Indians were to be restored to their inheritance and reunited with their departed friends, and that they must prepare for the event by practicing the songs and ceremonies which the prophet gave them. Within a short time the dance spread to the tribes of the mountains, where it became known as the spirit or ghost dance. The dancers, men and women together, held hands and moved slowly around in a circle, facing towards the center, keeping time to songs that were sung without any instrumental accompaniment. Hypnotic trances were a common feature of the dance.

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Among the Sioux of the Dakotas, the excitement, aggravated by local grievances, led to an outbreak in the winter of 1890 and 1891. The principal event in this connection was the killing of Sitting Bull, December 15, 1890, and the massacre at Wounded Knee, December 29. The doctrine has nearly faded out and the dance exerts only a local function. In the Crow, Cheyenne and Arapaho, a later development from the ghost dance proper, the drum is used, and many of the ordinary tribal dances have incorporated ghost dance features, including even the hypnotic trance. The belief in the coming of a Messiah, or deliverer, who shall restore his people to a condition of primitive simplicity and happiness is probably as universal as the human race, and takes no special emphasis among people that have been long subjected to alien domination. (See Pontiac Conspiracy, 1763-4, Tecumseh Combination and his brother, the prophet, shortly before the War of 1812. Bulletin 30, B. A. Enth, 975.)

Wevoka (the Cutter), a Pai-Ute dreamer, or medicine man, originator of the ghost dance, was born in Nevada in 1856, in Mason Valley, Esmeralda County. His father, Tavi-bo, was reputed a medicine man and said to be a hypnotist doctor in California, and the son may have inherited the mystic tendency from him. After his father's death the boy was taken into a white family by the name of Wilson from whom he took his name, Jack Wilson. During the spring of 1913 Jack Wilson was still living in Mason Valley, where he maintained a good reputation for sobriety and he seems to be determined to forget ghost dance business, and he has made formal application to the officers of the Interior Department for forty acres of land which he agrees to cultivate and make a permanent home. He will also erect a cabin and give up his wickie-up and tent and occupy the cabin as other civilized Indians are doing.

[Tables from pp. 141-152.  click on images to enlarge.]

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Gravelly Ford Massacre in 1861.--The account of this affair was obtained from Charles Stebbins, now of Austin. In the latter part of the summer of 1861, four families from the States stopped for three weeks at the trading post of Stebbins, in Ruby, Valley. There were thirteen persons in the party, among whom were four or five children, and their conveyance consisted of four wagons drawn by oxen. There was one little girl about ten years old among the number, who became strongly attached to Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, and they tried ineffectually to persuade the parents to leave her with them. There was a squaw named Maggie about the place at the time, working for Mr. Stebbins, who also became attached to this little girl, and knew of the effort being made to get the parents to leave her behind when they left.

The next day after the emigrants had resumed their journey, Maggie also disappeared from the station. Several days passed, when late one night some one rapped at the door of Mr. Stebbins's house, and he went to see who the intruder could be, and found a squaw standing there whose face and head were so swollen and cut that he did not recognize her. She stepped inside and. sitting down on a stool in front of the fire, commenced a doleful moaning cry, accompanied by a back and forward swaying motion of the body, as though racked by mental and physical torture. It was a long time before she would utter a word, but finally the harrowing details of a fiendish outrage was drawn in broken sentences, mixed with sobs, from the sorrow-stricken old Shoshone mother.

Before the emigrants had left Ruby Station, Maggie had become suspicious that certain young warriors of the tribe intended to massacre the party before they passed beyond the Shoshone country, and she deter-mined to follow the wagons and rescue the little girl should her suspicions prove correct. Her fears were realized; the whites were suddenly attacked in Yago Canyon, which connects Pine Valley with the Humboldt River, near Palisade, a few miles southeast of Gravelly Ford. As the struggle, or massacre, was going on, this faithful Indian woman rushed in among the combatants and, seizing the little girl, made good her escape from the scene that ended in the murder of all the whites. Throwing the child across her shoulder, she sped along the trail on her way back to the home of Mr. Stebbins, but there was many a long weary mile lying between these fugitives and safety. Through the balance of the day and the following night she fled with her burden of innocence, and as hope

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of success began to dawn in the hearts of the fugitives, they were suddenly made aware of the immediate presence of two Indians in pursuit. They were overtaken, the Indian woman was beaten until she was sense-less and the child was tied to a stake driven in the ground, when a knife was used to aid the savages in committing a nameless outrage upon her, and thus the little martyr died.

            When Maggie came to her senses she found her assailants gone, and the dead body of her little charge staked to the ground as the brutish fiends had left her. Then she had staggered along, heart-stricken, the remainder of the way to bear the sad news to her white friends. Mr. Stebbins immediately set out with a few men to see if what he had heard could be true, and finding the little one he had loved so well, with her open, dead eyes staring, horror-stricken, heavenward, he knew that all he had been told was a terrible reality. The next year the two savages, who had thus brutally murdered the little girl, presented themselves at Fort Ruby, not being aware of the fact that it was 'known to the whites who had committed the deed. They were seized; one was hung and the other shot in attempting to make his escape.

Eastern Nevada—Troubles in 1862.—That portion of the Shoshone tribe living in Ruby Valley, in what is now Elko County, had for a chief in 1861 an Indian named Sho-Kup, who was friendly to the whites. In November, or during the first days of December of that year, he died of consumption at the house of Charles Stebbins, and the followers of the dead chief proposed, in accordance with their usual custom, to kill Sho-Kup's squaw, so that she would accompany her dead lord to the happy hunting grounds. She fled to the trading-post kept by Stebbins, at Ruby Station, on the Overland Stage road, and claimed his protection, which, being given, caused such an excitement among the Indians that assistance was asked from Governor James W. Nye, who sent Colonel Wasson to that section with authority to take such action as the circumstances demanded. The following is Colonel Wasson's report to the Governor, made after his return. The report is given in full, because of the many interesting facts contained therein, relating to the Shoshones at that time :

Carson City, June 28, 1862.

His Excellency, James W. Nye, Governor and Ex-Officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Nevada Territory.

Sir:—I have the honor to submit this report of my trip, etc., to Ruby Valley. In accordance with your instructions under date of December 16, 1861, I started by

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overland stage on the evening of the eighteenth of December for Ruby Valley, and arrived at Smith Creek, December 19th, eight o'clock P. M. This was the first station in the Shoshone country. The summit of the mountains west of Smith Creek being the boundary between the Pah-Utes and the Shoshones. On the twentieth of December, six o'clock, A. M., I arrived at Reese River, where I met the Chief To-to-a and about one hundred of his band. I had a very satisfactory interview with them. The chief assured me of his friendship for our Government, and that none of his band would, under any circumstances, molest the stage or telegraph lines, or any whites that might want to visit or reside in his country. He seemed to regret that there was any disturbance between the whites and Shoshones, and volunteered to go with me and assist in bringing about a settlement. I arrived at Ruby Valley on the twenty-second, at eight o'clock A. M. Here I found about one hundred Indians, headed by a young chief, by the name of "Buck." They were subsisting chiefly upon the charities of the Mail Company and other settlers in the valley.

I was informed that about half of the Indians belonging in Ruby Valley had left for the "White Knife" country, on the upper Humboldt, on account of the late difficulties consequent upon the death of their chief, Sho-Kup, the circumstances of which were substantially as follows, to-wit : Previous to Sho-Kup's death, and after he had become satisfied of his rapidly approaching dissolution, he expressed the desire that Buck should be successor to his position as chief ; that he should take his wife (a very intelligent squaw named by the whites, Julia) also his horse, arms and other effects. Now this disposition of the estate did not accord with the old established and time honored custom of the tribe ; so immediately upon the death of Sho-Kup, his friend proceeded to slay his horses, and collect his arms and other effects, and to complete the horrid rite, the almost frantic widow must be tied to the funeral pyre, that she might accompany her husband to the happy hunting grounds of the Great Spirit. But she shrank from the dreadful sacrifice. She fled to the mail station, asking protection of the whites, which was granted. The Indians followed, demanding her surrender, threatening to burn the place and kill every white man in the valley if they would not give up the woman, which the whites refusing to do, they proceeded to place a guard around the station. The excitement increased until a young Indian of the White Knife band shot and killed an old favorite Indian doctor of Sho-Kup's. Whether the doctor's death obviated the necessity of killing Sho-Kup's widow or not, I cannot say, but certain it is that the excitement ceased, and upon the promise of the Indians that they would not kill her, she was given up by the whites, and Buck escorted her to the Indian camp about one-half mile distant. Buck returned to the station in the evening, and in a few moments the report of a gun was heard in the direction of the Indian camp. It was rumored that Julia was killed. Buck ran to get on his horse, but was ordered by a white man to stop or he would shoot him, at the same time firing at Buck with a revolver. Buck reached his horse, but was prevented from mounting by another white man who was ahead of him and who mounted Buck's horse, and gave chase at the same time shooting at him with a revolver. But the chief, through the fleetness of his legs and the darkness of the night, escaped unhurt. It was soon ascertained that the alarm was false and that Julia was also safe. Buck returned to the station the next day, and the difficulty was amicably settled.        WARREN WASSON.

Gosh-Ute War in 1863.--The Gosh-Utes, under their war chief, White Horse, began hostilities by killing the keeper of Eight-Mile Station on the 22d of March, 1863. The overland stage, bound east, that day contained four passengers, Judge G. N. Mott, of Nevada, and an old man

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on his way home to the States from California, accompanied by his two little sons. The driver on this occasion was Henry Harper, who was better known on the overland road as "Happy Harry." As the stage arrived at the scene of the tragedy it was received by a volley from the savages, who were concealed in and about the house, followed by the Indian war whoop that once heard is never forgotten. Away dashed the frightened horses guided by the unerring hand of the driver, whose life-blood was flowing from a mortal wound. The old man, struck with an arrow, sank into the bottom of the coach-boot unconscious, and the only chance of escape that remained for any of them rested in the nerve, skill and bravery of the hero outside. Clinging to the lines and fighting against the death that was creeping around his vitals, the driver urged forward those maddened animals in his struggle for the safety of those whose lives were intrusted to his charge, until a film gathering in his eyes he called to the Judge to come out and take his place. While the stage was flying at the top of the horses' speed, Judge Mott made his way by clinging to the sides of the coach to the driver's assistance, and as he grasped the lines Happy Harry sank dying under the seat, whence the dark angel summoned him to a place beside the world's forgotten heroes.

