Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — BAD WHISKY AND COWBOYS. [ARTICLE]

BAD WHISKY AND COWBOYS.

They Unite with Indians to Raise a Row at Pine Ridge. Another scene in the shooting tragedy on the Sioux Reservation was enacted Friday evening near the spot where the four white men were killed by Indians. As soon as the news of the tragedy was brought to Pine Eidge Capt. Brotvn, the agent, dispatched twelve mounted police under command of Police Sergeant Joe Bush to the scene of the shooting, with instructions to arrest and bring in the perpetrators of the bloody work. When the squad arrived at their destination Two Sticks and his crowd opened fire on them and a skirmish took place, resulting in the death of two of Two Sticks’ party and the wounding of Two Sticks and one of his sons. Two Sticks himself was shot in the leg and in the abdomen. Two Sticks’ sbn was wounded slightly in the ankle. The dead Indians were left where they fell and the woundid ones were brought to the agency. The motive for the murder cannot be definitely learned. One account is that the Indians were playing cards with the white men in the degout in which they were camped and got into a dispute, and that, after leaving them, the Indians returned and opened the door of the dugout and shot them while they were asleep. Another account is that these Indians had been in one of their sweat houses, going through some of their savage ceremonies, and became imbued with the idea that it was incumbent upon , them to kill these men and proceeded to carry it into effect.

After making their reports the police were highly complimented by Captains Brown and Cisney. Capt. Brown has another squad of police out after those who got away, with instructions to bring them to the agency dead or alive. A courier reports that Two Sticks and his two sons returned twp or three hours after killing the cowboys and took all the bed clothing in the camp and stole what food was in sight. It is a difficult matter to obtain reliable particulars. Last night it was rumored that Two Sticks’ friends were moving toward the agency and were going to fire the government building, but this cannot be confirmed. A blizzard is now raging, which is usually more cooling to an Indian’s ardor than anything else. Captain Brown does not fear serious trouble, but others do not have the same opinion.

A Rapid City, S. D., dispatch says the reports of danger from discontent among Pine Ridge Indians caused by the murder of four cowboys are unfounded, no general disquiet being reported. The Humphrey <fc atenger cat-

tlemen were killed by a wandering band as a result of. a quarrel early In thd week. Colonel Carlton of Fort Meade, has countermanded his orders and no troops will be sent to Pine Ridge. Everything is reported quiet there. A later dispatch from Omaha says: The true account of the alleged Indian massacre is simply this: Thursday a number of cowboys belonging at the beef camp of Isaac Humphrey, a government contractor located on White River, at the mouth of AVhite Clay Creek, at out twenty-five miles northwest of, Pine Ridge Agency, returned from town in a drunken condition, and brought a good supply of whisky with them. During the evening they became quarrelsome and mistreated and injured an Indian by the name of Two Sticks, driving him from their camp, and firing their revolvers at him. Two SticKs returned later in the evening, X’e-enforced by his sons and a number of other relatives and friends, and commenced a deadly fire on the cowboy camp, killing Ihree and mortally wounding a fourth man, who has since died.