Early Days Among the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians

John H. Seger

• Publisher: Seger Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781406764048, 9781443730365
• eBook ISBN: 9781528760836
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

VI

I GO TO WAR WITH HIPPY

A CAMP of red people is like a village—it has all kinds of people in its citizenship. There are men like Big Horse whose word was inviolate and women like Attucker’s mother, who broke the bows of her truant boys—but there are also reckless men and mischievous boys to make trouble for their own people as well as for the whites.

There was a peculiar character among our Southern Cheyennes, who had been nick-named “Hippy” because he had been wounded in the hip and had a hitch in his walk on account of it. Hippy was a peculiar character. He was a foolhardy man, and delighted in doing desperate things that he might be talked about, and even when the Indians were at peace Hippy was always having adventures. Several times he had been shot by white soldiers and by the Utes, and had arrow wounds in different parts of his body. He delighted in displaying these wounds and in relating his many hair-breadth escapes.

Naturally agency life seemed very tame to him, and when the Northern Cheyennes arrived he spent most of his time in their camp listening to their account of the Custer battle, and other engagements, and lost no opportunity to display his wounds and recount to them his own deeds of valor. He had two girls in school and frequently called to see them. Now the Indian men were not allowed to go in and sit down in the girls’ play room and smoke, neither were the girls allowed in the boys’ play room, but Hippy came into the girls’ play room one day and began to fill his pipe. I saw him and told him he must go into the boys’ play room if he wished to smoke. He said, “I want to talk with my daughters, and as you do not allow the girls to go into the boys’ play room, I will sit here and talk to them and take a smoke at the same time.”

“You must go into the other room,” I repeated. He finally went in but called his girls, telling them to come where he was. I forbade them to do so and Hippy came back into the girls’ play room and commenced an insulting harangue. I told him to go out and made a demonstration as if to put him out.

Drawing a knife he growled out, “Come on if you want to put me out of the room.”

I said to him, “Hippy, I don’t want any trouble with you,” and walked to the other side of the room away from him.

Thinking he had me bluffed he followed me up and shook his hands in my face, and said, “Why don’t you take hold of me?”

At the same time he had his knife clutched in his hands, apparently ready to strike with it. Seeing that he was determined to have a quarrel, I caught the hand that held the knife with one hand and with the other I took him by the back of the neck and commenced hustling him to the door. He struggled to free the hand that held the knife and resisted my effort, but I had him going. As I neared the door which was then open, he kicked it shut and I could not open it without letting go either of his knife or his neck.

Just when I needed him most, Keller, my cook, came into the room and asked if he could help me in any way.

I told him I did not wish any help in regard to Hippy, but if he would open the door and hold it open I’d be much obliged.

He opened the door and I slammed Hippy through, intending to jump back into the house and shut the door.

Hippy had foreseen the possibility of my doing so, and grimly clutched my coat collar in one hand, so firmly that I could not get free from him. I was forced to hold the hand with the knife. As long as he clung to me it was not necessary for me to hold him.

With my free hand I slipped my coat from my shoulder leaving him holding the collar. He struck at me with the knife, but I was on guard, and evaded the blow, and again seized the hand that held the knife. With a quick shove I sent him tumbling off the porch.

He struck the ground some three feet below the porch floor with stunning force. I jumped upon him and taking him by the throat shut off his wind. After I had choked him until he turned black in the face I loosened my grip and asked him if he would behave himself if I let him get up again.

He replied “Pewa,” a Cheyenne word, which means, “Good.”

I supposed that he meant to say that he would be good if I let him get up, and released him but kept an eye on him. The minute he rose to his feet he plunged at me with his knife. I jumped away from him and ran. He followed me closely, striking at me at every step. Being the quicker of the two, I soon gained some ground upon him, and seeing a stone ahead of me lying on the ground I stooped and picked it up and turned and faced him. He saw the stone and stopped about ten feet distant from me. There we faced each other—he with his knife drawn and I with a stone ready to smash him. He dared me to throw the stone.