Judge Mott arrived at Deep Creek Station with the dead driver, the wounded old man, who afterwards recovered, and the two little boys. One of the horses died from the effect of wounds received in the race for life. The Indians burned Eight-Mile Station, drove off the stock, and thus was commenced the Overland War of 1863 in Nevada. With hostilities begun, it required but a few days for the incipient spark to kindle a flame of war along the whole route, from Schell Creek to Salt Lake City, a distance of 225 miles. Three days after the death of Happy Harry, Company K, Second California Cavalry Volunteers, Captain S. P. Smith, commanding, was marching from Camp Douglas, in Utah, for the scene of the disaster, but having divided the company, the main body, under Captain Smith, did not arrive at Fort Ruby until the last of April. In the meantime, Henry Butterfield, who had been recently appointed by Governor Nye as Indian Agent of Ruby Valley, sent out two friendly Indians as spies to find out what tribe had committed the act, and where the depredators could be found. May 5th, Company E, Third California Infantry Volunteers, left Camp Douglas to guard the Overland Stage road between Salt Lake and Austin, a few soldiers being left at each station, usually

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about four. As the stage arrived at a station two of the soldiers posted there accompanied it to the next stopping place, and then guarded the next return stage back, this duty being performed by the infantry, while the cavalry was left free to scout through the country and patrol the road. Soon after the destruction of Eight-Mile Station, where Happy Harry was killed, a stage was ambushed in the night, while passing through a canyon, a short distance east of Schell Creek. At the time there were a number of passengers on board, among whom were two women and five soldiers. The volley from the Indians was returned with a will by the latter, as the coach dashed past, and a mile farther on the only victim of the assault —a horse—fell dead in the road from its many wounds.

As soon as the two spies sent out by Henry Butterfield returned with the desired information, preparations were made for a movement to chastise the guilty parties. In pursuance of this project, Captain S. P. Smith's company of California Cavalry moved, May 1st, from Fort Ruby, and the next morning at daylight it had reached Schell Creek, having marched sixty miles. During the day they kept as much as possible secreted, but as soon as the shadows of night rendered concealment practicable the expedition moved south in Steptoe Valley, along the base of Schell Creek Mountains. Everything was conducted with the utmost caution to guard against their presence in the country being known to the enemy. The morning twilight found the command camped in a deep canyon, secure from observation, where they remained during the day, while their Indian allies were out searching for the Gosh-Utes. About sundown the Shoshones returned with the information that a number of them were about ten miles farther to the south in the valley, camped upon Duck Creek. As soon as the darkness was sufficient to conceal the operations of the cavalry they moved from their day's bivouac to effect a surprise, if possible, of the unsuspecting hostiles. One division crossed the creek, three miles below, and passed up on the south side, and, aided by the other acting on the north side of the stream, encircled the slumbering band with a cordon of steel, and then awaited the approach of daylight to begin the work of death. A pistol shot was to be the signal for the onslaught, and when twilight came, and the sharp note of attack broke the stillness, the cavalry, on foot, with a ringing shout, made a wild clash upon the sleeping Indians. Let us draw the screen, and not look upon the scene that followed ; it lasted but a short time, and but two escaped.

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That morning's sun looked down upon a dead camp, where twenty-four warriors lay sleeping their last sleep ; and Happy Harry was avenged.

The next morning Company K moved up stream and, crossing the divide separating Duck from Steptoe Creek, moved eastward and over the Schell Creek Mountains, reaching Spring Valley just at daylight on the morning of the 16th, after a march of one day and a night. Here they surprised another Indian camp in a cedar swamp, south of the present Cleveland ranch. The cavalry charged down upon the hostile band, but were brought to a halt by the swamp character of the ground. Many horses were mired, but some floundered through, and the consequent confusion, with temporary delay, enabled most of the Indians to escape. Twenty-three were found dead after the short, sharp conflict which ensued. The casualty to the whites was a soldier wounded and one horse disabled. From the scene of the last encounter the command returned to Fort Ruby, where it arrived May 10th, with the report that through its efforts fifty-two Gosh-Utes had been permanently converted to a peace policy.

On the 20th of the same month, when the overland stage was passing through a canyon east of Deep Creek in the daytime, it was fired upon from a cliff of rocks and Riley Simpson, the driver, fell from his seat in the stage-boot mortally wounded. Major ------- Egan, who was sitting by his side at the time, seized the lines and dashed forward, carrying the living and the dead away from, the scene of the disaster, pursued a long distance by the yelling savages. In consequence of this attack, Company K was ordered to Deep Creek and during the remainder of the year made that place the base of its operations.

Attack on Canyon Station in 1863.--Eight miles east of Deep Creek, on the Overland Stage road, near the Utah line, there was, in 1863, a dry station that was supplied with water by hauling it under guard with a team from Deep Creek slough. The Indians had burned this station, killed the man in charge and driven off the stock on the day succeeding the death of Happy Harry. At this point four soldiers of Company E, Third California Infantry, were left as that company passed the station on its way to Fort Ruby from Salt Lake, in May succeeding this event. The sad fate of three of the men left there and the heroism of the other, entitles them to a place in the memories of the past. Their names were Jacob H. Elliott, Jacob Burger, Ira Abbott and Corporal William S. Her-

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vey, all from Columbia, Toulumne County, California. Besides the four soldiers were two men there at the time to take care of the Overland Stage stock, one of them being called "Deaf Bill," and the other was his assistant.

During the last days of June, Abbott and Hervey guarded the stage one day from Deep Creek to their home station. Before starting, the latter, whose courage was beyond question, remarked to a lady passenger that he dreaded the duty, as he had a presentiment of impending misfortune. The journey was made, however, without an incident occurring unusual or suspicious, and when the stage had gone they set out with the water-wagon, in company with Deaf Bill as driver, to procure water, leaving Elliott and Burger with the assistant hostler to take care of the station in their absence. They procured the water and were within four hundred yards of the station, on their way back, when Hervey again recurred to his presentiment of the morning, which was growing stronger with him, and said : "I dreamed last night that I was going to be shot and killed by Indians to-day, and ---" As this last word was coming from his lips a bullet pierced his brain and he fell from his seat into the road a corpse.

The Indians, eighteen in number, had ambushed the little party of three and poured a volley into them from behind the sage-brush, at short range, killing one (Hervey), giving a wound in the right shoulder to Abbott, which knocked him out of the wagon, cut off the thumb of Deaf Bill, and wounded one horse in the breast. The frightened animals sprang forward, but were stopped within a couple of hundred feet by Deaf Bill, who was not so deaf but he knew the meaning of a thumb shot off ; and he opened on the Gosh-Utes with his gun, bringing down one of them with a severe wound. Abbott sprang to his feet and, seeing the blood oozing from the forehead of his dead friend, took a quick glance around and saw the savages on the side of the road, less than a hundred feet away. He ran to the wagon for his gun and, obtaining it, killed one Indian. He then turned back to get the body of the unfortunate Hervey. Meanwhile the Indians were firing, and he received a wound in each leg. Regardless of this he reached the body of his friend, seized his undischarged gun, which was lying beside him, and fired upon his assailants, but did not kill any of them, the wagon having run over and bent the barrel. He then tried Hervey's revolver, but the wound in his shoulder

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had begun to paralyze his arm and his fire was ineffectual. After two or three shots he ceased firing, picked up the body of his friend and started for the wagon. The Indians still continued the fusillade, and he was wounded twice more—once in each side—but finally succeeded in getting all the weapons into the wagon, as well as the body of the dead soldier, when Deaf Bill whipped up the horses and the half crazed animals dashed away to the station.

On their arrival they were met by the assistant hostler only, Elliott and Burger having gone out hunting sage-hens soon after the party had left. Looking toward a knoll in the direction taken by the absent men, they saw and recognized the glistening barrel of Elliott's rifle in the' possession of an Indian and knew that the missing men were dead. A sharp but short engagement, lasting but a few minutes, ensued, when the Indians retreated and were seen no more that day. In about an hour after the departure of the Indians, an emigrant train came to the station bringing the body of Elliott, which had been found in the road a short distance from, there. With the emigrants, fortunately, there was a surgeon, who dressed Abbott's five wounds, and to this opportune arrival that brave soldier and true friend owes his life. The next day the body of Burger was found on the hillside, where he evidently had made a desperate running fight, struggling heroically for life. His body was badly mutilated, his whiskers having been torn from his face in place of scalping his head, which was bald, and his heart had been cut out and taken away.

Walker River Indian Reserve,

August 22, 1866.

Hon. H. G. Parker, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Carson City, Nevada.

Sir :—Commencing at the western boundary of the State, we have first the Washoe tribe, numbering about five hundred, and occupying a tract of country one hundred miles long, north and south, by twenty-five in width. There is no reservation within their district except the timber reserve, which is not adapted to cultivation, nor arable land which is not occupied. There is, however, a large amount of waste country over which they can roam unmolested for all the future if they wish to gratify their propensities in that respect. These Indians are a peace-able and inoffensive people.

Pi-Utes.—This tribe inhabits a country two hundred miles long by one hundred and twenty broad, lying parallel and east of that of the Washoes. They number about four thousand two hundred, and are divided into five distinct bands. South of Walker Lake are the Mono Pi-Utes, numbering four hundred, and under Chief Waugh-adz-ah-bo. They are closely allied to the Walker River or Ocki Pi-Utes, numbering fifteen hundred, and located in the vicinity of Walker River and lake and Carson River and upper lake, under Chief Oderie and Sub-chiefs Joaquin and E-sah-dawh, or Young Cayote. At the lower Carson Lake are the Toy Pi-Utes, numbering eight hundred, and under Chief Johnson. They affiliate with the

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Coo-er-ee and Sidocaw bands, the former of which is located in the vicinity of Pyramid Lake, and numbers some seven hundred under Chief Young Winnemucca. The latter is located in the vicinity of Humboldt Lake and river, and numbers about eight hundred, under Chief Sue.

