INTRODUCTION. liii 



Johanna and myself were placed side by side, and they 

 came up to inspect us and see which one they should kill. 

 The choice fell on poor Johanna, and she was shot through 

 the head. Tying us Sophia, Lucy, Nancy, and myself 

 they hurried us across the prairie, going south. My 

 clothes were torn from me. I was stripped naked, and 

 painted by the old squaws, and made the wife of the 

 chief who could catch me .when fastened upon the back 

 of a horse which was set loose on the prairie. I don't 

 know what Indian caught me. I was made the victim 

 of their desires nearly all in the tribe and was beaten 

 and whipped time and time again. They made me carry 

 wood and water like the squaws. I had to kill dogs and 

 cook them for the Indians to eat. We had nothing but 

 dog-meat and horse-meat. During the time we were 

 away from the home camp on the Staked Plains I nearly 

 froze. The snow was very deep, and I had nothing to 

 keep me warm but a blanket. Both feet were frozen, and 

 my nails came off from my feet. Sophia was with me 

 but little of the time where she went I don't know. I 

 am positive I can identify every one of the seventeen mem- 

 bers of the party that murdered my family. ;c Medicine 

 Water" was with them, and I believe was the leader.' 



Atrocities such as have been here indicated have 

 roused the indignation and passion of the frontiersman 

 beyond control, and as this feeling is reciprocated by the 

 Indian who sees his hunting-grounds occupied and food 

 destroyed, it has become almost impossible to exaggerate 

 the antipathy existing between the settlers of the Western 

 Plain and the aboriginal inhabitants. A bloody feud, and 

 a strife utterly implacable, with the mutual purpose of 

 extermination, exists between the two races. The Eed 

 Men wage a pitiless and incessant war of treachery against 

 the whites. They never spare ; they come in darkness 

 and by stealth, with rifle, tomahawk, and scalping knife ; 



