Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/120

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
114
SOUTH DAKOTA

views made a deep impression on the tribe. Finally when Old Strike, as the whites called Struck by the Ree, was breaking camp to start for the reservation, Smutty Bear sent his young men on horseback in a wild chase about the friendly camp, intended to intimidate the men
Struck by the Ree
and frighten the women and children and prevent them from moving.

At that instant a steamboat, coming up river, bellowed at the landing, and with a childlike simplicity which Indians always showed when anything aroused their curiosity, the entire tribe forgot about their troubles and raced off to the landing. It was the steamboat Wayfarer bringing to them their new agent, Mr. Redfield, and a cargo of provisions for their supply. Agent Redfield made a speech in which he told them that he was going to proceed up the river until he had found a proper site for the location of their new agency, on the tract of land they had reserved for their own use, and that as soon as he arrived there he would make for them a grand