The Mono and Octi bands should ultimately be settled upon the Walker, and the Coo-er-ee, Toy and Sidocaw upon the Pyramid reserves. These reserves are well adapted for the purposes designed. Each contains an extensive fishery and some grazing country, with about three thousand acres of arable land, from which white neighbors are barred to a distance by intervening sand plains and mountains. The improvements now upon these reservations consist of a small plank house upon each, with the addition of an adobe stable at the Walker. These buildings are but temporary affairs and must soon be replaced by others which are larger and better suited to the requirements. On neither has any land ever been cultivated worthy of mention, there not having been either teams or tools for that purpose.

During the past year the tribe has maintained the most friendly relations with the whites ; even the little troubles that were usually arising between them and the settlers have nearly ceased. They are extensively employed throughout the country as farm-hands, especially during the harvest season. For the purpose of securing employment they resort to the towns and mining camps in large numbers, and by their industrious habits and orderly behavior have gained praise and good will from our citizens. Their character, when compared with that of Indians generally, is distinguished by moral habits and a teachable nature.

Bannocks.—North of and adjoining the Pi-Utes are the Bannocks. Formerly, these Indians were in the habit of visiting Pyramid Lake, where I have met and talked with them. Judging from the nature of their country and from information received from military officers, I estimate the number of that portion of the tribe which inhabits this State at fifteen hundred. Since May, 1865, the larger portion of them have been acting in concert with the hostile Snake or Bannock Indians of southern Idaho. This combination has also been re-enforced by a large number of renegades from other tribes, and at present remain unsubdued, though from three to six companies of United States troops have been actively employed against them since the outbreak. In point of numbers they are formidable, and seem to be imbued with a spirit of dash and bravery quite unusual, while, being well mounted and armed, with the advantage of knowing the country perfectly, they are enabled to disperse and rally at given points with a rapidity that defies pursuit or a knowledge of their whereabouts.

Shoshones.—To the east of the Pi-Utes are the Shoshones, numbering about twenty-five hundred. The section which they inhabit is large in extent, but extremely barren in resources, and as the Indians are often reduced to the dire necessity of eating reptiles and other loathsome things, it is not surprising that when in such straits they should occasionally relieve their wants by killing cattle and prospectors' horses. In clothing they are poorly supplied, having but few opportunities of getting any except those given them by the Government. During the past year their behavior has been excellent. They are willing laborers, and would, no doubt, gladly concentrate upon some suitable reserve, where, with assistance from the Government in the shape of teams, tools, etc., they would soon be enabled to gain a much better living than they now enjoy, with but little or no greater labor.

To the east of the Shoshones are the Goshi-Utes, and to the southeast the Pai-Utes. The latter form no part of the great Pai-Ute tribe to the west of them. They inhabit the region that was ceded to this State by Congress during the last session, formerly a part of Utah and Arizona.

Very respectfully,

FRANKLIN CAMPBELL,

United States Indian Agent.

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INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

BY COLONEL THOMAS EWING.

In 1863, when the Indians were on the war path all over Humboldt County, a stock-man from Tehama County, California, drove quite a herd of cattle to Humboldt County and located on the eastern slope of the east range of mountains, about twelve miles south of where Dan Glen was located. The Indians becoming in want of a fresh supply of meat made an evening raid on his ranch and wounded the owner, who jumped on one of his horses without a saddle or bridle and escaped to Unionville and gave the alarm. Eighteen of the boys—Parkinson, Safford, Ewing, Brider, Sedown, Wheeler, McWilliams, Edwards, Clark and a number of others whose names I cannot remember—at once mounted their ever-ready steeds, and with Uncle Sam's Springfield rifles, hit the trail and were after the red devils before daybreak. As the Indians were driving five hundred head of cattle it was no trouble to follow the trail. By one o'clock of the next day we sighted the Indians running the cattle toward the Humboldt River near where the town of Winnemucca now stands. The river was booming out of its banks with the melting snow.

We pressed them so hard they abandoned the cattle and rushed to the river, plunging in and escaping to the other side of the river, screened by the willows. A few made their appearance on the side of Old Winnemucca Mountain. We continued to fire on them until they were out of the range. The first thing the party availed themselves of was a beef, as we had nothing to eat all night and day, never stopping to get provisions. Sedarns shot down a nice fat steer, each man cut out a piece, stuck it on his iron ramrod, set fire to the sage-brush and followed up cooking as the fire run and eating what he could. We had no salt, no bread and the effect was bad on many of us. We drove the cattle back toward home until way after dark, when each man for himself tied up his tired horses and lay down to sleep or sat up and watched fires until day dawned, when we pushed on until we reached the ranch, delivering back over five hundred head of cattle to the owner, who entered a growl because we had killed one of his steers. Mr. Ewing took particular pains to express himself in language that all frontier men understood in those

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days, ordering the whole troop to enter the cabin to cook and eat of whatever they could find in store, while he urged upon the owner the wisdom of gratitude, and when the Indians again attack him to try hard to find a trail that had a way from Unionville.

In 1864, the government soldiers, Captain Littlefield, the "Monster," who belonged to the California volunteers, and other officers with their commands, captured a few Indian prisoners. I think the government at Washington instructed the military to turn them over to the civil authorities at Unionville for trial for murder, and as the authorities had no time to waste waiting on the courts, they selected M. S. Bonifield and A. P. K. Saffard as marshals to take the Indians to Carson City for trial (I suppose by the great civil courts of those days). All I can say is that these wise marshals handcuffed them in pairs, put them on the road and by following on horseback, each with a Winchester rifle and some six-shooters, they compelled them to march. They reached a point about fifteen miles below Unionville when the prisoners took fright and stampeded for the brush. The guards were compelled to shoot the prisoners to protect themselves. Returning to Unionville they reported that they had been attacked by the prisoners and had to kill the prisoners to save their lives. They made good Indians of them. Mr. Bonifield was afterwards Supreme Judge. Safford was eight years Governor of Arizona.

            In 1863, Ragan & Dun, a firm owning some fine mules, came from Missouri overland to Nevada, camping where the town of Dun Glen was laid out, being named after Mr. James A. Dun, one of the firm, and brother of R. G. Dun, of New York. During the fall of the year Mr. Ragan was killed by the Indians in Grass Valley, south of Winnemucca some twenty-five miles. Mrs. Ragan died from grief and his two sons were sent east to Missouri. Mr. Dun was a member of the first Legislature of the State of Nevada.

A party of three, named Dr. H. Smeathman, W. F. White and Frank Thompson, were prospecting in the mountains, near the north line of Nevada, west of Pueblo, on the 4th of March, 1864. When engaged in looking for water, signs of Indians were discovered by them and Thompson advised a removal from that locality, but the doctor objected, and the search was continued. They were soon after fired upon from an ambush, and Dr. Smeathman fell wounded from his horse, crying for help. Thompson and White fled toward the settlements, leaving him to his fate, and

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forty-eight hours later rode into Rabbit Hole Station, from where they made their way to Humboldt City.

In the same section of country, in the following May, a prospecting party of seven men, while making a temporary halt in a canyon, seventy-five miles northwest of Paradise Valley, was fired upon by Indians, and four of the party, among whom was G. W. Dodge, were killed. One man named Noble received three wounds, and the other two were unharmed. Noble, although hit in the neck, shoulder and groin, succeeded in keeping the enemy at bay, while his two companions secured the horses, and the three made their way to Star City. The locality of this tragedy received the name of Disaster Peak. The Humboldt Register of June 4, 1864, notes the return of parties from the expedition that recently left Humboldt and vicinity to chastise the Indians ; records that a skirmish with the Bannocks two of that tribe had been killed, on one of whom was found a shirt that had been the property "of one of the four men killed by them last month." This paragraph undoubtedly refers to those parties killed at Disaster Peak.

Indian Troubles in 1865.--The first attack in 1865 was in the last of February or first of March, by a couple of Walker River Pah-Utes, who murdered two prospectors near Walker Lake. The men killed were Isaac Stewart, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, aged twenty-six years, and Robert Rabe, a German, aged thirty years. The two men were on a prospecting tour and had decided to camp at a point about two miles from the head of the lake. Stewart rode forward toward the lake to view out the next day's course, and Rabe remained to prepare camp and supper. He was in the act of lighting a match when shot from behind through the back. He fell forward upon his face and the Indians killed him by smashing his head with a stone. They then started in pursuit of Stewart, who made his escape to the lake where, being headed off, he took to the water and has never been heard from. These facts were obtained from a friendly Indian. Rabe had considerable money on him and the two had four horses.

On the 14th of March two young warriors, who had been principals in the murder, were captured, with the assistance of friendly Pah-Utes. When the young men found what was likely to result to them because of their acts they proposed to ransom themselves. They offered to give the Government all their ponies, and if that would not do to throw in,

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as an extra inducement, their fathers, to be hanged in their places. Eventually they were both turned loose. On the same day, March 14th, Captain Wells, with a company of cavalry, surprised at daylight a camp of Pah-Utes on the banks of Mud Lake, within the Pah-Ute reservation, and killed every Indian found in the camp. Major McDermitt, in a letter to Governor Blaisdell, reported thirty-two as the number slain. Simultaneous with the attack of Captain Wells, Black Rock Tom was on the warpath in the north. That night a telegram from Judge E. F. Dunne, of Humboldt County, announced to Governor Blaisdell that the Wall Spring station-keeper and two men at Granite Creek Station, on the Honey Lake road, had been killed by Indians. The names of two of the men were George Thayer, an expressman, and Lucius Arcularius, the station-keeper. On the 17th, the Indians were reported as rendezvousing at the head of Humboldt Canal. A war meeting was held at Dun Glen, and only nine-teen guns could be found. On the 20th, M. W. Haviland arrived at Star City, asking help for Paradise Valley.

