Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1871 — Seven Years a Prisoner of the Black Feet Indians—A Horrible History. [ARTICLE]

Seven Years a Prisoner of the Black Feet Indians—A Horrible History.

On Tuesday last a French boy named Bouillon Wood, made prisoner by the Blackfeet at the St Cloud mascacre, in 1864, arrived at Manistee, Mich., on his way to his uncle at Grand Haven. At this point he gained the first intelligence of bis relatives. He tells the .following story, and from a rigid cross examination, and’the fact that it is the true story of .St. Cloud, and his being able to minutely describe his uncle, there can be no doubt of his honesty. The redskins attacked ,hik father’s family and killed all beside himself and a younger sister. His father, Peter Wood, was scalped and tomahawked. His mother was ripped open alive, her entrails takeh'out, and her infant boy torn from her arms and impaled pn the fence. His two sisters, aged respectively twenty and twenty-one, were nailed by their hands and ieet to the wall, scalped, and afterward tomahawked. The boy Bouillon, then about twelve years old, was conwellcd to witness the dying agonies of his Wither, and fainted at the sight. On recovering, he found himself and little sister captives. The Blackfeet’carried them to the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, and on arriving cut off with a tomahaw k the left arm of the boy, and with a knife cut the girl’s ears nearly oil’, leaving them hanging. This they did to mark their captives. Here the children were separated and have never met since. lie remained under close surveillance until the time of his escape, ‘"Subsisting so seven years on raw meat and Indian fare. At first, before he understood their language, they abused him dreadfully, but after he acquired that to some extent they treated him better. The medicine men tried hard to cure his arm, but failed, and the boy suffered with a running sore until his escape. About one year ago, while the camp was asleep, he made his escape, traveling along without a gun or other means of securing game, and subsisting on herbs, roots, and Indian potatoes, until he struck the first white settlement, Pike’s Peak. Here he was cared for and his arm re-amputated by Dr. Bass, He made his way by slow stages, mostly on foot, to this point, passing railroads and steamboats, yet unable to get passage, as none believed him. Here he met with friends, and was taken charge of by Mr. Charles Paggest, who ascertained the truth of his story, raised a purse and purchased a pass for him to Grand Haver. The attention of Senator Ferry will be brought to his case, and he will be glad to make an effort to have "his little sister sought for by the Government. The boy is an honest, simple Frenchman, and bears upon Iris person the marks of his terrible tprtures. He wept when he described the terrible murder of his people.— Milwaukee 'Hews, June 27.