Civilizing the Indian; A Period of Unrest; An Outbreak; Murder of a Freighter.

At this time the Quakers were largely in control of the Indian Department and were indorsed in their views by Pres. U. S. Grant. They believed the Indian could be civilized and kept under control by moral suasion by the erection of school houses for his children, and by imparting a knowledge of the proper system of agriculture. Under their influence, rations were issued and blankets distributed among them. They were also given wagons, plows, and other farm implements which they knew nothing about. They would not ride on a spring seat, nor sit in a wagon box, but for some reason best known to themselves, they would remove the box and place teepee poles on the wagon bolsters and all climb in when they were ready for a trip. The plows and other implements which were sent out among them to encourage them to farm, I have seen suspended from trees. I cannot understand why they did so, unless it was to show contempt for the white man’s way. It is true, some of them raised small patches of corn, which with the rations issued by the Agency and the game they killed, kept the wolf from the door, or rather the flaps of their teepees. Occasionally a small band of them would get a permit from the Fort Commander to go on a hunt, with the understanding that they were to return at a stipulated time and behave themselves during their absence and not commit any depredations. All this they complied with. I have met these hunting parties up in No Man’s Land and other places and never heard of their perpetrating any mischief on persons or stock whilst out under a permit.The squaws, when not busy in the corn patch or in their little garden, were engaged in making ornaments or other fancy needlework at which they were experts. These articles they afterwards sold to tourists from the East, at the Agency, as souvenirs of their trip among the Indians. Some of this kind of work had a real intrinsic value far above the ornamental part of it. I knew one chief’s daughter who had a blanket ornamented with elk’s teeth and shells, that was valued at $1500. She was taken ill and died, and the blanket which she loved to wear at festivals was used as a shroud. A few days afterwards, some person passing by noticed that the grave had been disturbed. He notified her people and an investigation being made, they found that some white man or men had been there and had stolen the blanket or robe in which she was wrapped. If they were ever captured, I am not aware of it. I said that white men did it, because a negro is too superstitious to do it, and I do not believe there is an Indian in the Territory who would stoop to such a ghoulish act; so I shall give some white animal the credit for the deed.

The government also built large corrals or cowpens where the cattle were issued to the Indians. On the size of the family depended the size of the cow or steer issued. The Agent had the name of each family and the number of persons comprising it. When a steer was selected a cowpuncher rode among the herd and cut out the desired animal and rushed him through the gate of the corral where the Indians were waiting with bows and arrows to kill him. They seldom killed him at the first or second shot. More frequently a dozen shots were required before they struck a vital spot. When the beast fell, the squaws, papooses and dogs came along to do the skinning and oversee the division of the meat. Each one came in for a share. After the killing, the lordly old buck would seek out the shelter of some tree or other shady place to rest his manly form until the animal was dressed and ready for consumption; then he would return and fill his capacious stomach with wohaw. The Government shortly changed the arrow shooting feat as it considered that such a practice had no civilizing influence on the Indian and, besides, it wanted them to forget their old habits as soon as possible. Thereafter, when on issuing day a beef was selected, a man was there to shoot it in the corral and the Indian entered with his ponies to drag away the carcass to dress it outside.

After some time the Department decided to remove a large number of the Indians at Camp Supply to the Darlington Agency which is located about 140 miles south-east of Supply on the north bank of the North Canadian river, and about two miles from Fort Reno. Here they settled down submissively and appeared to be content with their existing condition. At times there were some small complaints about the agent, which upon investigation proved oftentimes to be correct. On the other hand there was a disturbing element. This thing is not common to the Indian alone, but may be found among civilized folks who are not at peace with themselves or the world at large. Taking everything into consideration, they were doing about as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

The other band of Cheyennes who had located on Pond Creek, were also brought down to the Darlington Agency. This left the Cherokee Strip comparatively deserted, but it did not remain so long as the cowmen entered there and built ranches and stocked them with cattle under leases from the Indians. There were the Turkey Track, the Box T. R-S, Bull Foot and other ranches too numerous to mention, all located in the Cherokee Strip.