As the stone was heavy and I knew he could easily dodge it and reach me with his knife, I looked around wearily. At this moment I caught sight of a piece of lodge pole about ten feet long lying on the ground near my feet. Dropping the stone I caught up this pole. I then said, “Hippy, the reason I did not throw the stone was because I did not want to kill you, but now if you do not put up your knife and behave yourself I am going to knock you over and pound you with that pole.”

He perceived that I could easily swipe him with the pole, and that he could not touch me with his knife. He grew polite. “If you’ll throw down your pole I’ll put up my knife.”

As quickly as he said this I dropped the pole. His word being given he put his knife into its scabbard. I then said, “Come with me to the agent’s office.”

“All right,” said he, “I am ready to do so,” and thereupon we started traveling side by side, each one eyeing the other sharply all the way. When we got to the floor of the agent’s office we had to climb several steps, and there was only room for one at a time.

“Go ahead,” said I.

“No,” said Hippy, “you go first.”

I said, “Will you follow?”

“Yes, I will come,” he replied. I went into the office and Hippy followed me.

Agent Miles was there and I told him briefly what had taken place—how Hippy had drawn his knife upon me, and how we had a fight over it. I told him that several times during the scuffle I could have killed him if I had wished to do so, as I had him in my power, but I did not want to bring any trouble or disturbance upon the agency; therefore I had spared his life. “I will not take any more chances with him,” I concluded. “I want to give notice both to the Indians and to the agency that if he comes into my school again, I will kill him at once.”

What I had said in regard to the affair the agent had interpreted to Hippy, and the agent asked him if that was a true statement of the case.

“It is,” said Hippy calmly. “True in every particular. But I have something to add to it. I want to say that I believe I am going to die from the effects of being thrown from the porch to the ground: I felt something break inside me. I am sure I shall not live long after this, but I shall live long enough to kill Me-o-kany.¹ I will kill him at the first opportunity. I have been placed upon my honor in coming here. He said he would put up his club if I put up my knife, and now I have come to the office I have no more promises to keep. I am free to kill him, and I will do it.”

The agent asked me what I thought ought to be done in the matter. “Would you advise that Hippy be turned over to the military?” he asked.

My blood was up and I replied, “So far as I am concerned I do not care what you do with him. I can protect myself, and I have given him fair warning of what I shall do in the future in regard to him.”

The agent sent a runner to camp asking some of the chiefs to come to his office. Big Horse and White Shield came in response to the summons.

After hearing the case they said, “We are not much surprised at Hippy’s actions. He has been that way all his life. He is always doing mean and desperate things, and has made our people a great deal of trouble on account of it. We have no sympathy with him. It is a pity Meokany did not kill him when he had such a good chance.”

White Shield said, “It is wiser not to have done so, for Hippy has some sons, who are as foolish as Hippy himself, and they would have taken the life of some white person in retaliation. On this account it is better that you did not kill him. We will take him to camp and will not permit him to come to the agency again. If he does you have our permission to kill him as you have threatened.”

They took Hippy to camp and kept him there for some time. He was galled by this confinement, and tried on several occasions to slip away from those guarding him, but they were able to prevent him. On one occasion they had to knock him down to keep him from getting away.

At last he changed his tactics and pretended to be penitent. He begged that he might be allowed to walk around the agency, provided he would not come inside the school grounds. Previous to this, however, he had on several occasions sent messages by the young men, who were ready enough to bring them, that as soon as he could get out of camp he was coming up to the school to kill me. I sent back word that he could not come any too quick, as I had the ball in my gun with which I expected to plug him.

At last he begged permission of his chiefs to go to see his girls. “I’ll keep out of the school grounds and take no weapons with me,” he said. The chiefs at last consented to lay the matter before the agent and myself to see if we would consent to allow him to come.

The agent left the decision to me and I said, “It don’t make any difference how much he comes to the agency, I will not molest him outside of the school grounds, but if he as much as puts his foot inside of the school fence I’ll kill him.”

He came to the agency every day after this and walked around wistfully till he caught sight of his girls. He called them to him, and they would go to the fence and talk with him, but he did not offer to step inside. These meetings went on in this way for several weeks. I often met him on the streets of the agency, and once or twice he attempted to speak to me, but I turned my head and walked on without reply. On one trip on horseback a mile or two from the agency, I unexpectedly met Hippy. He was surprised; so was I. We eyed each other until we were safely out of gun-shot. As neither of us had a weapon at the time we were in no danger.

