PAWNEE PETE, OWNER OF WHITE GIRL.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 27, 1878.
PAWNEE PETE, an old Pawnee Indian who has been trapping on the Arkansas, has with him a white child that he claims to have bought from the Cheyennes for two ponies. She is about thirteen years old, light brown hair, black eyes, and has an intelligent expression. She cannot talk English, but speaks the Pawnee language fluently. Evidently she belongs to some family in Texas, who have been mourning her loss for the past six years, as the Indians claim to have found her six years ago. The authorities should endeavor to find her connections and have her returned.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 13, 1878. The white girl owned by Pawnee Pete was offered for sale for $20 yesterday. She should be taken charge of.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 20, 1878.
Agent C. H. Searing will make arrangements to get the Mexican girl of Pawnee Pete.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 20, 1878.
A BURNING SHAME.
A white child, a little girl about ten years old, hawked about our street, for sale, by a dirty, filthy, lousy Pawnee Indian named Pawnee Pete. He claims that he gave two ponies to a Cheyenne Indian for her, and has had her in his possession about five years. She has dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a fair skin, considering the life she has led in the Indian campC
smoked, tanned, and sunburned, innocent of the use of soap. This poor child has been with these dirty, filthy devils since a small babe. No doubt her parents were killed by the Cheyennes or Pawnees before they came from Nebraska, as they brought her along when they came to the present Pawnee Agency, seventy-five miles south of this place.
Liberty-loving Kansas Republicans have known of this child being in bondage ever since the Pawnees came here, three years ago, but she is not a negro. That accounts for the apathy of our people. She has the misfortune to be white. The poor thing knows nothing of her own race or language
Cno one to pity, no one to console this little waif out in the cold. President Hayes ought to order some of his officers or agents to take charge of her, and see that she is properly cared for. Here is a case for some of our home missionaries to show their faith by their works. Papers friendly to the cause of justice and humanity will please call attention to this case, that something may be done in her behalf.Arkansas City Traveler, March 20, 1878.
THROUGH the efforts of Mr. O. P. Houghton, the white girl with Pawnee Pete will be taken charge of. Commissioner Hayte has instructed Agent Searing to see that she is cared for. It will be an exception to the rule if she would remain with the whites as most children, when once accustomed to Indian life, seldom leave it for the ways of the whites. The Indians have already impressed her with the idea that the whites are her enemies, and she avoids all conversation with them, often breaking into sobs and tears when urged to tell her history.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 27, 1878. MR. BERRY and brother, with James Morgan, went to the Territory last week and took possession of the white girl claimed by Pawnee Pete. The Indians at first refused to give her up, and when they saw the officers were determined to take her, drew their knives and prepared for a fight. After some parleying they consented to let her go, provided she would be taken to Pawnee Agency, and the matter left with a council of their men whether they should give her up or not.
The aged squaw who claims the child was very much affected, and plead with the officers to strike her in the head with her tomahawk if they were going to separate them. She was permitted to go with them.
We called to see the child, and should pronounce her a full-blooded white girl. Her hair is light brown, and fine; her eyes are grey, and her complexion fair, considering her treatment. It is thought by several that she may be the child of a Mr. Friend, living in El Dorado, Kansas, who lost one child and had his wife scalped about six years ago in Texas.
Sympathy for the White Captive.
Our notice of the white captive owned by Pawnee Pete, is meeting with sympathizing friends from every quarter. The following is a letter from Mrs. Thomas Nickerson, a Boston lady of wealth and refinement, showing that there is a chance among the best of people for the unfortunate beings of mankind.
MANITOU, March 28, 1878.
Editor Traveler: SIR: While coming to this place yesterday from the east, I picked up a Wichita paper in the cars with an item copied from your paper in regard to the white child for sale by a Pawnee Indian. Something ought to be done, I scarcely know what. But cannot your town authorities detain the child until some movement can be made to take care of her? I am too much of an invalid just now to travel so far, but any communication in further regard to her will be very gratefully received. I would write to your mayor, who has control in your city matters, praying him by no means to suffer the child to go back with the Indian, for I take it, he is not a resident of your city, but think you are more easily reached. I am Secretary of the American Woman's Home Mission Society, and my husband President of the A., T. & S. F. R. R. Of course, it is against our laws to sell the child, is it not? But she ought to be rescued from the Indian, and I shall be glad to do anything in my power that you may suggest for herself. Very truly yours,
MRS. THOMAS NICKERSON.