Everything moved along smoothly with but little trouble from the Indians until the year 1874, when the spirit of unrest seized them again and extended to all the Indians over the western plains. Some had one grievance and some had another. They began making medicine, which to a man acquainted with the Indians meant trouble sooner or later. At that time, supplies to Anadarko, Ft. Reno, and the Darlington Agency were freighted from Wichita, Kansas, and distributed to the different bands at these places. As there were no railroads in this country, it gave employment to hundreds of men and teams on the trails to enable them to keep up the supplies. The freighting business was a great boon to the early settlers of Kansas as the grasshoppers had destroyed everything in the form of vegetation and the settlers who had teams went to Wichita and engaged in freighting for the government. Even the white folks at this time were reduced to a great state of privation and had to depend on the bounty of the outside world. The more fortunate in the older states responded to their appeal and tided them over their distress until prosperity placed them beyond the reach of want.

About this time small bands of discontented Cheyennes began prowling around over the country and occasionally went beyond the limit allowed them by the Agent, and then returned to draw their rations with the other Indians at the Agency. They continued to do this for some time and finally began to make depredations on stock or anything else that came within their reach. The Agent prone to avoid trouble with them, treated them leniently, but the more leniency he showed, the bolder they became until a small band under the leadership of Tall Meat, a petty chief, went north as far as Buffalo Springs on the south line of the Cherokee Strip. There they could see the freight wagons in the distance laden with government supplies heading for Anadarko, and came to the immediate decision of raiding the train. They withdrew into a canyon on the side of the trail so as to be out of sight when the train arrived. They intended to murder the teamsters and plunder their goods of whatever they wanted and then make their escape. A man named Patrick Hennessey was driving the lead wagon of one of the trains. He was trudging along on foot beside his team without the slightest suspicion of any danger. As soon as he had passed where they were hiding they shot him in the back. When the shooting took place the team stampeded and dragged Hennessey in his dying condition along the ground. The wagon upset and a bag of grain fell across Hennessey’s lower limbs and there he lay dead. In the meantime the drivers of the other wagons together with a passenger who was working his way down the country, abandoned their teams and wagons and fled. Next day the Indian Agent with an escort happened to pass that way and discovered the work of destruction of the day previous. They found the remnants of the wagon which had been set on fire. Some of the oats which comprised part of the load were still burning, and the sack that had fallen across poor Hennessey’s limbs in burning had charred his legs to a crisp. The agent, John D. Miles, and his escort, Billy Mulally, dug a kind of temporary grave to protect the remains from the coyotes and the buzzards and marked the place with a few rocks. Every freighter that passed that way felt it his duty to see that the grave was kept in as good condition as circumstances would permit. The resting place of Pat Hennessey became a landmark for all travellers in that section until the Rock Island railroad was built, when the remains were removed to their present place of rest. The city of Hennessey, one of the most prosperous little cities in the state is named in his honor. I have since been told that the women of Hennessey have erected a monument with suitable inscription at his grave. The other teamsters who fled when the first shot was fired were overtaken and killed at some distance from where Hennessey fell.

This little band of highwaymen could not expect to be allowed to pursue their murderous way with impunity. They had no following, as such acts would be condemned by the best Indians of their tribe, and again they were surrounded by forts. Supply on the north, Elliot on the west, Sill on the south, and Reno at home. A small band of white men might escape under such conditions as it would be possible for them to avoid detection, but not for Indians of the kind, as their approach would be a signal to begin shooting. It was a very short time until they were captured and brought into the agency. Several others were rounded up at the same time. Then an official investigation was made and after a great deal of red tape ceremonies and other preliminaries, it was thought best for the interests of the Indians, as well as for the safety of the white settlers, to transport them to the Dry Tortugas. I have never visited that locality, but from what I have learned from persons who did, it was not a very desirable place to locate a people who might expect any great degree of personal comfort. I had been told by a man who spent some time there, that if the government sent those folks there to confine and punish them, it had struck the exact spot where everything had a tendency to add to human misery, and he believed it was located so close to the region of the lost that he could hear old Cerberus barking across the dead line.

