Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1870 — An Indian Trick. [ARTICLE]

An Indian Trick.

Wb hear a great deal about Yankee tricks, but a private letter from a soldier out on the Plains shows that the redskins have some shrewdness. Says the writer: “ We are after the Indians hot blast; and I tell you, the man who takes these fellows for dummies finds himself woefully deceived. A part of our troop had been on the trail of a small band of Sioux, and they had dodged us, and bothered us, and beat us, until we determined to have them, come what might. One day we came upon them, and it appeared so suddenly, too, that there was no chance for them to escape. Each man seated himself squarely In his saddle, and, with - revolver in hand, we dashed on. There squat each identical Sioux on his pony, just as though we were miles away, and as stoically indifferent as though they did not care a continental. As we at full gallop drew near, the officer in command felt that we were riding into some trap, but it was too lute to sound a retreat, and on we went. I think the distance between us and the Sioux and their ponies was just twelve feet before a single red skin moved a

muscle; then, quicker than you could say ‘ scat,’ off from the shoulders of each identical Sioux came the fiery red blanket he wore, and up and down it was shaken vigorously in the very faces of our horses. We had boasted a great deal over those horses, and they would do anyl thing we wanted them to —that is to say they would drive through a prairie fire, along side a bull buffalo, through a prairie dog village, and over dead Indians, but I tell you, you ought to have seen them, to a horse, turn tail and run from those blankets. We were going along so nicely, and each trooper was ao eager to make a dead sure thing of his redskin that we let the horses have it much their own way, and

we repent of it. Just as frightened as they could be, they paid no attention to curb, and away they went in every direction. Troopers were sprawling on the ground, and others were clinging to horses’ manes, with both feet not only out of the stirrups, but pointing in the air. It was the worst stampede I ever saw, and I have looked on * some ’in my day. If the Sioux had followed mp they might have made a few scalps, but they seemed ao well pleased with the result of their trick that those who were unhorsed near them say they disappeared as if they had gone down through the earth. When our troop assembled, we, one and all, declared that the thing was the best of the kind we had ever heard of, but determined that we would pay them back for it one of these days, with a will.”

An Indian woman was bit by a rattlesnake, near Mariposa, Cal., the other day. An Indian was sent for a bottle of whisky to counteract the effects of the poison, but used it all to get drunk on, and the bitten wowm died »wt day,