that he had done his best to set them against the idea of helping in the campaign. He expressed himself to the effect that while he would not forbid any Indian from going, he would not recommend any such movement. General Crook said that at the council where General Grant had decided that the northern Sioux should go upon their reservations or be whipped, there were present, Secretary Chandler, Assistant Secretary Cowan, Commissioner Smith, and Secretary Belknap. The chiefs were, "Red Cloud," "Old Man afraid of his Horses," "Blue Horse," "American Horse," "Little Wound," "Sitting Bull of the South," and "Rocky Bear." With Agent Hastings were, Inspector Vandever, and one of the contractors for Indian supplies, and Mr. R. E. Strahorn. The contractor to whom reference is here made was afterwards—in the month of November, 1878—convicted by a Wyoming court, for frauds at this time, at this Red Cloud Agency, and sent to the penitentiary for two years. Nothing came of this part of the conference; the Indians, acting under bad advice, as we learned afterwards, declined to entertain any proposition of enlisting their people as scouts, and were then told by General Crook that if they were not willing to do their part in maintaining order among their own people and in their own country, he would telegraph for the Crows, and Bannocks, and Shoshones to send down the bands they had asked permission to send.
The Sioux appeared very much better off than any of the tribes I had seen until that time. All of the men wore loose trousers of dark blue cloth; moccasins of buck or buffalo skin covered with bead work; and were wrapped in Mackinaw blankets, dark blue or black in color, closely enveloping the frame; some of these blankets were variegated by a transverse band of bright red cloth worked over with beads, while underneath appeared dark woollen shirts. Strings of beads, shells, and brass rings encircled each neck. The hair was worn long but plain, the median line painted with vermilion or red ochre. Their faces were not marked with paint of any kind, an unusual thing with Indians in those days.
Smoking was done with beautiful pipes of the reddish ochreous stone called "Catlinite," brought from the quarries on the Missouri. The bowls were prolonged to allow the nicotine to flow downwards, and were decorated with inlaid silver, speaking highly
