Trials and Tribulations in the Wild West: The Riveting Journey of Northern Cheyenne Prisoners and their Legacy

Get ready to embark on a historical journey as we explore the captivating narrative of the Northern Cheyenne people. In this poignant narrative, we delve into their westward migration, their split into Northerners and Southerners, and the heartrending tale of seven Cheyenne prisoners' journey from Fort Leavenworth to Dodge City. Join us as we shed light on this neglected chapter of history, enabling you to understand the trials and tribulations faced by the Northern Cheyenne people through the lived experiences of Joe Little Coyote and Wesley Whiteman.

As we transition into the courtroom scene, we'll unravel the intricate legal proceedings during the trials of the Cheyenne prisoners. From the relocation of the trial to Lawrence to the efforts of Eastern attorneys to assert the Cheyenne's innocence, we strive to provide a balanced perspective. We'll also delve into the curious influence of Mike Sutton's courtship on the trial proceedings, and highlight the enduring legacy of the Cheyenne through their gifted drawings and beadwork to the mayor of Lawrence. Join us, not just for an episode, but for an enlightening journey through the annals of history.

Wild West Podcast proudly presents “The State of Kansas vs. Wild Hog.” Stay tuned after the show for a special announcement. Resource for Podcast
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

The Northern Cheyenne captives of Dodge City, survivors of the Fort Robinson Breakout and Exodus from the Darlington Reservation knew themselves as Sassistitas, meaning the called out people. They spoke in Algonquin tongue closely related to Blackfoot, arapaho and Ninenin. According to Lakota and Dakota accounts, french explorers had met this tribe in the forested country of the upper Mississippi Valley by 1650. In 1680, the explorer LaSalle referred to Chahiella, who lived at the headwaters of the Mississippi, and they came to be called Cheyennes by other tribal groups. They relocated from the Great Lakes area to agricultural settlements in the present day southwest Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. In the last decades of the 18th century they continued their westward moves and reached the plains. Because of these gradual movements west they evaded warfare with the encroaching settlers from Europe. In the late 1700s the Cheyennes acquired horses and occupied camps in the Black Hills of the South Dakota region. They diverted from farming to nomadic hunting and by the 19th century they followed buffalo herds as their primary food source. In the 1830s the tribe split into two groups the Northerners, who occupied the Black Hills, the Tongue River and the Powder River region in present day Montana and Wyoming. The Southerners settled grasslands of present day western Kansas, oklahoma and eastern Colorado.

Speaker 1: 1:56

On February 15, 1879, charlie Bassett, sheriff Masterson and others were at Fort Leavenworth to pick up seven Cheyenne prisoners from the military authorities. The Indians, members of Dole Knife's band, were accused of committing atrocities during their September 1878 flight to cross Kansas and were to be taken to Dodge City for trial. Wild West Podcast proudly presents the State of Kansas versus Wild Hog. Stay tuned after the show for a special announcement. In December of 1878, attorney Michael Sutton, a stalwart Republican, immediately sensed the political potential that could be his if he should successfully prosecute the Cheyennes. Both military and civilian authorities were interested in the case's disposition following the atrocities committed by the northern Cheyenne raiders in Kansas. Moreover, sutton knew that Kansas had long considered extermination to be the apparent solution to the Indian problem. Sutton also realized the difficulty of finding witnesses who could identify the guilty and decided to charge Doleknife's entire band with murder in the first degree. Unfortunately, all those who could have perhaps provided identification of the actual killers had died at the hands of the guilty.

Speaker 1: 3:41

The killings occurred during the northern Cheyenne exodus, in which 353 Cheyenne men, women and children fled their reservation in Indian territory and attempted to return to their homeland on the northern Great Plains. During this time the Ford County attorney in Dodge City, michael Sutton, issued a warrant for arresting 150 northern Cheyennes. These atrocities prompted Governor George Anthony to demand that northern Cheyenne warriors be brought to Kansas for prosecution. Governor Anthony relayed Sutton's petition for extradition to J H Hammond, who held the post of the United States Indian Inspector within the Department of the Interior. On December 6, 1878, the inspector consented to allow Kansas authorities to try the Cheyennes under the stipulation that only those involved in killing be prosecuted and not the entire band. The state of Nebraska quickly consented to allow the Cheyennes to be deported without protest. General John Pope, commander of the Department of the Missouri at Fort Leavenworth, acceded to the request and ordered the Fort Robinson breakout survivors to civilian authorities. The seven Cheyennes were Old Crow, wild Hog, strong Left Hand, porcupine, tangle Hair, noisy Walker and Blacksmith. Old Crow and Wild Hog were Cheyenne leaders. The seven surviving northern Cheyenne men would not face military trial and likely execution at Fort Leavenworth. Instead, the governor's jurisdiction would establish civilian losses in the raids for Kansas citizens in addition to criminal charges.

