BOI-HKK.] NKCKLACK.S OF HUMAN FINGERS. 4X1 



Cheyenne was to be found there the fighting was most desperate. It 

 is ii matter now well established that the Cheyenne are an offshoot of 

 the Aigonquian family, speaking a dialect closely resembling that of the 

 Cm-, of British America. 



It may interest some readers to listen to a few words descriptive of 

 the manner in which such a ghastly relic of savagery came into my pos 

 session. On the morning of the 25th of November. 187ti, the cavalry 

 and Indian scouts (Sioux, Shoshoni, Arapalio, Pawnee, and a few of the 

 Cheyenne themselves), of (Sen. Crook s command, under the leadership 

 of the late Brig. (Jen. Hanald S. Mackenzie, then colonel of the Fourth 

 Cavalry, surprised and destroyed the main village of the Cheyenne, on 

 the headwaters of the Powder River, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wy 

 oming. The onslaught was irresistible, the destruction complete, and 

 the discomfited savages were forced to flee from their beds, half naked 

 and with nothing save their arms and ammunition. More than half of 

 the great herd of ponies belonging to the savages were killed, captured, 

 or so badly wounded as to be of no use to the owners. The cold became 

 so intense that on the night after the light eleven papooses froze to death 

 in their mothers arms, and the succeeding night, three others. This 

 blow, the most grievous ever inflicted upon the plains tribes, resulted 

 in the surrender, first of the Cheyenne, and later on of the principal chief 

 of the Sioux, the renowned Crazy Horse; after which the Sioux troubles 

 were minimized into the hunt for scattered bands. Undoubtedly, among 

 the bitterest losses of valuable property suffered by the Cheyenne on 

 this occasion were the two necklaces of human fingers which came into 

 my possession, together with the small buckskin bag filled with the right 

 hands of papooses belonging to the tribe of their deadly enemies, the 

 Shoshoni. These were found in the village by one of our scouts Bap- 

 tiste Pourrier, who, with Mr. Frank Uruard, was holding an important 

 and responsible position in connection with the care of the great body 

 of Indian scouts already spoken of. From these two gentlemen I after 

 wards obtained all the information that is here to be found regarding 

 the Cheyenne necklace. 



The second necklace, consisting of four fingers, was buried, as Gen. 

 Crook did not wish to have kept more than one specimen, and that only 

 for scientific purposes. Accordingly, the necklace here depicted was 

 sent first to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and 

 later to the National Museum in Washington, where it was believed it 

 could better fulfill its mission of educating students in a knowledge of 

 the manners and customs of our aborigines. 



The buckskin bag, with the papooses hands, was claimed by the 

 Slioshoni scouts, who danced and wailed all night, and then burned the 

 fearful evidence of the loss sustained by their people. 



The necklace is made of a round collar of buckskin, incrusted with 

 the small blue and white beads purchased from the traders, these being 

 arranged in alternate spaces of an inch or more in length. There are 



&amp;lt;) KTH Ul 