Paradise Valley.—On the morning of April 4, 1865, two friendly Indians notified A. Denio that in "two sleeps" a band of warriors would make a raid upon Paradise Valley, kill all the settlers and run off their stock. Mr. Denio, with his family, was living at the time on the east side of Martin Creek, near the present residence of N. Gillelan, and his neighbors were A. and J. T. Bryant, T. J. Fine and Mr. Stockham. The latter gentleman being away on a mission to procure military assistance, if possible, for the settlers, his wife was at home alone. Three miles further up the creek another settler was living, named Rembreaux. Prompt as well as energetic measures were at once set on foot to notify all the settlers, and prepare for moving from that locality to a place of safety. A conveyance had to be made for Mr. Fine, who was prostrated with inflammatory rheumatism, also for the children of Mr. Denio. The hind portion of a wagon was converted into a cart for this purpose, but before they could move a fearful storm set in, and all were detained until the following morning. During the night they were re-enforced by the arrival of Thomas Byrnes and John Lackey.

Early on the morning of the 5th, the party, consisting of all the persons mentioned, started to reach Willow Point. To do this they were forced to cross Martin and Cottonwood creeks, swollen with the recent storm, between which lay a swamp of mud about two and a half miles wide.

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Over that portion of the route the sick man and women and children had to be carried most of the way, rendering their progress tediously slow. After the passage was made, Mr. Denio and Rembreaux manned the cart in which Mr. Fine and the children were placed and started to haul it to Hamblin's corral, some three miles on their way, the two women accompanying them on foot. They were soon met by a man on horseback named Jacob Hufford, who attached a riata to the reach, which served as a tongue for the cart, and with the other end of it fastened to his saddle, hauled the primitive ambulance over the intervening distance to the corral without delay. The balance of the party remained behind at the Cottonwood Creek to get across hat stream such provisions, goods, etc., as had been taken that far in their journey. It was expected that they would be met by a man named Christopher Fearbourne, who had gone the night before up the valley with an ox-team to get the effects of ------- Barber and -------Collins, who were to leave with the rest.

Fearbourne had remained over night with the parties whom he had gone to move out of their dangerous proximity, and when they got up in the morning it was to find a large number of Indians about the house and corral. No unfriendly demonstration was made, but looks, combined with their awaiting with no apparent object about the place, seemed to carry with it the indications of hostile designs that might develop into action at any moment. Barber suggested to his companions that they all go to the corral, mount their horses and ride off; but this plan was objected to by Fearbourne and Collins, who thought a bold front might do better. They deemed the wisest course to be for them to put their things on board the wagon and go as they first intended. This plan was tried, but the Indians becoming more demonstrative and rather insolent, Barber said to his friends, "I am going to make the attempt to go for help and you shut yourselves up in the cabin if there is trouble, and do the best you can till I get back."

He went to the corral, caught and saddled a fleet-footed horse, as though nothing had occurred to disturb him, and one of the Indians asked him what he proposed to do. Barber replied that he was going out to drive in a beef to kill; but they did not seem to fully believe his assertion and two of them mounted their ponies and started with him. For a long distance they rode along, until finally seeming to become convinced that Barber had told the truth, they turned back. He rode on without

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increasing his speed until an elevation hid him from their view, when he galloped onward in the direction of the settlement where the parties lived whom we have described as on their way to the Hamblin corral.

The men who had remained behind to get their property to a place where it could be reached and taken up by the expected owner of the ox-team, had just completed their task when Barber came riding up with the news of the danger that had overtaken his comrades at the cabin. While he was telling what had transpired, one of the listeners turned to look in the direction of the threatened danger and saw a column of smoke rising from the valley, and they correctly suspected that the cabin had been fired and probably a struggle for life was at that moment going on between the savages and the two men who had shut themselves in there. Barber, Byrnes and Lackey at once started to the relief of the besieged, while Bryant and the lad Denio set out for the corral.

As Barber and his two assistants neared the burnt cabin and were within possibly three hundred yards of it, they were suddenly assailed by twenty-two Indians on horseback and a large number on foot, but the three white men made a successful retreat to the corral, three miles away, that had become the place of general rendezvous. Just at this time as A. and T. J. Bryant, with whom was young Robert Denio, a lad but twelve years old, were approaching the corral, they were discovered by the Indians, who made an attempt to cut them off, which would have been successful but for a bold rally on the part of Waldron Foster and Lackey, that created a diversion and enabled the footmen to gain the defenses. The little garrison now consisted of A. Denio, his wife and four children ; Robert Denio, a boy twelve years old, Jacob Hufford and wife, Mrs. Stockham, T. J. Fine, A. Bryant, T. J. Bryant, John Lackey, Waldron Foster, Thomas Byrnes, ------- Rembreaux and           ------- Barber. Ten men, one boy, three women and four children constituted the entire force over which Mr. Denio, by mutual consent, assumed command. The place was put in the best possible condition for defense, but it was believed by all that unless assistance came soon a massacre would be their common fate. About fifty yards from the corral stood Hamblin's house, which became a point of considerable danger, as behind it the enemy was liable to take cover and station sharpshooters. It was, therefore, decided to burn the structure and this task was performed by T. J. Bryant and Mr. Foster, under a fire from the Indians. The only arms possessed by the

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besieged settlers were three common rifles, one musket, two double-barreled shot guns, one navy and five small Colt's revolvers, and they were obliged to stay there and receive without reply the fire from long-range guns in the possession of the Indians who were on every side of them.

A Ride for Life.—It was at length determined to make an effort to break through the enemy's lines and reach Willow Point to let the people there know the peril that menaced the garrison. Thomas Byrnes volunteered to make the perilous attempt, and, mounting a horse, he rode straight down upon the Indians and passed through their lines upon a gallop, followed by a shower of bullets and a half dozen dusky warriors well mounted. The fleet-footed horse flew over the plains with its rider apparently unharmed and soon passed from the sight of those anxious watchers at the little fort. It was a race for life. If overtaken by a stray bullet, or the mounted savages, the lives of all at the corral would have paid the penalty, and seemingly inspired with the terrible emergency, the noble animal flew like a winged Pegasus out of sight from its pursuers. Arriving at Willow Point Station about 3 p. M., thirteen men were found there willing and anxious to answer the call for help, but unfortunately only twelve horses could be obtained to ride and it would not do for them to wait for an animal for the thirteenth man. Twelve accordingly mounted the horses and as they were about to ride off, a white haired old veteran named Givens, the one who was to have been left behind, seized a rifle in one hand and laying hold of the pommel of a saddle with the other, told them to "heave ahead." In this manner he kept pace with the relief party over that thirteen miles, refusing to get on a horse, and every little while saying, "Heave ahead, boys, heave ahead ; the women and children must be saved." Just at night they arrived in the vicinity of the besieged camp. The Indians, upon discovering their approach, held a hurried consultation, raised the siege and fled to the valley. No more was seen of them. About nine o'clock in the evening the entire party started for Willow Point, reaching the place at three o'clock in the morning of the 6th, where they found Lieut. Joseph Wolverton with twenty-five men, who had arrived there late the previous evening.

A letter from E. F. Dunne, of Humboldt County, published in the Gold Hill News, April 17, 1865, says : "On the 6th, Wolverton engaged a

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band of Indians about twelve miles from Cottonwood, killing ten of them, and then pushed on to Martin Creek Gap, some thirty-two miles from Willow Creek, where they killed two more Indians. A company of volunteers, citizens, arrived at Willow Creek on the evening of the 7th, and the next morning started to aid Lieutenant Wolverton, but found on their arrival that the Indians had made their escape. The only casualty to Wolverton's command was one horse shot."

Fate of Collins and Fearbourne.—On the 7th, Lieutenant Wolverton, with his command, accompanied by citizens, visited the scene of the late trouble, and upon arriving at the burned cabin found and buried the remains of Collins and Fearbourne. Judging from the appearance of the bodies and surroundings it was evident that the two men had remained in the burning house until there was left them only a choice as to whether they would die by bullets or fire. Fearbourne had apparently remained in the cabin, holding a pan over his head to protect himself from the heat of the burning roof, until his hands and arms were cooked. He had then rushed out of the burning cabin, and while running had evidently been shot in the back, falling some 150 yards from the cabin, where he was found, still grasping the pan. The charred remains of the unfortunate Collins were found among the ashes and embers of a pile of poles but a short distance from the house, and it is supposed he had been placed on this funeral pyre before life was extinct. His heart had been cut out and his body otherwise mutilated, in accordance with the usual custom of these savages. On the 15th of April succeeding the events narrated, four parties succeeded in surprising a camp of Indians near Kane Springs. They charged in among the redskins, dealing death right and left, and brought away with them eighteen scalps as trophies of their work. On the 5th of May, James Emory, of Trinity County, California, was killed by Pah-Utes, near the Honey Lake road, about twenty-five miles from the Humboldt River. He was one of seven who were en route for Pine Forest mining district. At the same time another of the party was wounded, named Spencer, and they reported having killed four Indians. May 20th, Captain Wells, with thirty-six men, fought a combined force of Pah-Utes, Bannocks and Shoshones, numbering, according to his report, 500. The scene of the battle was 130 miles northeast of Gravelly Ford, and 75 miles from Paradise Valley. The engagement lasted four hours, resulting in a repulse of the whites, and a loss of two men killed,

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named James Monroe and Isaac W. Godfrey, both of Company D, First Nevada Cavalry, and four wounded. The place where the battle was fought is called Godfrey Mountain by the Adjutant General of Nevada. A private letter from one of the soldiers engaged in the battle says : "I can give no correct guess of how many Indians were there, but they must have had fifty or sixty guns, perhaps a great many more; they used no bows and arrows." The following letter gives all the particulars concerning the incident of which it treats, that have come to us:

                                                                                    Paradise Valley, July 5, 1865.

            A. P. K. Safford :—I have this moment arrived at this point, having been one of a party of seventeen men who, on their way to Boise, encountered a large band of Indians twenty miles beyond Quinn's River, on Monday, the 3d instant, and of the party, P. W. Jackson, of Virginia City, was instantly killed. Thomas Ewing was shot through the body. Thomas Rule, of Humboldt River, was shot in several places, and a Canadian Frenchman, from Virginia City, was shot through the lungs. Ewing, Rule and the Frenchman will be here to-night. Mr. Ewing wishes you to employ a physician and send him immediately to this place, Willow Point. We hope that none of those wounded are mortally so. The fight lasted two hours.

