THE PAWNEE UPRISING OF 18509. 
HOWARD W. BELL, 
In the summer of 1859 the entire tribe 
of Pawnees, braves, squaws, pappooses and 
dogs, left their 2 villages, 12 miles South 
of Fontenelle, Nebraska, on the South side 
of the Platte river, marched across the low- 
land between the Platte and Elkhorn rivers, 
and camped on the Western side of the Elk- 
horn, just across from Fontenelle. They 
claimed to be going on a grand buffalo hunt, 
to last several moons. The next day half 
a dozen bucks crossed the river about 12 
miles above Fontenelle, and attacked an old 
bachelor who was living alone in a little log 
hut. The bucks showed emphatically their 
disapproval of celibacy by taking $136, a 
package of valuable papers and a yoke of 
oxen, and by drinking all the settler’s whis- 
key and locking him in his shanty. Three 
hours later the settler broke open to free- 
dom, and made his way to Fontenelle, where 
the alarm quickly spread. A company of a 
dozen men was organized, and an advance 
was made on the scene of the outrage. No 
Indians were discovered and the company 
returned to Fontenelle and disbanded. 
Two days afterward the people living at 
West Point came down to Fontenelle in a 
body, and reported that marauding bands 
of Pawnees had burned the homes of the 
settlers, ‘and ripped up their feather beds, 
scattering the contents to the winds, and re- 
serving the ticks to be used as blankets. 
Clocks had been torn to pieces in search of 
brass wheels to hang in the savages’ ears; 
cattle and horses had been freely confis- 
cated. 
Here was cause for war. The campaign 
opened the next morning. Thirty men, 
armed with rifles and revolvers, started for 
West Point in wagons.. When they reached 
there arrangements were made to capture 
the Indians. A few of the settlers took po- 
sitions in one room of a double log house, 
while the others kept out of sight. The peo- 
ple of the house were instructed to admit 
the Indians into the unoccupied room, and 
after they were all in, to fasten the outside 
door securely. The door between the rooms 
was then to be opened, the white men were 
to rush from the room in which they were 
concealed into that occupied by the In- 
dians, and the capture of the savages would 
be easy. 
The Indians, rr in number, approached 
the house, were invited to walk in, and ac- 
cepted. The outside door was fastened; 
the signal was given; the door between the 
2 rooms was opened; the white men rushed 
with a yell into the room which was occu- 
pied by the Indians, and—captured the whole 
115 
posse? Not much. The greasy, slippery 
devils shed their blankets, dived down 
among the legs of the white men, slipped out 
like eels, burst open the door and were out 
of the room like a flash. All the white men 
had to show for their stratagem was a slug 
in the wrist of one of their own number. 
The whites followed the Indians out of the 
house and blazed away at them as they ran 
toward the river. Two or 3 of the Indians 
were killed and one was wounded. The 
whites captured him, having brought him 
down on the wing by a shot which should 
have been better aimed. 
The settlers then hastily assembled their 
wagons, put the wounded Indian in one of 
them, and started back to Fontenelle. They 
had not gone far when the Indian gave evi- 
dence of being dead. He was closely exam- 
ined by those in the wagon, who agreed that 
he was a goner. As it would not pay to 
haul dead Indians, the wagon was driven to 
the bank of the Elkhorn near which the 
road ran, and the corpse was pitched into 
the river. As soon as the Indian struck the 
water he dived down and swam under water 
for the opposite bank. Even an Indian can 
not stay under water all the time; and when 
that red rascal broke the surface of the 
stream as he came up to get a whiff of air, 
a load of buckshot was deposited in the 
back of his head. He never reached the 
other side. 
It was reported every day for a week that 
10,000 Indians were approaching the town 
fully attired in the traditional war paint and 
feathers. The people were kept in excited 
suspense. At night each bush or shrub was 
transformed into a stealthily approaching 
redskin. This could not be borne long, so 
the hastily equipped militia soon took the 
offensive and marched in the direction of, 
the Pawnee camps. Late one night they 
halted on the outskirts of the lodge and 
struck camp. - 
At 3 o'clock in the morning they were 
aroused and in a short time were on the 
move. At daylight the Indian camp was 
seen, near the junction of a small stream 
with the river. A large extent of ground 
was covered by the lodges, and here and 
there Indians glided about, unconscious of 
the approach of an enemy. In a few mo- 
ments, however, they discovered the whites, 
the camp vanished like magic and in an m- 
credibly short time the wide river bot- 
tom was swarming with redskins, some 
mounted, some on foot, all shouting and 
yelling, striving to make their escape. They 
leveled their lodges to the ground but did 
