MooNEv] INDIAN DEPREDATIONS IN 1804 177 



Colorado, for the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, 

 wrote that "the orders are to kill every Indian found in the coun- 

 try, and I am inclined to assist in carrying the orders into effect" 

 (Report, 10). 



The ofUcial reports covering the summer of 1804 are full of notices of 

 murders and depredations on the plains. The agent of the Overland 

 Mail stated in August that as a consequence the company had been 

 compelled to abandon all its stations for a distance of 400 miles, while 

 every ranch within the same section had been deserted. He reported 

 that the Indians "arrogantly declare that the land belongs exclusively 

 t(i tlieiii ; they intend to regain and hold it if they have to destroy every 

 white man, woman, and child to accomjjlish their purpose. It would 

 seem that the recent enormous emigration across the plains has alarmed 

 many of the tribes and infused into their rude minds the beUef that 

 the whites were about to take possession of their country" (Report, 11). 

 The great emigration referred to was in consequence of the rush to the 

 gold mines of Pike's Peak, discovered in 1838. 



VACCINATION AMONG THE PLAINS TRIBES — SET-T'AINTE 



As usual, the Indians had deferred hostilities until the grass was 

 high enough in the spring to enable their ponies to travel. In April a 

 government ])hysician, who had been sent among these tribes to vac- 

 cinate them as a protection from the smallpox which had recently deci- 

 mated them, as already noted, found them all apparently friendly. 

 From him we have an interesting description of the appearance and 

 home life of the famous chief Sett'aiQte. He writes from Fort Larned : 



I have been two weeks among the Kiowas, about 40 miles up the Arkansas river. 

 I was four days in Satana's \^Set-faxnte] or White Bear's village, who is, I believe, 

 their principal chief. He is a iiue-lookin^' Iiuliau, very energetic, and as sh.arp as a 

 brier. He .and all his people treated me with much friendship. I ate my meals 

 regularly three times a day with him iu his lodge. He puts on a good de.al of style, 

 spreads a carpet for his guests to sit on, and has painted firebo.ards 20 inches wide 

 and 3 feet long, ornamented with bright brass tacks driven all around the edges, 

 which they use for tables. He has a brass French horn, which he blew vigorously 

 when the meals were ready. I slept with Yellow Buffalo, who was one of the chiefs 

 that visited Washington with Major CoUey. They have quite a number of cows and 

 calves and a good many oxen and some mules and American horses that they say 

 they stole from Texas. A body of Kiowas and Comanches and some C'heyeunes 

 intend to make another raid into Texas in about five or six weeks. 



It will be remembered that Texas was at this time in armed rebellion 

 against the general government, a fact which confirmed the Indians in 

 their belief that Texans and Americans were two distinct and hostile 

 nations. With corre(^t x^rophecy the doctor surmises that a successful 

 result iu the contemi)lated raid will encourage them to try their hand 

 farther north. By this time he had vaccinated nearly all the Indians 

 of the upper Arkansas (Report, 12). Fort Larned, in western Kansas, 

 was then the distributing point for the goods furnished by the govern- 

 ment to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache. 



