Sweet Savage Surrender (31 page)

"
Lean Bear
  told me to always remember the treaty that had been made at the Big Council in
Washington
.  It was about the lands that belonged to all of us and to our children
,”
he had said.    In return for letting the white man pass over our land we were promised annuities and  protection by the soldiers from every enemy, red or white."   Blue Fox growled in anger at the thought of how trusting his father had been.  "
Lean Bear
  said that fighting would only bring more and more grief and heartache to everyone.  Perhaps so
,
but his peace efforts  brought nothing but grief this nigh
t and for many more moons."  

Many of the grey heads
—the older members of the tribe--plus Desert Flower, Blue Fox’s
young so
n and Skyraven were all with
Blue Fox's mother now
,
but  Skyraven knew there was little they could do to comfort her.  In her heart she was all alone.  She
would  not sleep this night.

"Ey-ee,"  The air was shattered by
the soulful
wail
of Lean Bear’s wife mourning her husband. It was a sorrowful sound repeated over and
over as she rocked back and forth on her heels.  A sound as if she
,
too
, were dying.

Drums beat, voices chanted,  expressions on all faces showed disbelief and anger.  The
Cheyenne
were enraged by the death of their beloved chief.  They were only kept from immediate revenge on the whites by Black Kettle who had come to pay his last respects.  Had it not been for him, Skyraven was certain that the braves would have ridden out and mad
e retribution for the killing.

"And now it seems right that Blue Fox become chief," one
of the young braves whispered.

"No," Blue Fox said
, rejecting the suggestion
"If it is a peace council you want, I will let Black Kettle go from his camp on Smoky Hill near Hackberry Creek,
” he
said.  " But hear this, and let me make it clear.  I will not attend another peace council.    The white man's hands are  dripping with my father's blood.   Perhaps
Lone Wolf is right after all."

"We can understand your anger and desire for revenge
,
but let us give peace a chance as Skyraven's young man has suggested.  I like him and I trust him.  You seemed to take him to your heart also, Blue Fox." Desert Flower said, thinking p
ast the passion of the moment.

"Our white brother, John Hanlen is not like other white men.  I do think we can trust him.  It is too bad that he is not of Indian blood.   I tell you this now,  we have lost our lands along the
North Platte
but we will not give up one inch along the Republican or
Smoky
Hill
Rivers
. If we must  fight the white men for that hunting ground, then we will also
have to fight John Hanlen." 

No
, Skyraven thought. 
Not her soldier
.  He couldn't be blamed for what had happened.  He had not even been among the soldiers.  Was it not possible that just as there were renegade Indians so
were there renegade soldiers?

"You are right in what you say.  The buffalo herds here can last a hundred moons or more," one of the young braves said.   "Be not troubled that we would not be with you on that.   Each of us here would  fight to keep
this sacred ground." 

Runners were sent out to each village with news of
Lean Bear
's death.  Bull Bear said that his brother,
Lean Bear
had been a friend of whites but nonetheless had been killed by them. "No peace can be had with the white men! "he shouted.  Bull Bear was leader of the Dog Soldiers, the skilled
Cheyenne
fighting group with which Lone Wolf
often mingled. 
Lean Bear
's brother would not speak of peace. He began holding war councils and his followers voted to retaliate against the whites.

To most of the 
Cheyenne
tribes it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
It was unforgivable that their great, friendly chief had been murdered by the white man, he who had gone
all the way to
Washington
D.C.
to sm
oke the pipe of peace with the G
reat
White Father
!
  Many of them felt that they must band  together.  The
Cheyenne
nation should go to war with the white eyes.  Treaties were only for the white man .  Thus,
it was that almost
immediately bands of Bull Bear's
Cheyennes
attacked ranches that lay along the stage road, killing one white and
running off several others. 

Blue Fox, however,  once his anger had cooled, was willing to give peace another try for the sake of his son if for no other reason
,
but in his heart he was certain that while the whites were talking peace, they were preparing to bring big guns into the Indian country.  Not now
,
for winter was fast approaching but as soon as Spring came
again, they would be there. 

Skyraven sat close to him as Blue Fox  sat alone pondering
.
He seemed to be confused.   He wanted peace for his wife and son but he also wanted revenge for his father's death.  The terms of the treaty had promised that each side would punish their own for wrong doing.   Since the treaty was signed
,
the
Cheyenne
and Arapaho always released  their captives to the forts.  They no longer took prisoners of war, but the whites had Lone Wolf in prison and had made no effort to release him
to his tribe for punishment.

"Lone Wolf is caged like an animal.  Punished by the whitemen."   
Blue Fox  said that he did not feel that Lone Wolf needed to be punished for just stealing a few horses, not aft
er what the white men had done.
"The whites do their share of horse stealing from the Indians
,” he explained
. 
“
Besides
,
many of our horses were wild before being taken into the white's possession and th
ose
horses had been taken from land that was supposed to belong to the
Cheyenne
."  He said
further
that  Lone Wolf had not killed anybody.
It was his belief that the
treaty seemed to be a one sided affair.  Blue Fox was not so sure that anothe
r treaty would be any better, b
ut then he w
ould let Black Kettle decide.
"For now
,
I will do what the elder
s of the tribe want  me   to do,
"
Blue Fox concluded.. 