We answered Mrs. Nickerson's letter, informing her that the captive had been placed in the school at the Pawnee Agency, through an order from the Secretary of the Interior, obtained by Mr. O. P. Houghton, and would be properly cared for.
Yet while this case has been made a specialty of, and the child cared for, we remember seeing several Mexican and Texas captives among the Kiowas and Comanches several years ago who have not been heeded by private or public citizens.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 10, 1878.
The El Dorado Press in speaking of the Pawnee captive white girl says:
ANo, it is not Mr. Friend's child. The child that Mr. Friend lost was a boy, and was recovered several years ago, after much trouble and expense. The little fellow was brought home, but death again robbed the father of his boy. Mrs. Friend, who was scalped at the time, was not killed; but through almost superhuman courage deceived the red devils, by fainting to be dead, never flinching while they thrust the arrow in her side and tore off her scalp. A full history of the troubles that the Friends had with the Indians would be more thrilling than fiction.@Arkansas City Traveler,
April 24, 1878.We made a hurried visit to Pawnee Agency last week, in company with Mr. Thomas E. Berry, the newly appointed trader at that place, and felt well paid for the visit. After crossing the Arkansas River, and Chilocco Creek, and following down Bodoc a distance of eighteen miles, we halted at Dean's cattle ranch, thirty miles from Arkansas City on a straight line. The ranch was not adorned with pictured walls, but we made the best of it we could. On Saturday we crossed the Salt Fork about a mile below the ranch, then Turkey Creek and followed Black Bear to the Agency, where we found a host of former acquaintances all busy in their several employments. Mr. Ashton has almost completed the beautiful stone school building, erected at a cost of $15,000. The plan of it is decidedly good, convenient, and well guarded against fire. On our arrival Agent Ely was absent from the office, overseeing some work at one of the adjoining farms. In the evening we had the pleasure of meeting him, and found him to be an affable, honest appearing gentleman. It was our impression he was a native of Pennsylvania, but he informed us he was a Kansas man, having lived for several years near Wyandotte, Kansas, engaged in fruit and vegetable growing.
Among those in the employ of the Government, we were introduced to Mr. Hurtford, a fine old Irish gentleman, whom we should have judged to have been a full blood Johnny Bull, and found him a man of remarkable experience and judgment.
Carrying the hod was Pattison, the first Sheriff of Cowley County, who has seen many ups and downs since leaving God blessed Cowley.
McFarland, Bishop, Dr. Williams, Mannington, and our old townsman, P. H. Woodard, all all there yet, but some of them expect to leave before the warm weather sets in. We enjoyed the hospitable entertainment of Mr. and Mrs. Woodard, who took us in when the boarding house was crowded.
The site of Pawnee Agency is a beautiful one, situated on a green knoll with surrounding trees on every side, with Mount Pisgah on the west, and another mound overhanging the east, each affording a beautiful lookout and pleasant roaming place.
At the house of Battee Beyheylle, a full blood Pawnee and interpreter for the tribe, we saw the LITTLE WHITE GIRL so frequently spoken of before, amusing herself in one corner while the Indian daughters of "Bat," as he is called, were cleaning away the supper dishes. From Mr. Beyheylle we learned that the mother of the girl is an Indian and that her father is an Irishman. She was born at Fremont, Nebraska, and answers to the name of Maggie Brown. Mr. Beyheylle did not know her father, but claims to know she is not a captive.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 22, 1878. While Congress is legislating on Indian affairs, it would be well if it made some inquiry about the white captives held by the hostile tribes. There is a suspicion that they have a number of children, snatched from the arms of murdered parents, and perhaps more or less women, held in bondage. Only a few days ago it was reported by the Topeka (Kansas) Blade, a Pawnee warrior offered to sell a white female child, aged ten years, in Arkansas City. This child could speak but little English, which was proof that she had been a long time in captivity. What disposition was finally made of the child is not related by the Blade, but it asserts on knowledge that the Pawnees hold some half dozen or more white women and girls stolen from their homes on the Kansas frontier. Every principle of humanity demands that the Indians should be required to release these prisoners at once, and unconditionally. San Francisco Daily Call.
In a few months more the newspapers will make it appear that the whole Pawnee tribe are "white captives."