Читать книгу The Collected Works - Luther Standing Bear - Страница 17

Table of Contents

Early in the spring of 1878 the different bands of the Sioux had moved around the agency. Some had moved in very close so as to be among the first to draw rations. Here they were all waiting. It was suggested that we have a big dance and everybody went home and dressed in his best clothes. After the people had returned, some one suggested that it would be a good idea to dance in front of one of the agency stores. This always drew a crowd, and the traders would come out and make the dancers presents in the shape of paints, calicoes, and boxes of soda crackers.

The Indians liked this idea very much, and they went around to the different stores collecting all they could. At length one of the old men of the tribe announced that there was to be a ball game the next day, in which everybody could play. The ‘Loafers’ were to play against the ‘White Thunder’s’ band. The ‘Loafers’ were a bunch of the Spotted Tail Indians who always hung around the agency. We called them Wa Klure, or loafers, because that was all they did.

The following day there was quite a crowd at the agency. We went across the creek where the Episcopal Church stood. There were no houses there at that time. We started playing about noon, and the game lasted until perhaps two o’clock. I was in the game playing on the White Thunder’s side. Finally I became tired and quit.

Then I thought I would go and visit my mother. To reach her place I had to follow a path which wound around the creek. As I was walking along I noticed some one was coming behind me. I looked around and observed a woman walking very fast. I ran ahead a bit and then slowed down, for I was not sure whether she wished to catch up with me or go on ahead.

Just as I came around a bend in the path, a man jumped out from behind a bush, with a gun in his hand, and he pointed it right at me. I stopped short. The man had a rather bad look in his eye and I was undecided what he meant to do. He wore a piece of white cloth around his head and had on a gray blanket. He carried a belt of cartridges around his shoulders instead of around his waist. For a second I thought he was going to shoot me down, but he pointed the gun to one side of me. I then noticed that he was after the woman behind me, and not myself.

As soon as the woman saw him, she turned and ran as fast as she could. The man ran after her. Just as he passed me he shot at her, but missed. I could not tell where the bullet struck, but the man began loading his gun again as he ran. The woman was now screaming loudly for help, and several of the men who had been playing ball came running toward her.

The man with the gun caught up with the woman, and I had a terrible feeling that he was going to shoot her down now. Instead, he just grabbed her by the arm. Just at this time the other men arrived and pulled the man away from her. They took his gun away and shot the charge into the air.

Then I ran on to where my mother lived and told her what I had seen, but I did not know either the man or woman. I remained until after dark, and in the evening the White Thunder’s band held a council, and the woman was present. We boys remained outside to hear what the chiefs had to say.

It appeared that the woman was the wife of the man who had shot at her, and she had run away from him and did not want to return. White Thunder spoke first. He said, ‘We must return this woman to her husband.’ Swift Bear spoke next, as he was the leader of my mother’s band. Others also made talks. One of them said, ‘I will furnish a pony for her to go back.’

When the woman heard the decision of the chiefs, she began to cry. She did not want to go back to her husband, but that was the ruling of all the chiefs. During this hearing no questions were asked and no sides were taken. The woman had simply run away from her husband, and the chiefs decided she had to go back, as he was a good man.

The next day I saw the two bands of White Thunder and Swift Bear taking this woman over to the agency. They took some ponies and other things along. Then they had the agent send for her husband. The agent gave him the ponies and other things the Indians had brought. That meant if he accepted the presents he must take his wife back, be good to her and forgive her. He accepted the presents and left with her.

That afternoon I thought I would visit some of my relatives who lived about six miles from the agency on the Little White River. I concluded to walk, as it was a beautiful day and the birds were singing and I meant to enjoy my little trip on foot.

Soon I observed some one in front of me. There were two pack-ponies and some extra animals, which a young man was driving, and a woman was riding a pony and leading another which dragged a travois. At this point there was a small footpath that led over a hill. I concluded to take this footpath, so as not to frighten their ponies by running past them.

Just as I got to the top of the hill, there lay the same man who had pointed his gun at me the previous day! His wife was going back home with a young man, who was a friend of her husband’s. He looked at me just about as he had the day before, and I started off on a dead run! I don’t know whether he recognized me or not, but I remembered him.

The name of the man whose wife had left him was White Man’s Horse, of Red Cloud’s band. The name of the man who had stolen his wife was Mr. Eleven, and he belonged to the White Thunder and Swift Bear band, located at Spotted Tail Agency.

Mr. Eleven went from Swift Bear’s band to stay with White Man’s Horse, who was a distant relative. He remained quite awhile, taking care of the ponies. The wife of White Man’s Horse fell in love with him, and they ran away to the Rosebud Agency together.

So the chiefs got her to return to her husband. She saw the folly of her ways, went home, and they made up. This all happened when I was ten years old, but they are still living together on Wounded Knee Creek, at Pine Ridge Agency.

You see we were not infallible in those days. The Indians had their little ‘triangle affairs,’ but they were much better taken care of than by the white man’s method. The chiefs always gave presents, from the one who was at fault to the other, who was to forgive and forget. If they could not do this, then they were not to go back together again. There was no great scandal written up in the papers about either party. It was up to them to do just as they thought best, and they lived happy, whether they were together or living apart.