Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1908 — TINY BABY AVERTS INDIAN MASSACHE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TINY BABY AVERTS INDIAN MASSACHE

WON HEART OF CHEYENNI| Ctt|KF WHEN H,E COMES TO FtECONNOITER FOR A RAID. 5p THE PEOPLE ARE KIND TO HIM Whit. Mother Places Infant In Arms of Big Horsa—Latter Says Great Flood la God’s Sign of Opposition to Killing. Arapahoe, Okla.-rJphn H. Soger, for more than 30 yeari a government em- 1 ploye among the Cheyenne Indians In Oklahoma, relates this story of how a massacre of the inhabitants of Darlington Indian agency, many yean ago, was averted i ■> i.‘‘Big Horse, ttw. father of Hubbej Big Horae, the lodise Interpreter, was a chief among a warlike band of ln> digns on the Washita river. He and . his band plotted to go to, Darlington and massacre all the whites at thatagency. Grant's peace policy had lust bean well inaugurated, and the foi* lowing will show that kindness can melt even the heart of a Cheyenne ■ warrior.. •s. ... ... ; na. - j “Whoa this war party arrived near Darlington they camped for the night Oft Qie west aide of the North Cana■O, Expecting as the morrow Jo ge oyer ahd do the job they had manned. Fortunately for Grant's Quakers, a cloudburst a few days before up In Beaver county raised the river so that night tiie banks were full. Their object In killing these white employes was to get the provisions ahd cattle and horses. The Indians reasoned that they much of the j sugar and fkspr.in cwwsjng the river while |pi were full, so they decided fb yjalt a day longer. “Big ljorfa.fajri h* would go over and the agency and find the exact locithfoi of all the white families. HejjLjfothe agent, a TO-year-old Quaker, % was a very kind hearted man. jpft took Big Hone to dinner jdfo vT|g».„he wept, to see anojw ,Qtthk«.lan|Py. ij|a little lady ilka her haby flp iJWk, Inpv h« want back sbd the Indiana smoked

the pipe around, Big Horse told how kind the people were. “The hot-headed young warriors, ready for the warpath and pillage, said “Squaw! Squaw!’ “ ‘Call me a squaw if you want to,' said Big Horse, ‘but you never saw the man Big Horse was afraid of.’ “The next day the was still up, and Big Horse 'itM Mi* wafttors to stay in camp and he would go over again. This time the Quakers treated him even better than they did the day before. The little baby knew him and held out his hands to be taken. The big old savage warrior took the baby and held it in his arms until it and woke again. “That night when he went back to camif and smoked the pipe around be said: " ‘These people when they eat return thanks to God. This day the little baby knew me and held up its hands to come to me. I held it while it slept. My bravery has been tried on many a battlefield and no one ever saw Big Horse run from ad enemy. My endurance has been tested in the hunt. But there is a Great Spirit. He sends the floods when there are no clouds. He sends the fire from Vie skies. Of these I have control Now, I have a vow to make with you, my, warriors. Now, the Great Spirit has sent this flood when there are no clouds. He does not want us to kill these people. But if the flood goes down to-night we will take it as a sign that He wants us to do what we have set out to do, and we will go over la the morning and do Just what we came here to do. Bat if the river is still up we will return to Washita and say the Great Bpirit did not want these people killed.' “The next morning the North Cana dlan was out of its banks and all over the bottoms, and the old Chief Big Horse led his war party back to tfee plains of what is now Cnster county, Oklahoma, and Grant’s peace policy one ttane saved a handful of helpings maployga and Chet < few wensee ail shOdren from a ■mtcfa’’

The Baby Held Out His Hands to Him.