He
has been ordered to relieve General Dickinson, and was taking down
furniture, his dogs, and handsome team. Of course there was an escort,
and ever so many wagons, some loaded with tents and camp outfits. We
are rejoicing over the prospect of having an infantry officer in
command when we return to the post. The general remained for luncheon
and seemed to enjoy the broiled buffalo steak very much. He said that
now there are very few buffalo in Colorado and Kansas, because of
their wholesale slaughter by white men during the past year. These men
kill them for the skins only, and General Bourke said that he saw
hundreds of carcasses on the plains between Lyon and Dodge. They are
boldly coming to the Indian Territory now, and cavalry has been sent
out several times to drive them from the reservation.
If the Indians should attempt to protect their rights it would be
called an uprising at once, so they have to lie around on the sand
hills and watch their beloved buffalo gradually disappear, and all the
time they know only too well that with them will go the skins that
give them tepees and clothing, and the meat that furnishes almost all
of their sustenance.
During the blizzard two weeks ago ten or twelve of these buffalo
hunters were caught out in the storm, and being unable to find their
own camps they wandered into Indian villages, each man about half dead
from exposure to the cold and hunger.
