TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 27 



CHAPTER II. 



INDIAN W ARF ARE Sioux massacres horrible mutilations on the trail of 

 murderers a battle with the Sioux Indian tricks Nickerson fires first 

 fatal shot eleven Sioux killed "Calamity Jane" attacked by Indians- 

 Randall's successful shot fourteen Sioux lie dead we pursue our 

 journey. 



Spearfish was our objective point, and, with a party con- 

 sisting of thirty miners, we pulled out of False Bottom over 

 a road which never had been worked. We arrived at Dead- 

 wood Corral, halted in a little valley, where we struck a camp 

 and began our preparations for the great trip across the 

 plains. Our attention was presently attracted by the rapid 

 firing of rifles, and we soon saw that a party of whites below 

 us in the valley was fighting for life, against great odds, 

 with Sioux Indians. Curling smoke could be seen and we 

 knew the prairie had been set on fire. Some of our party 

 started to the rescue as fast as their horses could bear them, 

 but were too late to aid. 



Seven men and one woman had been massacred. They 

 had not only been shot and scalped,, but their ears and noses 

 had been cut off, and they were otherwise mutilated beyond 

 recognition. Powder had been shot into their faces until 

 all possible chance of identification was lost. The bodies 

 were hauled into camp in a small cart, the bed of which was 

 not long enough to hold them. Their limbs hung down and 

 dangled to and fro as the vehicle moved. It was a horrible 