                                                                                         THOS. J. BUTLER.

            The repeated contests in the northern part of Humboldt County communicated the excitement to the Indians of eastern Nevada, and they assembled in threatening bodies in several localities of Lander County. The Indians of this section belonged to the Shoshone tribe, an inferior and propertyless people, who were so low in the scale of humanity that they never constructed a house or wigwam, or anything that could be called by any name indicating a cover, only seeking shelter in storms—which in winter were frequent, and at times severe—behind rocks and in the lee of bushes; subsisting on pine nuts, pine burrs, roots, mice, snakes (hence their name Shoshone), gophers, rabbits and game of a similar character, occasionally killing a coyote, antelope or other large animal. The Pah-Utes were their superiors, holding them in subjection, limiting their range to what are now called the Shoshone Mountains on the west, forbidding them the ownership of horses and by other and oppressive means, continuing them in a state of destitution and degradation. The large influx of miners in 1862-'63, and subsequent years, had relieved them from the oppression of the Pah-Utes, and had so greatly bettered their condition that no apprehensions had been felt ; consequently their threatening assemblages and thieving depredations so incensed the people of Lander County that they called upon the Military Department to send

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an expedition against them. Colonel Moore, of the California Volunteers, was in command at Fort Ruby, and in June, 1865, he dispatched Lieut. W. H. Seamands, a young and energetic officer, with about forty men and a mountain howitzer, to the scene of disturbance in the northern part of Reese River Valley. Seamands encountered the Indians in the hills west of Reese River and after a few shots dispersed them, without loss to his command, and an unknown loss to the enemy. The energy and promptitude, of this movement, with the execution and terror inflicted by the howitzer, pacified the Indians of that quarter, or sent them as allies of those who were still committing depredations in northern Nevada and southern Oregon.

            Hostilities in Paradise Valley in 1865.--The citizens of Paradise Valley determined to persist in their efforts to raise a crop of grain that year, and to enable them to do so two colonies were organized. One of them was formed about May loth and consisted of Charles Adams, the founder, M. W. Haviland, A. Denio, Thomas Byrnes, ------- Travis, ------- Doom and ------- Mayland. They established themselves on the ranch now owned by B. F. Riley, Charles Singhas and ------- Rice. They succeeded in cultivating about eighty acres of ground, but about the first of July the colony removed to the place now owned by R. Brenchly; for the purpose of cutting hay. In this new locality they found plenty of Indian signs, that indicated a hostile proximity because of their secrecy or failure to lead to a visible presence of any of that race.

            The other colony was on the east side of the valley, with Martin Creek running between them, and they consisted of R. H. Scott, Edward Lyng, C. A. Nichols, Richard Brenchly, Charles Gegg, J. G. Johnson, Joshua Warford, Victor T. Schann and Michael Maylen. These parties made the cabin of R. H. Scott their place of nightly rendezvous, in the daytime working, well armed, upon their several ranches. After their crops were in, four of them left the valley and the others remained until in July, when indications of unfriendly Indians became so strong in the vicinity that Scott decided to go and see if military assistance could not be obtained. He started and got lost in the night, but, discovering a light approached it and found himself unexpectedly in the temporary camp of Colonel McDermit, who detailed Sergeant Thomas, of Company D, Nevada Volunteers, with a corporal and sixteen men to return with him.

            This command, under Sergeant Thomas, had moved north from Willow

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Point to graze their stock and occupy an advanced position in the valley. The little force was then divided, and six men, with the corporal, were some four miles from the sergeant's camp, when, on the 26th of July, they were suddenly confronted by a body of Indians numbering, as variously stated, from twenty-seven to fifty warriors. No attack was made, but their acts not being of a friendly nature, a man was sent to notify Sergeant Thomas of the condition of affairs, and he immediately started with his men for the threatened camp. The Indians on observing his approach hoisted a white flag, which the sergeant responded to by a charge that drove the marauders into the swamp where they took cover and found themselves in a trap from which there was no. chance for escape. A long and obstinate battle ensued, every man fighting on his own plan, as skirmishers, taking advantage of cover in imitation of the Indian mode of warfare. There were several citizens who took part in the fight, which made the forces about equal as to numbers. Five Indians fled to a house for safety; the building was fired and each was shot as he rushed out from his burning refuge. When the battle was over there were twenty-three dead Indians left on the battle-ground, and the balance escaped - to the hills, one of whom died from the effects of his wounds. The whites losses in the battle were : Joseph Warfield, a citizen, killed ; ------- Hereford, private, Company I, California Volunteers, killed; Daniel Muffly, private, Company I, California Volunteers, wounded; ------- Rehil, private, Company I, California Volunteers, wounded; ------- Travis, private, Company I, California Volunteers, wounded; M. W. Haviland, wounded. One soldier who was wounded cut out the ball and then continued in the fight to its close.

            Death of Colonel Charles McDermit.—On the 7th of August, this officer, who was in command of the Department of Nevada, was shot by an ambushed Indian when riding along a trail. He was returning to Camp McDermit, then known as Quin's River Station, from a scout on Quin's River, at the time, and lived but four hours after receiving the fatal wound. His remains were taken to Fort Churchill, where they arrived on the 19th of August and were buried there the next day. A letter from him, written at Quin's River Station on the 1st of August, stated as follows : "We have killed thirty-two Indians since I took the field, and have had one man wounded and one man killed." August 11th the Indian named "Tom," was arrested and shot in Spring Canyon, near Unionville,

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he having been recognized as one of the depredators in Paradise Valley. During the month of August, Colonel Bryan made a summer camp near Willow Point, where he remained until October, when the forces under his command withdrew to Dun Glen. September 3d, upon information received from and under guidance of friendly Pah-Utes, a. party of hostile Indians, numbering about ten, were surprised in their camp near Table Mountain, about thirty miles southeast of Unionville, and all were killed. Twenty soldiers, under Lieutenant Penwell, several citizens, and the guides, participated in the sanguinary work. The victims had recently participated in the war along the north line of the State, which fact was obtained from the guides, who disclosed the hiding place of the hostiles. The following account of the affair is taken from the Humboldt Register which is given to show the spirit of those times, and justification of the act by public opinion : "The Pah-Ute guides led the party upon the camp at daybreak this morning, so cautiously that the entire gang was taken in and ticketed for the happy hunting grounds before they knew what was the matter. Seven bucks bit the dust, and one or-two squaws were killed by accident." September 13th, at daybreak, Captain Payne attacked a camp of Indians in Quin's River Valley, on Willow Creek. A running fight ensued that lasted about three hours, resulting in the killing of thirty-one Indians and wounding of one white man. The following extract from the Owyhee Avalanche, of Idaho, published by John and Joseph Wasson, in October, besides the historic incident given, is valuable as being a true expression of public sentiment at that time in Nevada: "About the 8th instant a friendly Pah-Ute gave information that the Indians were camped fifteen miles southeast of Unionville, Nevada. Lieutenant Penwell, of Captain Doughty's company, at once proceeded from Dun Glen with a detachment of men and slaughtered them all. The soldiers have adopted the true method of Indian warfare. They neither wait for attacks nor hostile movements by them, but go and hunt them as men would wolves that prey on their stock."

Black Rock Tom.—The above was the name of a chief whose band of Pah-Utes had begun their raids on the 14th of March, 1865, and it was his followers, as well as those living in the mountains to the north and north-east, joined by renegade Shoshones and Bannocks, who had been keeping up hostilities during the summer in Paradise Valley and along the northern frontier. The peaceably disposed Pah-Utes were afraid that the war-

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like attitude of this band would antagonize the whole tribe with the whites and bring consequent destruction upon them. Because of this fear, Captain Soo, the chief of the Humboldt River Pah-Utes, determined to aid the soldiers in killing off all the hostile Indians, regardless of their tribal relations. In one of the first days of November, 1865, a party of men with three or four ox-teams, were hauling goods from California to the Humboldt, over the Honey Lake route. They had left Rabbit Hole Station and were approaching Cedar Springs in the evening. One of the teams had gained some distance in advance of the others when it was captured, the driver killed, the contents of the wagon plundered and the residue set on fire by Black Rock Tom and his band. The news was taken to Dun Glen and Lieutenant Penwell was ordered out with twenty-six men in pursuit of the marauders. Captain Soo, who had been the leader in the Williams massacre in 186o, acted as guide, and with the Indian characteristic of treachery and love of blood, now made war on his race. Upon examining the signs about the scene of the tragedy he came to the conclusion that Black Rock Tom was the guilty party, and the command moved north in pursuit. On the 9th of November they found those whom they were in search of intrenched upon a mountain, west of Pah-Ute Meadows, and after an unsuccessful effort to dislodge them, fell back into the valley some seven miles and camped for the night. The next morning they started for Dun Glen, where they arrived on the 11th, without loss either to the Indians or themselves.

On the 13th of November, Lieut. R. A. Osmer, of Company B, Second California Cavalry, with sixty soldiers, four citizens and Captain Soo, with fourteen of his warriors, started from Dun Glen to make another effort to punish the bold outlaw. On reaching the sink of Quin's River, about 100 miles northwest of Dun Glen, the wagons were left in charge of fourteen men, while the others continued the march. At daylight on the morning of the 17th, after having passed through the swampy sink of Quin's River during the night, Captain Soo declared as the summit of some low hills was reached that he could see the smoke of the enemy's camp fires some nine miles away to the northeast. He also insisted that the smoke was from the camp of Black Rock Tom. The march was continued, and when within some five miles of the point designated, the smoke could be seen by all. The hostiles did not observe the approach of the soldiers until only about two miles intervened between the opposing forces,

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when Lieutenant Osmer said: "Come on, boys, we can't go around; the best man will get there first," and away went the entire command in a go-as-you-please style for a two mile-charge. The chief, Captain Soo, finding that he was likely to be passed by some of the whites in the charge, reached down and with a knife cut the girth and, throwing the saddle from under him while at full speed, flew like a true son of the desert, on his barebacked horse, over the plains, and was the first to charge in among the enemy, who were making their best efforts to escape. A skirmish battle that extended over several miles of country followed. It was a dashing, gallant affair, that entitled the participants to great credit. One prisoner, a woman, was taken, whom a citizen was about to kill, but was prevented from doing so by a soldier. Five squaws and six Indians only escaped, among whom was Black Rock Tom. David O'Connell was killed, Sergeant Lansdon and another man were wounded. The bodies of fifty-five Pah-Utes were found, which does not account for all the Indians slain, many of whom must have remained hidden on the battle-ground, that extended over an area of possibly three miles square, that contained many gullies and quantities of sage-brush.

