WHITE SLAVES AMONG THE INDIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5394, 1 March 1879, Page 7

WHITE SLAVES AMONG THE INDIANS.

A tjbriuble series ot outrages and sufferings ia revealed by the story told at Omaha, Neb., a short time ago, by Mra. Charles Jones, of Washington County, lowa, who had just arrived in that city. . Mrs Jones and her bod, it is believed, are the sole survivors of a party of twelve emigrants who left Washington County laßt February for the Yellowstone Valley. They reached Fort Kearney about March the Ist, 1878, and when a few days out from there, in the river bottom, they were surrounded by a party of seventy Indians. William Brown, Joshua Brown, and Joseph Hyatt, brother of Mrs. Jones, constituting the men of the party, were instantly shot dead. All the others were taken into captivity. All but Mrs. Jones and her son disappeared, and, as she believes, were massacred. She was made a slave to the chief named Yankton, cooking, picking berries, and performing other menial offices. She was never allowed to meet or talk with her son. Her clothes were taken from her, and she was allowed only a blanket and moccasins. The camp was moved often, always northward. The warriors several times left the party, and returned with clothing ind plunder, evidently taken from murdered whites. The interpreter who was with the ?arty, named Ginnes, stated that he was cap;ured from a party of emigrants when be was >nly eleven years old, aod he is now forty. 3e adopted their life, became a Catholic, ind was educated at a Jesuit college. He old Mrs. Jones that the party were chiefly f&nktoas, from the Yankton Agency, but here were a few from Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies. They were out always during he summer and returned to the agencies in he winter. Their slaves are kept outside the gencies in concealment. Other female rbite slaves in the party told her, through he interpreter, that their friends had been aurdered, and as they had no homes they id not desire to escape. Young Jones, who i aged fifteen, became a favourite, and was :indly treated. At the expiration of two lonths they reached the neighbourhood of a mall village in Northern where he Indians procured liquor, and they all beame drunk. That night Mrs. Jones escaped, aving on only a ragged blanket and one loccasin. She travelled south, being guided i her course by the stars, and subsisting for ' lany days on raw artichokes. After five or ix days she met occasional emigrant waggons loving northward, and Mrs. Jones was given dress. She begged her way the tate, reaching her old home in lowa the 1 ist day of June. Here she procured a small < lm of money. She became alarmed at the 1 ncerfcainty of her son's fate, and returned ( ) Nebraska, where she travelled from place i ) place, watching for emigrants from the 1 r>rth, and living with fanners. At the ex[ration of many weeks, sick and disheart- j ied, she again started eastward. One day st October, while walking through * learney, she met an emaciated lad, whom s le recognized as her son, who had just come B i from a long and terrible journey. 1 tieltered by James Carmichiel, a farmer, s le watched at her son's bedside during a Jj >ng illness. When the boy had partially J icovered they both started east on foot, c opping with farmers, and making slow pro- c eBS on account of their enfeebled condition. r itizens at Omaha collected some money, r id sent both home. Every detail of the f >ove story is confirmed. The naked bodies f r three murdered men were found last £ [arch on the plains north of Kearney, but ? le murders were supposed to be the work 5 tramp 3. Men from the agencies are pre- J iring to investigate the matter, and express 1 te opinion that many of the agency Indians | we kept up the systematic murder of set- * ers during the Summer, aud successfully . mcealed their crime. At the Yankton J gency there will be an immediate inve3tiition, aud the identity of the Indians 1 cured if possible. 1