SITTING BULL'S LAST MEDICINE. 



Margaret Gray Brooks. 



SITTING BULL. 



Photo, by Scott. 



ON a wind-swept plain above the 

 Missouri river and far across 

 the Dakota prairies, Uncle 

 Sam placed a Government post, 

 nearly 20 years ago, for the protection 

 of white settlers and travelers. 



It was named Fort Yates, presum- 

 ably in memory of Captain Yates, 

 killed in the battle of the Little Big 

 Horn in 1876. It lies 58 miles south of 

 Mandan, on the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad. From here the post can 

 be reached in eight to nine hours, by 

 army ambulance, with four good 

 mules. 



Scarcely a house is seen after 

 leaving Fort Lincoln, seven miles 

 south of Mandan, until within three 

 miles of Fort Yates, where the road 

 leads through a small Indian village. 

 Occasionally one catches a glimpse 

 of the winding Missouri ; otherwise 

 the ride is lonely, dreary and monot- 

 onous. 



At the post gates is the " Stand- 

 ing Rock Agency," which receives its 

 name from an upright rock that the 



Indians say is a petrified squaw. This 

 agency is the supply station oi the 

 Government for the Sioux occupy- 

 ing the northern strip of tli 

 reservation. 



During the winter of '90 and 

 the post was garrisoned by two 

 troops of the 8th Cavalry and' three 

 companies of the 12th Infantry, com- 

 manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Drum. 

 of the latter regiment ; in all. about 

 275 men, women, and children. At 

 the agency the whites numbered only 

 18 or 20, while the Sioux, in this 

 northern half, aggregated 5,000. 



The Indians had been pea< eable 

 during the several preceding years. 

 Their agent was an honest, upright 

 man, fair in all his dealings with them. 

 They respected and liked him, as 

 well as his wife, who acted as inter- 

 preter and personally aided many 

 in sickness and sorrow, often going 

 10 miles or more across the wild, 

 snowy land, at night in midwintei 

 aid the sick and suffering. 



The Indians had newer seemed 

 more content. They were well 

 and well clothed ; their children 

 were receiving good educations at 

 the agency school, under tin- dil 

 tion of 14 Catholic Sisters, as well 

 as at the half-dozen or more- mi!> 

 agency schools in different parts 

 the reservation; while others wen- in 

 the East, at Carlisle or Hampton 

 Road. 



Suddenly, in the early fad oi 

 a strange rumor spread through the 

 Sioux nation, telling of tin- coming 

 of the Messiah. Little more- th 

 a whisper at first, it gradually gained 

 credence and assumed vast pi 

 tions, resulting in overwhelm ii 

 moralization of the Indians. 

 months later it required the- in 

 of the greater part of ournorthw 

 ern army to bring the- red men from 

 the warpath. 



The story had conn- from ti: 

 tant Northwest, where- the- Messiah 



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