Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1901 — THE INDIANS PAID. [ARTICLE]

THE INDIANS PAID.

Wliat the White Men Charged Them For Killing' One Donkey. In “Reminiscences of Old Times In Tennessee” a story is told of tlie good faith and honor of a party of Chickasaw Indians. While hunting one fall they shot a donkey, mistaking the creature for a wild animal. They sold the hide, and it finally came to the hands of John Barnes in Lipton. When the Chickasaws returned to the region of Lipton for their annual hunt the next fall, Barnes invited them to a shooting match, the prize to be the skin of a very rare animal. Thirty braves appeared at the contest, and one of them won the prize. When he saw the skin, he turned it over and said: “Ha, ha, me kill him! Me shoot him! See!” And he pointed to the fatal bullet hole. Then Barnes told them that they had killed a donkey, a very useful animal, but he was sure that they had done It by mistake, believing it to be a wild animal. The Indians listened attentively to the white man’s words' and then consulted together a few minutes. Finally they separated, each brave going to his pony, unhitching him and leading him to the spot where a gang of white men stood, Barnes in the midst of them. Then one of the Indians spoke: “We sorry we kill donkey. We think he belong to the woods. We find him in cane. We think him wild. We sorry; now we pay. We take no white man’s hoss, pony, nothing of white man. We honest. We have ponies, that's all. Take pay.” And he motioned to the long line of ponies, held by their owners. “How many?” asked Barnes. “White man say,” returned the Indian, “take plenty.” The honor of the red men was not equaled by the white men, for, be it recorded to their shame, they took from the Chickasaws 35 ponies to pay for the accidental killing of one donkey.