After the battle had ended, a corporal, in coming down the side of a mountain, or hill, was hailed by a comrade, and upon going to the place found him trying to stop the blood that was flowing from the wounds of an Indian mother. Beside the woman, who had received an accidental shot, lay an. infant possibly six months old, and standing close by with a frozen look of infant horror pictured in its face, stood another child about two years of age. The private said, "Let's take her down to the camp ; it's a pity to leave her here to die, and the little fellows to starve." Just then the corporal noticed a citizen passing not far away and said to his comrade, "Call ------- and he will help you ; I must hurry down." Directly after reaching the foot of the hill he heard several pistol shots in the direction of where he had left the two men with the wounded woman, and looking up that way saw the soldier coming down alone. "Where is your squaw?" asked the corporal as the private came up. "That was a fine specimen you called to help me," was the reply. "The d—d bushwhacker shot the whole lot of them, babies and all, before I knew what he was up to."

A part of Company B, from Dun Glen, and Company I, from Camp McDermit, both of California regiments, met at Kane Springs for a

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scout under Captain Conrad, in December. Black Rock Tom had gathered in the scattered families of his followers and joined by those of other bands that were still committing depredations, had rendezvoused in another locality on Quin's River.

The snow was lying upon the ground at the time, and the command under Captain Conrad were forced, one night while out, to lead their horses in a circle to keep from freezing. The Indian camp had not been discovered yet, and camp fires were not allowed, as they would reveal to those sought the proximity of their enemies. Eventually the Indians were discovered on or near Fish Creek, and surrounded before daylight. One squaw, a boy, and an old man were captured, the balance, about forty in all, being killed. No whites were injured. Thus ended organized hostilities on the part of any band of the Pah-Ute tribe. Some of the more desperate, however, allied to renegades from the Shoshone and Bannock tribes, continued hostilities along the borders the following year, some of them entering Paradise Valley. Black Rock Tom, who was absent at the time, went down to the sink of the Humboldt, and delivered himself up as a prisoner to the chief Captain Soo, who turned him over to the soldiers and told him that he had better make his escape if he wished to live. An opportunity was given for the attempt to be made, which he availed himself of, when he was shot and killed. The following is from the message of Gov. H. G. Blaisdell to the Senate and Assembly, dated January, 1866: "Lack of time forbids detailing the incidents of my visits among the various tribes ; suffice it to say, some of their arguments were unanswerable. They said, through their interpreter, `The white men cut down our pine trees, their cattle eat our grass, we have no pine nuts, no grass seed, and we are very hungry.' I found them in several instances with nothing to subsist upon but rabbits, mice, grasshoppers, ants, and other insects."

Paradise Valley Trouble in 1867.--In the summer of 1866, Camp Winfield Scott was established at the north end of Paradise Valley, and on the twelfth of December, that year, it was occupied by Company A, United States Cavalry, under Capt. Murry Davis, with Lieut. John Lafferty as second in command. On the twelfth of January, 1867, Lieutenant Lafferty encountered a band of Indians near the head waters of the Little Humboldt, killed several of them, and destroyed their camp. In the fore part of February succeeding, he drove another party from the south fork of

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the Little Humboldt into the mountains, who escaped because of the deep snow. The last of February, Captain Davis left Camp Winfield Scott, Lieutenant Lafferty remaining in command, and his energy and ability as an officer were soon put to a severe test. March 13 the Indians ran off the stock belonging to Charles Gagg, who lived about eight miles southerly from the post. The following morning found the Lieutenant, with fourteen men, in pursuit of the marauders, and, notwithstanding a fierce storm and fall of snow, had completely obliterated their tracks, he continued the search. On the ninth day out he encountered the band he was pursuing, killed six of them, destroyed their camp, and captured their arms.

Hon. James A. Banks Killed.—This vigorous action made him a terror to the dusky raiders, and gave a quiet season for putting in crops to the farmers in Paradise Valley ; and no further trouble was experienced until on the first of August, when Hon. James A. Banks was killed by them, within a couple of miles of Camp Winfield Scott, while fishing in Cotton Wood Creek. Mr. Banks, who was at the time a resident of Dun Glen, Humboldt County, was in company with Rev. Mr. Temple, of New York City, on a visit to the camp and, joined by Lieutenant Lafferty, were out fishing, as before stated. Mr. Banks strolled up the stream by himself, and the Lieutenant with Mr. Temple returned to camp. The continued absence of his guest caused the Lieutenant to institute a search, fearing that he might have become bewildered and lost his way. The remains of the unfortunate man were found, shot through the breast, the assassin having stripped and mutilated his body; and two days later the Rev. Mr. Temple preached the funeral sermon of his friend, whom they buried in the camp cemetery.

Mr. Banks was a native of Pennsylvania and thirty-nine years of age. He emigrated to California in 1852 from Pennsylvania and became for several terms a member of the Legislature of that State. He came to Nevada in 1863, was a member of the Convention that formed the State Constitution, and was Speaker of the House during the second annual session of her Legislature. He was a true friend, an able man and a good citizen, and the news of his death was received with sadness throughout the State.

The Indians, it was afterward learned that three of them had committed the act, made good their escape, and a detail sent in pursuit of

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them soon returned from an unsuccessful scout. Lieutenant Lafferty then took his entire available command and started upon the war path. He reached the south fork of the Owyhee, where near its head waters he came upon the enemy, killed four of them, captured four, and, later in the same day, while scouting alone in a canyon, came upon four other Indians, and in a hand to hand conflict killed two of them, captured the others and drove them ahead of him into camp. This was the last of his combats in Nevada, being relieved from command about the first of November by the arrival at Camp Scott of Lieutenant Joseph Karge, with reinforcements.

The Winter of 1867, and Spring of 1868.--On the nineteenth of November, 1867, before Lieutenant Karge had become informed of the general surroundings of the country, the Indians made a raid into the eastern part of the Valley and drove off all the stock except that of Mr. Scott. Lieutenant Karge went in pursuit, but moved so slowly, on account of deep snow and baggage, that nothing was accomplished. The winter of 1867 was very severe, and the snow fell to the depth of several feet in Paradise Valley, and continued upon the ground longer than ever known before. Owing to the severity and length of the winter, many families were forced to subsist upon wheat and barley, ground in a coffee mill. Spring had hardly come before the valley was visited again by Indians, who, becoming emboldened by their success a few months before, repeated the operation, this time driving off all the stock belonging to M. W. Haviland. There were about twenty in the band of depredators, under leadership of the dreaded Big Foot ; and young Hunter, a lieutenant who had recently arrived, was ordered to take Sergeant John Kelly, Corporal Thomas Reed and Private Thomas Ward, and pursue the enemy, whip him and bring back the stolen property. In obedience to these orders, the young lieutenant, who had never witnessed an engagement, set out on this perilous enterprise and was joined by a citizen named John Rogers, from whom Big Foot had taken a valuable horse. A few unpleasant words had passed between Lafferty and the commanding officer, because the former had insisted that it was much like murder to order out such a detail in pursuit of Big Foot. Lafferty asked to be sent in place of the young and inexperienced officer, which request was refused ; but after the forlorn hope was gone he was permitted to take a small force of select men and follow on. He scoured the foot hills and canyons

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in vain search of the young lieutenant, and was about to take to the mountains when a messenger overtook him, with the news of collision between the Indians and those he was in search of, and the consequent imminent peril of his friends, and without a moment's delay started with his command at their utmost speed to the rescue. The five men, after starting in pursuit of the Indians, had gone directly to the mouth of Deep Canyon, where they struck Big Foot's trail, and young Hunter, as rash as he was inexperienced, dashed along the rocky pass, followed by his men. Suddenly they were brought to a halt by a volley from the concealed enemy that unhorsed every man and stretched the brave young leader bleeding upon the rocks, and beside him were the sergeant and private, writhing in the agonies of their death wounds. The corporal and citizen were unharmed, but their clothing was perforated with bullets and their horses were gone. Sheltering themselves behind a rock, they held a consultation to see what should be done in this fearful emergency. It was determined that one of them should try to reach .Camp Scott to give the alarm, and Rogers volunteered to make the attempt. He threw off his hat, coat and boots and then made a dash from behind the rock down the canyon, followed by a volley and then by scattering shots, until he was out of sight, miraculously escaping without a. wound. He finally reached headquarters with news of the disaster. There was "hurrying to and fro, and gathering in hot haste" at Camp Scott, and soon the entire force was on the gallop-march to Deep Canyon, some eight miles away.

In the meantime, Thomas Reed, the corporal, had been protecting his wounded comrades by firing upon every redskin that showed himself and making sure passport for any of their number of the "happy hunting grounds" who made the attempt to reach them. It was a desperate con-test with fearful odds against the single hero ; but nerve and courage won the prize, and the band of Indians retired from the canyon without having been able to touch their prey. At length the command arrived from the camp, followed later by Lieutenant Lafferty; both were too late, for Big Foot and his band had made their escape and went unpunished. The Government later rewarded the brave Corporal Reed by presenting him a medal for his gallant conduct.

