THE CAUSE OF THE INDIAN OUTBREAK. 221 



During the summer an army of Indians, reported in 

 the Dubuque Herald as amounting to 2500 men, and con 

 sisting of the Kiowas and Comanches, had been collected 

 in a threatening attitude in the vicinity of Pawnee Fork, 

 Walnut Creek, and that portion of the plains. They 

 had, however, been watched and overawed by detach 

 ments of the United States army until immediately pre 

 ceding the 26th of September, about which time, as far 

 as I can learn, the troops usually begin to seek their 

 winter quarters. No sooner had the troops commenced 

 to leave the plains, than on the evening of the 21st of 

 September a party consisting of Kiowa Indians, about 

 fifteen in number, under their leader, a petty chief, called 

 " Pawnee," who, though not belonging to the tribe of that 

 name, was the brother of Tehorsen the chief of the 

 Kiowa Indians, and son-in-law to Satanka, or the Sitting 

 Bear, who is the war-chief of the same tribe came to the 

 trading post on the Santa Fe road, and with threats 

 demanded liquor. This the white men at the post refused 

 them, and barred the doors and windows of the cabin. 

 The redskins mounted the roof, 'and, brandishing their 

 tomahawks, threatened the inhabitants with death unless 

 they immediately complied with their demands. The 

 whites within the house, however, under promises of 

 future gifts and by persuasion, pacified the savages, and 

 induced them to retire and leave their leader Pawnee still 

 in a state of conference. As soon as his followers were 

 thus disposed of, they then seized the petty chief, dis 

 armed him, and sent an express for military aid, when 

 Lieut. Bayard, in a forced march of twenty-eight miles, 

 speedily arrived with a detachment of his men, and, accord 

 ing to orders, received the prisoner into military custody 

 for having threatened the life of an American citizen. The 