An uprising had not taken place because of the efforts of Left Hand,
Buffalo
's Brother and Black Kettle.  They had gathered enough support among the other chiefs and their people to force the young hostiles to  remain quiet while peace was negotiated.  Still,
Lean Bear
's death had
undoubtedly marked
a turning point in the dealings
of
the Arapaho and
Cheyenne
, with
the soldiers.  If the whites struck again
,
what would happen?  It was a thought that chilled Skyraven as she looked upon the Cheyenne Camp from  her special spot by the river.  In her mind rang  out her grandfather's voice, telling her that there would be death and destruction.  Was this what he had meant?  Or would the days ahead prove that there was more to come?

Chapter Thirty-Two

Fort
Lyon
was abuzz with the
rumors
.  It was said that Chivington, who had just returned to the fort, had received a communication from two of his commanders who had joined forces in the Smokey Hills area.  It seemed,
went the rumor,
that Lieutenant  Colonel Sedgwick and another officer
had been attacked by Indians.

"Attacked?"  John was completely taken by surprise when he overheard snatches of the conversation.  "Which tribe?  When?  What exactly h
appened?" he asked frantically,
understandably c
onfused, troubled and fearful.

"Your
peaceful
Cheyennes
, Major," Ben Staltwort said with an all-knowing grin.  "So much for your claims of
their being peaceful."

"They
are
peaceful, at least
Lean Bear
's tribe," he countered, annoyed by
the young officer's cockiness.

"
Lean Bear
," the name struck a chord of recognition in the lieutenant.  "It was
Lean Bear
's braves.  They attacked a joint regiment of troops commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Sedgwick and a Lieutenant Eayre who was heading the Independent Battery of
Colorado Volunteer Artillery."

Staltwort repeated the story he had heard.  Sedgwick had been on his way to
Denver
to meet with Chivington when he was joined by Eayre
,
who was in pursuit of the Indians who had reportedly stolen one hundred seventy-five head of cattle.  "There were four hundred of your
peaceful
Cheyennes
.  They swept down on Sedgwick an
d Eayre without provocation."
             

"I don't believe it!  There has to be some kind of mistake!"  His face turned red as
he blustered his indignity. 

Turning his back on Lieutenant Staltwort
,
he hurried to Chivington's headquarters.  There he read a transcription of Eayre's and Sedgwick's reports.  It said that when the soldiers were within three miles of  Smokey Hill they were attacked by the Cheyenne Indians, about four hundred strong, and after a persistent fight of seven and one-half hours
, they
succeeded in driving them from the field.  The Indi
ans, the report stated
, had lost three chiefs and twenty-five warriors
in the battle
;
the
wounded
couldn’t even be
estimated.  The soldiers' loss
es included four men killed,
three wounded and various othe
r
losses
of weapons and animals.

Chivington's staff officer had written back that the colonel commanding the district was highly gratified at the conduct of Eayre and his command and would so speak of Eayre highly in his repo
rt to department headquarters.

So, Eayre claims that the Indians attacked first,
John thought.  He didn't even know the lieutenant yet he doubted his word. 
He could not believe that Lean Bear would do such a thing. John
remembered how proud the old chief was of his medal, i
t had been given to him by the Great White C
hief, he had said.  And what of Blue Fox, Black Kettle and the others.  And yet he
did
trust Sedgwick's word.  The man
had been a family friend for a long, long time
.
             

Over and over he pondered the matter in his head, trying to sort out the details of the report.  He thought of Skyraven
,
and
above all
the love he held for her in his heart caused him to reject the authenticity of that damned piece of paper Chivington held in his hand.  That Chivington openly crowed about how right he had b
een after all goaded John
into investigating for himself the truth
surrounding the atrocity.
  Although there was much doubt as to who had actually started the trouble
,
one thing was clear to him.  Eayre had been out to kill Indians.  Several of the soldiers told John th
e lieutenant had made his intentions clear.

Having heard that the Major was asking questions
,
one young soldier  who had been in the supposed battle sought him out
and confidentially told his side of the story.
  H
is was an entirely different report from the one documented.
  He said that the original party of Indians was much smaller than reported and that
they
had been
the ones attacked
.  He also made mention of the fact that a few
women were with the Indians. 

"Sergeant Fribbley was approached by
Lean Bear
and accompanied by him into our column, leaving his warriors at some distance.
” The soldier recounted. “
A short time after
Lean Bear
reached our command
,
he was killed and
ri
fle fire
opened upon his band."

"And
Lean Bear
did not give an
order for his braves to fire?"

The young man was obviously shaken.  "No, Sir he did not.  He was waving a piece of white paper, shouting out that he was peaceful, that he didn't want any trouble......"
 
The young soldier looked bewildered.  "Why did we shoot him?  He didn't mean any harm, h
e wasn't even carrying a gun."

"I hope that it is nothing more sinister than that it was all a big misunderstanding, soldier," John relied, seething inside as he thought about
the murder of
that noble old man
.. “then what happened?” he asked the soldier.

