Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1891 — INDIAN FIGHTS TO A FINISH. [ARTICLE]

INDIAN FIGHTS TO A FINISH.

Rules Under Which One of the Principals is Sure to be Knocked Out, John T. Miller, of Fort Reno, Oklahoma, while seated in a group at the Laclede hotel St. Louis, pugilism being the topic of conversation said: “When you talk about a fight to a finish and knock-out blows both are witnessed in the aboriginal degree of perfection when a fight between two Indian bucks is seen in a ring, the circumstances of which is not a rope but a string of interested human spectators. It is a fact that among Indians of the same tribe, though they may number thousands, there are few* cases of quarrels among them that ever result ih murder. This is strange when it is rememberthat the Indian is passionate, uncontrolled in'his impulses, cruel and ferocious by nature. They have their difficulties and quarrels, however, but arbitration of the old men prevents bloodshed or murder.

“Yet once in awhile a fight occurs and it is a novel sight to witness. One buck challenges another to combat. and, accompanied by their friends to the battleground, each buck is stripped to the* nudity so pleasing in high-cultured art schools among the palefaces and made to confront the other. Between them lies a war club —* smooth, long piece of hard wood, seasoned by years of service and regarded as a sort of mas cot because of the bloodstains on it received during the war. The seconds of the surly looking duelists toss up a piece of bark on “the wet or the dry’ principle, when boys long ago chose sides in playiogOtown ball. The winner picks up the club and.his opponent, folding his arms, sturdily plants himself, bending his head, ft is the privilege to whack his antagonist just as hard as he can and with all the vigorous maliciousness he can command on the back. One blow is struck and then the man who has epdured it picks up the club and his opponent is subjected to all the force he can command. So the whacking goes,on, and almost every blow is a knock-down one. until the duelist last knocked down rises to his feet and refuses to accept the club from his opponent. He has bad enough and the party breaks up. “The severity of the punishment indicted and endured in these duels is marvelous. c . The club used has a jagged edge, and every blow struck brings blood, making deep cuts and fearful bruises. I have seen two such fights, and they are brutal and nauseating in the coolness of their procedure and tho,, appearance of both contestants after viefcegy is woj) and defeat confessed.” t ", i •* ' • M -

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