To show the reader a fine sense of filial affection and brotherly attachment is not a stranger to the savage breast, I must mention a little circumstance that occurred. When all that were to be sent off were standing around and their friends were giving their farewell greetings, one young Indian stepped forward and asked the officer in command if he were going to take his brother away where maybe so he not come back some time. The officer replied that such was the present intention, but modified his remark by saying that at some time in the future they might regain their liberty if they were good Indians. The young Indian hesitated a moment and then said, “Well, me go too. Me not want for stay here and my brother he take away some place I not know and maybe so he not come back at all sometime. Me go, too.” The commanding officer granted his request and gave him transportation along with his brother to the Dry Tortugas, situated 175 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.

When the Indians were removed, in a short time everything dropped back into peaceful channels and ran along in a comparatively smoother fashion until Chief Dull Knife became uneasy and wanted to return to the Black Hill country. His outbreak will form the subject of another chapter.

Since writing the above I have had occasion to visit one of the public schools of El Reno, where I found a history of Oklahoma written by Joseph B. Thoburn, former secretary of agriculture, and Isaac M. Holcomb, former superintendent of Oklahoma City schools. On page 133 I found a brief history of the tragic death of Pat. Hennessey on July 3rd, 1874, and what a brave defense he made against such odds and when captured was bound to a wagon wheel and burned alive. Also, there was a foot-note stating that it was reported and generally believed that it was the deed of white men disguised as Indians, in order to have it charged up to the Indians. Such was not the case and the above statement is misleading and incorrect, and for the benefit of the school children of the State of Oklahoma, as well as in justice to the Indian I shall set down the correct statement of the case.

My authority for my version of the affair are the following gentlemen: John Murphy of El Reno, and H. A. Todd of Calumet, brother-in-law of Billy Mulally who assisted John D. Miles, Indian agent at Darlington, to bury Pat. Hennessey, while on their way to Wichita, Kansas. Billy Mulally is still living at Calumet and can be consulted in regard to the matter. Their version of the affair is as follows:

Patrick Hennessey in the lead of a wagon train was going from Wichita, Kansas, to Anadarko, I. T. loaded with grain and other supplies for the government. He had been warned at Buffalo Springs ranch, kept by a man named Mosher, that the Cheyenne Indians were on the war-path, and was advised to go no farther. He persisted in going and in like manner did the two other teams of the train. With them was a passenger who was working his way with them. When not far from where Hennessey, Okla. is now located, a band a Cheyenne Indians, under the leadership of Bear Shield and Tall Meat, came out of a draw and shot Hennessey in the back. The commotion caused by them stampeded the mules Hennessey was driving. He in his dying condition hung on to the lines and was dragged along the ground, as he had been walking alongside the wagon. Presently the wagon upset and a sack of oats fell across Hennessey’s prostrate form and pinned him to the ground. He was dead. The other drivers with their passenger leaped from their wagons and ran north-east in the direction of Skeleton Creek where they were followed by the Chyennes and killed, and were afterwards buried by the cowboys and Mosher. This accounts for their not being buried with Hennessey. The burning of Hennessey cannot be attributed to the Cheyennes as the Osages happened along about this time and the Cheyennes fled. The Osages after plundering the wagons of all they wanted, set fire to what they could not carry away. The following forenoon, John D. Miles, Indian Agent at Darlington, accompanied by Billy Mulally, a cowman on his way to Kansas, came across the wreckage. The grain was still burning and Pat Hennessey’s body lay partly under a sack of grain which was still smouldering, and not tied to the wagon wheel as the history has it. From, there they removed him and buried him in a temporary grave. From this resting place he was afterwards removed to what is now called Hennessey, Okla., where there stands a splendid monument erected to his memory by the women of Oklahoma.

Note—This correction is only one of many that might be made in our present day history which pretend to set forth a correct idea of the early days of our state. For any further reference to such matters, living witnesses are at hand to give a correct version of many erroneous statements that have crept into our text books and other writings.