"There was another band of Indians up on the ridge that Lieutenant Eayre hadn't seen when he gave the command to fire.  They pursued us until we
….
...we ran."  Taking a deep breath to compose himself he said, "I think we did wrong, Sir. Shooting a man when he isn't aiming to harm you well...it...it just isn't fair."  After a pause he continued.  "The next morning ab
o
ut nine o'clock we were attacked by about seven hundred Indians, and fought them until dark.  We lost four men.  We...we had no interpreter along with us
,
but when  two Indians came to meet us they appeared friendly and ran off.  Anyway
,
Lieutenant Eayres didn't even try to hold a
talk with them, either time."

"Some
of the Indians speak English, S
oldier, nearly as well as we do. 
Lean Bear
did
, that I know for certain.”
  John couldn't help but feel bitter and angry about what had happened.  He felt a little guilty too.  He had been so emphatic about there being peace, about not making show of weaponry.  Was it possible that he had in some way contributed to the death of
Lean Bear
?  Would Lieutenant Eayre have been as bold about confrontation if the Indians had been brandishing arms?  He would never know
,
but the question haunted him and he was determined not to let the matter rest.  He owed it to
Lean Bear
, to Desert Fox and the tribe to exonerate
the good name of
their
chief.

In an effort to get to th
e truth of the matter
, John questioned Lieutenant  Colonel Henry Sedgwick
,
and was tr
oubled when he seemed to vary in his account
.  One time there were two hundred Indians, the next moment three hundred.  The time and details of the orders that had been handed down changed in the telling a number of times.  Another thing that bothered John was the way Henry always avoided his eye
.
  John determined that in the future he would keep careful wa
tch on the lieutenant colonel.

It seemed that the whole fort was divided over the matter of the Indian situation.  Some
still
blustered that the only good Indian was a dead one, others took a more lenient view.  Nevertheless
,
Chivington was the one in command and his contempt for the "savages" obviously influenced the decisions made in the next few days
.  The Indian captive
was moved from the brig to
a windowless cell thought to be more secure
, his food rations cut in half. 
As that Indian brave were responsible for the trouble in the area
!
  John thought with compassion in his heart..

Though John tried to get leave to visit Skyraven's village
,
his requests were denied, not once but several times.  Chivington made it only too clear that he had the upper hand.  Nevertheless
,
John did what he could from the fort,
including
sending messages to
Washington
.  In the end, though
Chivington's resented
his interference, he did get a special investigator to take interest in the matter, Major T. I. McKenny who talked to members of E
ayre's and Sedgwick's command.

McKenny reported back that Lieutenant Eayre, with two mountain howitzers and eighty men
,
went in search of Indians with instructions to burn villages and kill
Cheyennes
whenever and wherever found.  With his men and fifteen wagons
,
he had wandered out of his district and come upon the band lead by Chief
Lean Bear
.  After the "unfortunate" incident regarding that chief
,
Eayre's soldiers had scattered and the Indians, taking advantage of the situation
,
made an attack.  It was in this skirmish and not in the one concerning
Lean Bear
that the soldiers under his command had been wounded and killed. Eayre was  sited for irresponsibility but not punished. Sedgwick's part in the fighting was merely coincidence, a matter of being at a certain
place at a certain time, and t
he Lieutenant Colonel was  declared g
uiltless of any wrong doing. 

It was hardly the re
port that John had hoped for and indeed
only seemed to fire Chivington's determination.  Instead of discontinuing his tirade against the Indians
,
he now openly engaged in fighting them whenever he got the chance.  In
only a few weeks time,
officers under the colonel's command engaged in major fights with the
Cheyennes
three times, burned four of their villages and killed a number of their people, among them
Lean Bear
who had prided himself on his peaceful relations with the whites.   I
n John’s opinion i
t was hardly a record of which John felt the soldiers should feel proud.  His only
conciliation
was
at least there was no
stain
of blood on his hands.  His "softness" toward
the Indians
was no secret and he had been ordered to stay at the fort at all times.

Chivington's efforts had much the same effect as poking
at a hornet's nest with a stick.  T
he warriors of the
Cheyenne
reacted in anger.
  John heard that the
Cheyenne
d
og soldiers and young warriors were striking out in retaliation at last, though it was
Kansas
which suffered the main part of their vengeance.  Some men at the fort whispered behind their hands that "old Chivington" was stirring up an Indian war so that he could bask in the glory of being a hero.
Other
sold
i
ers were certain that the
Cheyennes
were working out a plot to run the whites out of the country.  There were those who lauded John's recent peace efforts and those who condemned him as an "Indian lover".  John
,
for his part
,
continued his efforts to find a solution to the
brewing
storm
.
  He wrote letter after letter only to be dealt a crushing bl
ow. 
The Commissioner of Indian
Affairs,
himself a personal friend of Chivington,
basing his conclusions on reports from the territorial governor's report,  wrote that  from a careful examination of the papers, reports and letters from Evans he was unable to find any immediate cause for the uprising of the Indian tribes of the plains, except the active efforts upon their savage natures by the emissaries from th
e hostile tribes to the north.