Speaker 1: 5:29

The state of Kansas was charging the northern Cheyenne men with 40 murders, as well as the destruction of livestock and property in what whites later identified as the last Indian raid in Kansas. When the party arrived at Fort Leavenworth on February 15, 1879, news sources noted that the men, two women and some children were wounded from January 9, fort Robinson breakout. On February 17, 1879, sheriff Bat Masterson, several deputies and a group of witnesses presented themselves at Fort Leavenworth to identify the guilty from among seven Cheyenne warriors sent there from Nebraska. The witnesses immediately accused all seven of having been present at one or several of the six murders recorded the past fall. They were released along with their families, which totaled 14 women and children, into the custody of Sheriff Masterson for removal to Ford County where they would await trial Under Masterson's custody. The group set off on the journey to Dodge City, more than 300 miles by train. Masterson was familiar with the men from their week-long stay in Dodge City in 1877 on their journey to the Darlington Reservation.

Speaker 1: 6:55

As the sheriff in his charges made their way westward along the Atchison, topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, curious crowds turned out in nearly every depot stop hoping to see the murdering savages. Local newspapers reported that overpowering crowds gathered at railroad stops from Fort Leavenworth to Topeka to see the Cheyenne men who had become notorious in the national and local press In Lawrence Masterson and his marshals were obliged to fight off hoodlums and in Topeka a thousand people thronged the train platform. However, the Cheyennes drew the interest not the more famous lawman. The Dodge City Times lamented the sheriff of Leavenworth County and the Marshall and Mayor of Lawrence were more eager to pay homage to the stinking savage rather than to render assistance to the officers. According to memories of Joe Little Coyote in western Kansas, everyone, especially the women and children, had suffered hardships on this trip. All along the way on the railroad, people were causing trouble for those Indians. Wesley Whiteman remembered family stories that told how they had to fight the people off there to save their lives. The ones who got hurt, they just dumped them off along the railroad. Some of those people were sent back to Oklahoma. In addition, some of the children were hurt by the crowds. Before the train made its most western leg, the women and children were sent to Indian Territory by rail to be separated from their fathers and husbands for the ensuing eight months.

Speaker 1: 8:44

When the prisoners finally arrived in Dodge City on the evening train, however, they were not greeted by a single onlooker. The Cheyenne men walked to jail, except for one who collapsed from his wounds. He remained on the ground until a wheelbarrow was procured. Then he was placed in the makeshift emergency push cart and hauled to his destination. The Cheyenne were shackled and put in the Dodge City jail in the damp basement of the county courthouse. The prisoners were all in poor health. A Topeka newspaper iterated their wounds. Big Head had one hand shot away and carries his arm in a sling, left hand at another were wounded in the legs and limp painfully. In addition, their leader Wildhog had attempted suicide earlier and had a deep wound in his chest. Authorities believed they continued to be suicidal. They are in a very desperate condition of mind and wood, it is thought, commit suicide if they had a chance.

Speaker 1: 9:47

After they arrived at Dodge City, a steady stream of local citizens visited the county jail to look the Cheyennes over. They remained there for five months. Many people, including journalists from prominent publications in the eastern United States, visited them in jail and gave them cigars in exchange for interviews. Sheriff Masterson provided food and medical care. Later in their incarceration, the Cheyennes were allowed to bathe in the nearby Arkansas River and stayed outside in the jail yard rather than the basement. As the captivity continued, sheriff Masterson prevented their lynching and oversaw the necessities of exercise and cleanliness. During this forced response in the Ford County Jail they created the four ledger art notebooks. They exchanged them with a jailer whose wife was their cook, a likely gambler who may have been imprisoned with them and a clerk with the Indian Claims Commission that was auditing citizens' claims. A photographer posed the group on the courthouse steps for a portrait. According to local oral tradition, they objected to the unseen powers of the camera until an official sat with them for the image.

Speaker 1: 11:01

The gross mistreatment of the Cheyennes in 1878, from the trek of the hungry band through the Kansas to the circus trial which was shaping up in Dodge City, was unpalatable even to the staunch Indian haters such as Nicholas Claim. Claim arrived in Dodge City, kansas, in November 1877, engaged as a journalist, where he became the editor and proprietor of the Dodge City Times newspaper. The fiery and locally influential editor of the Dodge City Times wrote about the upcoming Cheyenne trials. We are about to begin to change our sentiment in regard to the Indians. We believe the process of starving him may cruel and barbarous practice. Instead, claim asked for a less elaborate but equally effective approach to dealing with wayward Indians. Selling the Indians by starvation is against our ideas of Indian extinction. We believe in the speedy method of slaughter is the most expeditious. The best Indian is a dead Indian. Claim's dubious brand of sympathy for the red man changed abruptly, however, under the increasingly heated condemnation of the appending trial which was building in the east.

Speaker 1: 12:19

The transfer of the seven Cheyenne bucks from the military to the civil authorities has aroused intense feelings throughout the country. Now that the gentle savage is to be tried for the crimes committed on this border, we shall look for a superabundance of gushing sentimentality. The mockish feeling over taxes those who know but little of Indian traits or character. The question of identity will add to the sympathetic fervor that finds lodgement in many minds, but that identity is already confirmed in those who know a Cheyenne buck from a prairie wolf. The particular Indians may have smitten the earth at Fort Robinson. The seven now in jail are accessories to the enormous crimes committed on this border last September. The proof lies in the bones now bleaching on the plains County.

