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Show FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. 9! Indians come upon us at once ; the greatest care had to be taken to avoid trouble. They were not of the best class, being a party made up of Snakes and Bannocks, who had left their regular tribes and chiefs and joined together under an ambitious young fellow named Tabawantooa. Washakie, the old Snake chief, called them bad men. There was one little party under an old petty chief, Toquatah, who kept apart from the main band. From them we had procured most of our meat. Toquatah had informed us that the main band and his were not on the best of terms, and that Tabawantooa was " no good." This naturally made us feel a little uneasy. We had some two hundred wagon loads of valuable goods under our charge, and only twenty men, the greater portion of them with no frontier experience. The store rooms were blocked up with logs, and had been all winter. By this time I could talk considerable Snake and many of these Indians understood Ute. Tabawantooa and his band came in sight of our quarters about noon. They were all mounted and well armed. The chief with many others rode up in quite a pompous style, no doubt expecting to be looked upon with awe and treated with great deference. I had time to get my wits, together before they got to our gate where an armed guard was stationed. Brother Alexander was to be chief cook. Knowing that from such as we had we would have to make a great showing of hospitality, we concluded to make up in ceremony what was lacking in food. So all the camp- kettles and coffee- pots were filled and put on. The one for weak soup the other for strong coffee. We had plenty of the latter on hand. |
