444 



RECREATlQS. 



vale, now called Jackson, the Indians, at a 

 preconcerted signal, attempted to escape 

 from the officers, and in the confusion 

 which followed one Indian was killed and 

 one wounded. This wounded buck sub- 

 sequently recovered. The one who was 

 killed in attempting to escape from the 

 officers by whom he had been legally ar- 

 rested comprised the sum total of the cas- 

 ualties resulting from this. Indian war; 

 which was denounced by the press of the 

 East as a great butchery of defenseless 

 Indians. 



On July 16th I received a telegram from 

 Market Lake, Idaho, the station nearest 

 the scene of the trouble, signed by the 

 officers and several citizens, informing me 

 of this event; that many Indians were in 

 that vicinity who threatened the lives and 

 property of settlers, who were moving 

 their families away and asking for assis- 

 tance. This telegram I immediately re- 

 peated to the Secretary of the Interior, 

 whose attention was also called to my let- 

 ter of June 17th, which related to the 

 causes which had resulted in this deplor- 

 able condition. 



By the first train Adjutant General Stit- 

 zer of Wyoming started for Market Lake 

 w;th instructions to go to the scene of 

 the trouble, get reliable information and 

 report to me as soon as possible. General 

 Stitzer performed his duty promptly and 

 reported to me that the situation was se- 

 rious; that many Indians were leaving 

 Fort Hall to join those already in the 

 mountains; that Indians from other reser- 

 vations were joining them, and that the 

 settlers were preparing to remove their 

 women and children out of Jackson's 

 Hole. All information received from this 

 source was at once transmitted to the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior. 



On July 23d, 7 days aftef the outbreak, 

 I wired the Honorable Secretary, asking 

 whether the Federal Government would 

 take in hand the matter of returning the 

 Bannocks to their reservation or whether 

 Wyoming would be expected to do so. 

 To this I received a prompt reply to the 

 effect that the Secretary of War had or- 

 dered Brigadier-General Coppinger to 

 proceed at once to the scene of trouble 

 and to order such movements of troops as 

 might be necessary to prevent a conflict 

 between the Indians and settlers. 



This action by the Government was 

 taken none too soon, as I had received in- 

 formation on July 24th that the settlers, 

 120 in number, well armed and supplied 

 with 1,000 rounds of ammunition to the 

 man, proposed to leave their stockade on 

 a given day and themselves attempt to 

 drive the Indians from their vicinity in 

 order that they might take care of their 

 crops, which were going to destruction. 

 Had the people done this a very serious 



conflict would have resulted. While this 

 body of men was well calculated to cope 

 with a much larger number of Indians, 

 they did not know, as I did, that there 

 were at least 800 armed Indians in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Jackson's Hole. 



On receipt of this information I imme- 

 diately instructed General Stitzer at Mar- 

 ket Lake to inform the people of Jack- 

 son's Hole that troops were en route to 

 returned to their respective reservations, 

 and for them to do nothing except on the 

 defensive. 



On receipt of this order a courier was 

 dispatched from Market Lake, who rode 

 the distance to Marysvale, 130 miles, in 

 24 hours, and delivered it to the settlers 

 just in time to stop them from going out 

 to fight the Indians. The settlers had 

 their horses saddled and would have been 

 gone in an hour, and the result would 

 have been a serious matter. 



On the arrival of the troops under Gen- 

 eral Coppinger the Indians dispersed and 

 returned to their respective reservations, 

 and the "Indian war" in Jackson's Hole 

 was ended. 



While it had amounted to but little in 

 the way of an Indian war, it had furnished 

 the opportunity for some of the biggest 

 fights on paper that the Western country 

 has afforded. Special correspondents 

 without number accompanied the troops. 

 It was necessary that their papers 

 should receive news of a startling 

 character, and they generally got it. 

 The Governor of the State came in for 

 his share of notice, not only through 

 the newspapers, but also through personal 

 communications from missionary and In- 

 dian rights societies and other philan- 

 thropic bodies. These communications 

 were generally of a hysterical character, 

 protesting against the slaughter of de- 

 fenseless Indians shot down in their tracks 

 simply for hunting game in their own 

 country. Occasionally the Governor was 

 encouraged by the receipt of telegrams 

 of approval, one of which I distinctly re- 

 member coming from this city of New 

 York, which stated that prompt and de- 

 cisive action on the part of the Executive 

 such as would result in the extermination 

 of the Bannocks would be appreciated by 

 the best people of the community. 



At the beginning of this trouble with 

 the Bannocks the United States Attorney 

 for Wyoming called my attention to the 

 treaty of 1868 made with that tribe, in 

 which it was provided that "they shall 

 have the right to hunt on the unoccupied 

 land of the United States as long as game 

 may be found thereon and as long as peace 

 subsists among the whites and Indians on 

 the borders of the Indian districts," claim- 

 ing that under this treaty the Indians had 

 a right to hunt in Wyoming regardless of 