Speaker 1: 13:09

Attorney Sutton prepared his case laboriously. Every available hostile witness was summoned for the June trial and General Pope, who still commanded the Department of Missouri, was asked to serve as an interpreter for the Cheyennes. The Indians were represented by able Eastern attorneys, retained by sympathetic humanitarians who suspected the Cheyennes would be convicted after a mockery of justice. A lawyer, jg Moeller, represented them and claimed that the state of Kansas had no jurisdiction over them. Moeller summoned many witnesses on behalf of the Cheyenne and the prosecution had difficulty finding eyewitnesses to the killings. The seven Cheyennes proclaimed their innocence During the opening stages of the trial.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Before Sutton had the opportunity to present his case, his Eastern colleagues' legal dexterity was applied with unexpectedly damaging results. The counsel for the Cheyennes argued that a fair trial could not be given to the prisoners in such hostile setting as that existing in Dodge City, and the trial judge ruled that a change of venue should be granted. Sutton's case burst before his eyes like an overextended bubble. Few of his witnesses could be persuaded to attend the new trial scheduled at Lawrence in Douglas County. Those who did appear found the inquiries of the defense attorneys immediately embarrassing. It became obvious during the early moments of the new trial that the witnesses could not tell one Indian from another. Without positive identification, the proceedings could not be continued. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence against the accused. On this note, the Bazaar trial of the Cheyennes ended and they were sent south to their reservation to rejoin their families.

Speaker 1: 15:01

A disgruntled Sutton returned with his witnesses and shattered Case to Dodge City, convinced that a miscarriage of justice had deprived him of his query. There is, however, some evidence that Sutton did not wish to continue prosecuting the Case, not because he could not find his witnesses but because he was getting married. The following account is given of Sutton's courtship In the late summer of 1879, mike Sutton was in love. That spring Ms Florence Estelle Clemens of Gloversville, new York, visited and Dodge at the home of her uncle AB Webster, then a political foe but later an occasional supporter of Mike Sutton. Sutton and his bride were married on October 1, 1879, spent their honeymoon in Kansas City in St Louis, then returned to Dodge City on October 9,.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Just four days before the start of the trial in Lawrence On 13 October 1879, the prosecuting attorney failed to appear in court and the presiding judge dismissed all charges against the Cheyenne. They were still considered prisoners of war and were taken to the Cheyenne Reservation in Indian Territory. They arrived in Lawrence on the 25th June 1879, and became local celebrities. The seven imprisoned Northern Cheyenne men were left behind, in possession of Dodge City citizens, four ledger notebooks filled with drawings produced during their months of incarceration. The drawings communicate how the captive men understood their people and their changing place on the plains. These images reflect the traditional art style of the Northern Cheyenne people who, like many plains peoples, developed a representative and glyphic form of pictorial writing on animal hides, robes, teepee linings, shields and other objects. Such drawings communicated brave deeds that accorded recognition and prestige to individuals.

Speaker 1: 17:10

Wild Hog proved adept in giving journalists a positive image of the Cheyenne. The Cheyenne attended a circus and participated in a rodeo, enacting a muck battle on horseback with local cowboys. Several prominent Kansans offered to testify on their behalf. Poet Walt Whitman visited them in jail. A committee of the United States Senate interviewed them on 12 August and Wild Hog presented his case of mistreatment of the Cheyenne while at the reservation in Indian Territory. Wild Hog's wife and daughters were allowed to visit him in jail and he gave the Mayor of Lawrence a collection of his wife's beadwork, which found its way to the University of Kansas. Four years later, most of them received permission to go to their Northern homeland and reside on the newly created Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

Speaker 1: 18:07

And now for our special announcement On February 18th, wild West Podcast will interview Keith Wundra, the curator of Boodhill Museum, on the topic of saloons and the beautiful biblist Babylon of the frontier a history of Dodge City saloons from 1872 to 1876. You can also attend the Coffee with the Curator session at Boodhill Museum on February 14th at 9am. This Coffee with the Curator session will be held in the newly renovated Great Western Hotel. Topics for the presentation will include prohibition and temperance, the Saloon War of 1883, and the fires of 1885-1886. So come out and join Keith Wundra at Boodhill Museum on Valentine's Day, february 14th, or join us at Wild West Podcast on February 18th for this special presentation.

Speaker 1: 19:06

That's it for now. Remember to check out our Wild West Podcast shows on iTunes Podcast or on WildWestPodcastBuzzsproutcom. You can also catch us on Facebook at Facebookcom-Wild West Podcast or on our YouTube channel at Wild West Podcast Mike King YouTube. So make sure you subscribe to our shows listed at the end of the descriptive text of this podcast to receive notifications on all new episodes. Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you have any comments or would like to add to any of our series, you can write us at WildWestPodcast at gmailcom. We will share your thoughts as they apply to future episodes. Join us next time as we begin our future series on Kansas Lawman and Outlaws.