Near the close of the term we announced certain closing exercises, and invited all the parents of the children to attend. We were to give them a dinner, in order to win their promise to bring the children back to school, when vacation was over.

In looking forward to this dinner I thought about Hippy’s girls—how good and obedient they had been—and my heart softened toward Hippy. I told the agent I would be willing to make an exception in this case and allow Hippy to come in and attend the closing exercises and take his children home with him. When Miles told Hippy that I had invited him to the closing exercises and that he would be allowed inside of the school grounds without fearing anything from me, Hippy replied, “My heart is good. Meokany has made me happy, but I would like you to write me a pass to the grounds. I want you to put it in a big envelope so that when I hand it to him he will know it came from headquarters.”

This the agent did, and as soon as he entered the school grounds Hippy held the official envelope high over his head like a flag of truce and watched me very carefully until I read the pass from the agent. I then said, “It is all right, you need not fear anything from me this day,” which relieved him very much.

He enjoyed his dinner and the exercises very much and when it came time to leave he came and offered his hand and said: “I want to come again. When will you let me come?”

“Inasmuch as you have obeyed my commands, you have behaved splendidly during the day, and you may call in two weeks.”

At the end of the two weeks he was on hand promptly. He stayed an hour or two, visiting with his daughters, and when ready to leave asked: “When can I come again?”

I then said, “I will remove all restrictions upon you so long as you behave properly.”

This appeared to be the first time that Hippy had ever been in any way beaten or had come out second best and the Cheyennes guyed him without mercy about it. The Northern Cheyennes (assembled in a large camp about a mile from the agency), were having dances every night, and many of the other Indians gathered there at night to share in the story-telling and fun. The Northern Cheyennes by this time were in full possession of the story of Hippy’s encounter with me and whenever he rose to pose as a warrior or a desperate man, some wag always shouted, “How about Johnny Smoker? He laid you out.”

This galled him terribly. The Indians after this began to prepare for a Sun Dance, and had invited the Comanches and Kiowas to join them. It happened that Hippy’s oldest daughter was detailed in the kitchen at the school and Hippy was hard put to it to furnish his part of the feast. He told his daughter to slip out coffee and sugar and such other provisions as she could bring during the week and when she was allowed to visit her home on Saturday to bring them with her. She obeyed and on Saturday morning after she had started to camp an Arapahoe girl told the matron all about this pilfering. When the matter was brought to my notice I put a boy on a horse and told him to tell Hippy if he did not return the coffee and sugar at once I would deduct what he had taken from his next rations.

The Arapahoe boy reached the camp just as a party had assembled to partake of the feast, which Hippy had intended giving them out of the rations his daughter had stolen. The Arapahoe boy delivered my message to Hippy, accusing his daughter of stealing the rations, and demanded that they be returned at once, otherwise they would be held out from his next ration issue.

This took place in the presence of the guests, and was very humiliating to Hippy. He denied that his daughter had stolen the rations and commanded that his wife should get their own rations that they had drawn the week before and send them to me, and said, “I will come up to see about the matter in the evening.”

Towards sunset he came into the school grounds with his face painted up gorgeously. His two wives were with him, also the daughter who had stolen the rations.

I was building a wood-shed near the house and was busy sawing some boards. Hippy and his wife and daughter came and stood by me. The red people all knew that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. All the school came running to see what was going to take place.

Hippy turned to them and said, “Why do you children tell tales on each other? You Arapahoe children should be friends to the Cheyennes. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes have always st...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• I I go to the Indian Country
• II The Indians name me “Johnny Smoker”
• III The Cheyennes grow restless
• IV My battle with the boys
• V I become a medicine man
• VI I go to war with Hippy
• VII Hippy goes into captivity and dies
• VIII I found the Indian School and town of Colony
• IX The coming of my family
• X Trouble near Cloud Chief
• Appendix: Tradition of the Cheyenne Indians