Soon after this Lieutenant Lafferty was ordered on duty in Arizona, where he distinguished himself in several battles with Cachise's Apaches the most warlike Indians on the continent. In his last engagement,

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October 20, 1869, while holding the Apaches in check for the purpose of recovering the bodies of some dead comrades, a portion of his lower jaw was carried away by a bullet, disabling him for life. In the report by Colonel R. F. Bernard of this engagement, he says : "The conduct of Lieutenant Lafferty, Eighth Cavalry, was most gallant and brave. The cavalry arm in Arizona has lost, for a time, a good and brave officer in Lieutenant Lafferty. A government, in extending thanks to their officers, cannot bestow them too freely upon such officers as Lieutenant Lafferty, Eighth Cavalry." Occasional straggling bands would continue to enter the valley at long intervals and steal stock until the close of 1869, since when there has been no further trouble with Indians in Paradise Valley.

The Dry Creek Fight.—The story of the killing of Applegate and Lozier constitutes a thrilling reminiscence of old overland times. Of this sad and exciting event, Mr. R. H. Egleston, a resident of Eureka, relates the following. He, having assisted in their burial, heard the first statements of the survivors and was familiar with the scenes. Four days after the attack on Dry Creek Station he was at Diamond Springs, sixty miles east from that point, on his way from Camp Floyd to Carson, in company with Thomas Smith and Elisha Mallory, a rancher at present living near Genoa. The details of the fight were told to Mr. Egleston by a pony rider, W. L. Ball, more familiarly called "Little Baldy," who, with Silas McCanless, the station keeper, escaped from Dry Creek and made their way to Diamond. They were as follows :

At the time of the fight there were four men at the station—Si McCanless, the station keeper; John Applegate, Ralph M. Lozier and Little Baldy, the pony rider. McCanless, the station keeper, was living with a Shoshone squaw, and it appears that the Indians were dissatisfied with this fact, and wanted the squaw to return to the tribe. Early in the morning of the fight the Indians, numbering about fifteen or twenty, who were camped nearby, came to the station and demanded of McCanless to give up the squaw. Considerable wrangling and high talk was engaged in, but she was not given up, and McCanless having given the Indians a generous supply of rations and in a manner pacified them, they went off evidently satisfied. They returned, however, at about seven o'clock, and creeping up to the station, which was built of cottonwood logs and, being newly constructed, had not been "chinked" with mud, they opened fire through the crevices between the logs, and at the first

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volley killed Lozier and severely wounded Applegate, he being shot through the fleshy part of the thigh, the ball ranging up and coming out through the pocket of his pants. Leaving Lozier dead in the station, the three men fled, McCanless's squaw in the meanwhile running between them and the Indians and endeavoring to keep the latter back. Applegate, who was badly wounded and was fast failing from loss of blood, knew that he could not hold out in the race, and halting he asked Baldy for the revolver, and rather than to be overtaken by the red devils, who were close upon them, and dreading the torture they would inflict, placed the pistol to his ear and deliberately blew his brains out. McCanless and Baldy continued to run for their lives. In order to lighten themselves, they fairly stripped to their underclothing, and after a most desperate flight of several miles managed to outstrip the Indians, who gave up the chase. The two men continued on at their utmost speed until they reached the station of Robert's Creek, thirty miles distant from Dry Creek. Here they found a Spanish cook and the pony rider, where they remained until midnight, when the four left for Diamond Springs, thirty miles further on, reaching that point at sunrise the next morning. It was here that Mr. Egleston met them, and he promised Baldy and McCanless that the two men killed by the Indians should be properly buried when he and his party reached Dry Creek. Upon arriving at Dry Creek, nearly a week later, search was made for the bodies. That of Lozier was dragged from the house and horribly mutilated. The coyotes had torn it to pieces. The scattered remains were buried on the spot where Applegate fell. Applegate's body was found and the two were buried together and a monument of stones piled over their grave.

Massacre at Canyon Station.—On the sixth of July, a few weeks after the preceding occurrences, another and more successful attempt was made to capture that station. At this time there were six men at the place : Wm. Riley, known as Deaf Bill, his assistant and four soldiers of Company E, Third California Cavalry, named Tarsey Grimshaw, Michael McNamarra, Anthony Myers and Lewis Pratt. About sunrise Deaf Bill was currying a horse in front of the barn, when he was shot dead by a concealed foe. At the noise of the gun the helper rushed out of the barn, and at the same time one of the soldiers came from the "dug-out," and both were shot as they appeared. The three soldiers still in the "dug-out," or cabin built underground, decided to make a rush for the barn,

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which they did, and one of their number was killed on the way, leaving but two of the original six to continue the fight. The two survivors built a breast-work from the sacks of grain, and for an hour beat off their assailants, but the wily foe finally set a stack of hay on fire, close to the barn, and the result of the conflict was no longer in doubt. It was Myers and Pratt who had thus far escaped the fate of their comrades, only to be burned at last unless they rushed forth from behind their defenses to be shot down finally like wolves in a desperate struggle for life. They at once decided to mount horses and make a dash. As one was a favorite fleet-footed animal, they drew lots to see which should ride it. Fortune seemed to favor Lewis Pratt, as he drew the favorite horse. Shaking each other by the hand, they mounted for the desperate ride for life. Out of the road and down the road like the wind they flew, with Pratt in the lead, while from every sagebrush along the route seemed to come the leaden missiles. A hope of life was springing into the hearts of the flying men when Myers suddenly threw up his arms and rolled from the saddle. His horse went a little farther and fell, both of them struggling with their death wounds. The bullets whistled about the receding form of the gallant Pratt like hail as he was passing out of the range of the Indian rifles, until he disappeared down the road toward Willow Station, thus far the only white survivor of the conflict. That day a train of emigrants passed this last named station on its way to California. As it reached a point about one mile west of that place, a dead horse was found lying in the road, and beside it lay stretched the unconscious form of a soldier mortally wounded. It was the last survivor, the gallant Pratt and his noble animal, and the two lay there together, side by side, the dying and the dead, shot through and through. He lived to be carried to Willow Station, where the sad tale of the massacre was told, and then he died. Company K, stationed, as before stated, at Deep Creek Station, went in pursuit of the band who had committed this last depredation, but failed to come up with them, and after a two weeks' scout returned with the report of having killed two Indians in Pleasant Valley.

End of the Gosh-Ute War.—But few events worthy of note transpired on the line of the overland road after those given above. Among these were the hanging of a Shoshone in July by the military authorities at Fort Ruby and the shooting of another—both participants in the outraging of the little twelve-year-old-girl, murdered in 1861 on the trail from Ruby

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Valley to Gravelly Ford. In August, Company E, Third California Infantry, under Lieutenant Hosmer, attacked a camp of Indians about twenty miles north of Cherry Creek, in Steptoe Valley, and killed five of them, and in October the Gosh-Utes asked for peace, which was granted them, and they returned to the stations begging for their rations, as usual.

The loss to the Overland Stage Company in Utah and Nevada from this war was one hundred and fifty horses, seven stations burned and sixteen men killed. Nevertheless the stages never failed to make their regular trips, and seldom were behind their schedule time, although beset with all those dangers and calamities.

Henry Butterfield's theory of the cause of the war is that it was instigated by the Mormons. In support of this position Mr. Butterfield, who was conversant with the language of the red men and had for a long time lived in their country, relates that in 1864, while he was sub-Indian Agent, he met by appointment the Gosh-Ute chief, White Horse, at Desert Station. The chief, upon being asked why he had begun the war, disclaimed having had anything to do with it. He said his tribe had been told from time to time by the Mormons that the Gentiles were holding back and appropriating to their own use their Government annuities, and that the only way for them, the Indians, to "get even" would be to begin killing the whites and stealing their property. Under such advice his people had broken the bonds of restraint and, contrary to the desire of himself and other chiefs, taken the warpath. Such is the Indian excuse, however poor it is and little entitled to credence, for having committed their barbarous and brutal acts along the overland road.

Eastern Nevada War Panic in 1875.--In the early part of September, 1875, two Indians of the Gosh-Ute tribe informed A. J. Leathers and James Tollard that they knew the locality of a valuable mine which they would point out for a consideration, to which the two men agreed was fifty dollars for the services, and in the ledge was found all as the Indians had described, except that it proved to be worthless. Because of this last fact the whites refused to pay their guides, who, thinking they had been unjustly dealt with, in revenge killed Tollard, the other white man making his escape to A. C. Cleveland's ranch in Spring Valley, White Pine County. Cleveland immediately took the warpath and captured an Indian whom he took to his ranch, intending to deliver him over to the civil

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authorities for trial, but the aborigine in attempting to make his escape came to an untimely end from the effects of a bullet from the revolver of Mr. Cleveland. Another Indian was met with by some of Cleveland's herders, who ordered him to give up his gun, and upon his refusal to do so they killed him. The Gosh-Ute were at the time assembled in considerable numbers in the nut-pine forests of the neighborhood, and were very much alarmed because of the summary killing of the members of their tribe. These circumstances created somewhat of a panic or "scare" through central and eastern Nevada, and the most exaggerated and extremely sensational reports were circulated and published. Volunteer troops were raised at Eureka, Pioche, and other places, equipped and sent to "the front." Gov. L. R. Bradley, believing the danger to be imminent, issued orders to captains of volunteers to seize horses and necessary supplies for the troops, and the "military," under command of Major John H. Dennis, left Eureka September 6 for Spring Valley to rescue Cleveland and those with him supposed to be besieged at his ranch. Governor Bradley also telegraphed to General Schofield as follows :

Elko, Nevada, Sept. 6, 1875.

To Major-General Schofield, San Francisco:

Information most authentic from Pioche, Eureka and Spring Valley, all unite in demands for troops and arms. Am unable to furnish them. Dispatch just at hand signed by all commissioners of Lincoln County, says that 300 Indians in eastern Nevada appear to be on the war-path, and ask for 200 guns and ammunition. Most reliable information from Cherry Creek assures me that I am not misinformed.                                                                                       L. R. BRADLEY.

Major Dennis and his command made a hasty march to Spring Valley, appearing to the frightened Gosh-Utes an overwhelming army. Either the arrival of so formidable a force, or, as the Indians asserted, they had no intention upon their part to begin war with the whites, they being assembled there for the purpose of gathering pine nuts, and not for hostilities, there was no conflict. The name of the Indian who killed Tollard was To-ba. He was demanded of the tribe, delivered by them to the soldiers, and from them was taken by citizens and hung. Thus ended the last Indian "war" in Nevada, resulting in more ridicule to its instigators than glory to the military participants.

Indian Demand for Satisfaction.—About this time the Walker River Pah-Utes made hostile demonstrations in the vicinity of Ione, then the county seat of Nye County. Several hundred of them entered the village

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and demanded a certain sum of money from the whites for indignities offered one of their tribe by a bevy of hilarious sports. The situation beginning to wear a serious look, the prominent citizens contributed to the Indian's demands and they departed without shedding blood.

Two Men Killed in the South.—The same fall a party of whites, among whom were Thos. Shaw, McBride, Broom, William Garhart, with others, started from Ione for Gold Mountain, south of Lida Valley, and at the northern extremity of Death Valley. One night after having arrived at their destination Garhart was shot with an arrow through the wrist, and the remainder of the party escaped unharmed to Silver Peak.

Sarah Winnemucca.—On the eighteenth of May, 1867, Naches, the Pah-Ute chief, came into Carson City with a message from Old Winnemucca to the effect that the latter wanted to make peace with the whites and go upon the Pyramid Lake Reservation to live. Subsequently, through the efforts of Naches and Sarah, a daughter of Old Winnemucca, who had married Lieutenant Bartlett of the regular army, terms were made with the old chief, and he, with a portion of his tribe, were settled upon a reservation beyond the limits of the State. Subsequently the Pah-Utes who had been induced to go to the north, becoming dissatisfied with the Indian Agent, tired of their northern home and longed to return to the scenes of their earlier life. Sarah Winnemucca, who had been educated at San Jose, California, and developing considerable oratorical talent, was ever ready to eloquently advocate the return of her people to Nevada; while, on the other hand, the Indian Agent was most desirous that they should remain where they were. Sarah Winnemucca since that time has delivered several lectures at San Francisco and other places upon the condition of her people and their abuse by Indian agents, and created much sympathy in behalf of her race.

First Lottery in Nevada.—Mr. Joseph F. Triplett, a well-known citizen of eastern Nevada and one of the pioneer residents of Carson Valley, gives the following account of the first "gift enterprise" occurring in the Great Basin, which indicates considerable native shrewdness of the Washoe savage: "In 1857 Captain Jim, chief of the Washoe tribe of Indians, went around among the white settlers in Carson Valley and notified them that upon a certain day his tribe would give a big `fandango' or dance, and invited all to attend, stating that he would give each white man a buckskin, adding that `maybe so white man bring one sack, two

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sack flour.' As it was the policy of the settlers to conciliate the red man, we nearly all of us attended his fandango, taking along, as the chief suggested, a sack of flour. As each white man dismounted from his horse and laid his sack of flour on the ground, an Indian led off and secured the horse. The whites were allotted seats on the ground, in a circle around the dancers. After a while the dancing ceased, and Captain Jim appeared in the circle, followed by a big Indian laden with buckskins, and with much ceremony presented one buckskin to each of the visitors. Buckskins were worth about eight dollars. The wily savage made a good thing by the first gift enterprise ever gotten up in the sagebrush country, and the whites made fast friends of the tribe."

Young Winnemucca.—This redoubtable chief, who had command of the Pah-Utes in many a battle and foray, died of consumption at Wadsworth on the fifth of November, 1871, leaving a son about twenty years of age, who bore the unromantic name of Mike. On the eighth of December following the death of the chief a successor was elected, bearing the name of George Curry. In 1868, Mr. W. K. Johnson was killed by an Indian in Mason Valley, in Esmeralda County. The savage escaped to the north, but was pursued and captured at Peavine, in Washoe County, taken thence and hanged in Carson Valley, at the place then known as Widow Newman's ranch, about half a mile below Cary's Station. In the year 1866 there was an Indian who frequently came into Aurora, Esmeralda County, who pretended that he was a "medicine man" and practiced his art upon some of his credulous brethren; most of whom died while under treatment by him. The deaths becoming so frequent, the wise men of the tribe came to the conclusion that it was his "bad medicine," and he must die. A delegation of braves thereupon seized the unfortunate doctor at Aurora, on the eleventh of October, and while some of them held him, others beat out his teeth, plucked out his eyes, crushed his skull, and finally cut his throat. In 1874-75, among the characters met with in the towns of western Nevada was a Pah-Ute Indian man, tall and finely proportioned, who dressed in squaw costume. He was not recognized by the people of his race of either sex; the Indian children shunned him; he was an object of ridicule for members of other tribes and of the whites, and moodily and disconsolately wandered around. Tradition said that upon an occasion, many years before, he had shown himself a coward in battle and that the council of his tribe had sentenced him to death therefor; but that

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the sentence was afterwards commuted and he was doomed to don the dress of woman as long as he lived. He finally disappeared and it was reported that his dead body was found in a mountain gulch.

Arrest of Naches.—Naches was a man of some importance among the Pah-Utes, was tall and of commanding appearance, and was usually called by the whites a chief, although he appeared to have but little authority. When there was no more call for his scalping knife on "the tented field," his many moons were wasted about the kitchen doors and waste places of the mining town wherever he wandered, presenting but little of the beautiful ideal of a warrior. In January, 1874, it was represented that he was inciting the Indians on the Humboldt to commit some depredation; also that he declined to remain on the reservation at Pyramid Lake, preferring the vagabond life among the interior towns ; consequently on the twenty-seventh of that month he was, by order of Captain Wagner, in command of Fort McDermitt, arrested and sent to Fort Alcatraz, in the harbor of San Francisco. There he was treated with much consideration, shown the "sights" and the power of the whites, and sent home rejoicing after a short detention. The newspapers of Nevada represented Naches as a good and peaceable Indian. In June, 1878, he resigned whatever chieftainship he possessed, and Captain Charley, of Wadsworth, reigned in his stead. The fate of this latter chief may be surmised from the following paragraph in the Carson Appeal of February 29, 1880: "The Pah-Utes have disposed of the slayer of Captain Charley—an execution without loss to the State."

The Pah-ran-a-gat Indians.—The Pah-ran-a-gat Indians are a branch of the Ute family and derive their tribal appellation from the cultivation of the watermelon, which in their language is called pah-ran-a-gat (pah meaning water, and ran-a-gat melon or vine-growing). At the time the prospectors first entered the country occupied by them they found this band inclined to peace and engaged after their rude manner in tilling the soil. Although they raised a small quantity of wheat and some corn, their principal crop was the squash. A diminutive species of sunflower was also planted for the seeds it yielded, and some watermelons were also to be found in their cultivated patches. Grass seed was also largely used by them as food. To irrigate the land under tillage they had constructed several ditches which were creditable to these primitive engineers. Crystal Spring, which flows an estimated head of 600 inches of water, was the

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source of supply for the largest of these ditches, and at its head the canal was eight feet wide on top, six feet deep and several miles in length. To dig this they had procured iron from the abandoned emigrant wagons in Death Valley, which they had patiently cut, shaped and fastened with strong twine upon wooden handles, to be used for picks and spades. As winter approached, crops were carefully gathered and cached for future use, and they were thus enabled not only to live well themselves, but were also prepared to trade agricultural products to their mountain neighbors who depended for a living upon the results of the chase and pine nuts. The Ash-Utes were the more constant dealers with the Pah-ran-a-gats, and supplied the latter with much dried meat, buckskins, etc. The Indians, however, soon traded off to the whites the land they had tilled and adopted the vagabond life common to the race. One or two months after the occurrence of the incidents above related, all of these men, with the exception of Agent Sales, returned to the mines, and with them came many others attracted by reports of mineral wealth. That same year an Indian of the Pah-ran-a-gat tribe named Oh-Kas murdered a white man named George Rogers to get possession of a fine horse which the latter owned. Another Indian informed the whites of the transaction; the murderer was caught, compelled to disclose the place where Rogers' body was secreted and then hung.

Early in the spring of 1866 a camp of Muddy River Indians was made near Quin's Canyon in the Shein-nic-a-rah mountains in the White Pine range. These Indians began to steal and run off stock from Pah-ran-a-gat and other places. Agent Sales being absent, the miners thought to adjust the matter without his assistance, which they did in a summary manner. A party of six white men was organized, and one of the number, named Hoppin, was chosen captain. The services of two friendly Pah-ran-a-gats were enlisted, and one evening, about dark, the party left their camp for the hunt on horseback. Early in the morning, after the second night out, while in Quin's Canyon, they discovered "signs" of the enemy. Leaving their horses in charge of one of the party, named N. H. Carlow, the others carefully reconnoitered until they located the Indian camp. They then divided, two in one squad and three in the other. The two went directly toward the Indians, while the three others had cautiously slipped around and were approaching in the rear of the camp. The Indians, seeing the

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two white men approaching, made fierce gesticulations and dared them to fight. The three men in the rear were not seen by them until they had come within twenty yards and delivered a well-directed volley from their rifles. There were twelve Indians in the camp. After the fight eleven of them lay dead, and the remaining one had escaped only to die, for he was mortally wounded.

The number of Indians in Lincoln County in 1873 was estimated by the Indian Agent to be 1,235. Since then they have fallen off rapidly, and probably do not at this time number more than one-half the above figure. They are Pah-Utes with various local tribal names. Though generally peaceful, they occasionally commit depredations. In December, 1874, a party, supposed to belong to Tem-pah, Ute Bill's band of Indians, attacked and killed two white men about seven miles from Hiko. The names of the two men killed were Peter Dawson and Charles Olsen. Another man, named William Hannan, was at the same time shot and wounded in the shoulder, but escaped and told the story of the murder. The settlers of Hiko immediately gathered together, and a scouting party went out after the Indians, with fruitless results. On the sixteenth of December the following appeared in one of the Pioche papers, over the signature of J. S. Hoag, under sheriff ; M. Fuller, district judge ; J. H. Cassidy and George Goldthwaite : "The Indians have killed eight persons, including one woman and three children, within the last few days in this country, on the Muddy Reservation and near Hiko. We have no arms and no protection. We wish arms and that the Indians be punished."