War Cry

By Robert F. (Bob) Turpin

If you like Indian stories with a little bit of history, this book is for you. It contains four historic stories about our early frontier and some of the many problems the Native American Indians and the white man faced … wars, killings, savagery, scalpings, and other cruelties which were rampant during these times.

Story #1, “A Man to Remember - Chief Washakie,” tells about a great chief and sub-chief of the Shoshone tribe who promoted peace and friendly relations between the white man and the Indians for over sixty years.

Story #2, “Death in the Night” tells about a Comanche war party arriving at a white man’s cabin making a bloody, savage attack on the unsuspecting settlers.

Story #3, “Iron Shirt” tells about one of the most vicious, blood thirsty, and cruel Comanche war chiefs in history.

Story #4, “Savage Yosemites” tells about greedy gold miners warned to leave their claims and get out of the mountains as the Indians were planning to attack their camps and drive them out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329005051

Book preview

War Cry

War Cry

by Robert F. (Bob) Turpin

Copyright

© 2015 by Bob Turpin – All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-329-00505-1

No part of this book may be copied or reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

Dedication

To the folks who like to read about the Old West.

A Man to Remember - Chief Washakie

In the many years Washakie was chief of the Shoshone Indians, he never took the life of a white man. Still he was the greatest chief of the Shoshone Nation in Wyoming territory. Washakie was one of the few Indian leaders to realize the advancing white people into Indian territory could not be stopped. It was useless to die fighting them.

Little is known about this great Shoshone war chief. Throughout frontier history, there are only vague references and short passages found concerning Washakie’s early life. The Indians kept no written records and most of the Shoshone people who knew Washakie in his early years died before him. History deals only with his later years when he was an active chief.

Perhaps the earliest record of Chief Washakie appeared in the Journal of a Trapper, a book by Osborn Russell. Russell had attended a Christmas gathering of the Shoshone Indians on the upper Weber River. It was at this meeting that Russell was made aware of Washakie’s standing as a Shoshone warrior. This fact was already well known to the Blackfoot and Sioux Indians.

The Shoshone chief’s name, Washakie, had several meanings: Shoots Straight, Shoots-on-the-Fly, Rawhide, Rattle, Sure Shot, Gambler’s Gourd.

D. R. Huntington, a Shoshone interpreter, told how Washakie got his name: "The first buffalo Washakie killed, he skinned the head, then removed the hair and tied the skin around a stick that had a hole in it. Then, Washakie blew up the buffalo bladder like a balloon. However, before he did this, he put some small stones inside the buffalo scalp. When the raw hide dried and became hard from the hot sun, the scalp would make a rattling sound when the stick was shaken.

The Sioux and Shoshone had always been bitter enemies. During a fight, Washakie would ride among the Sioux ponies and scare them into running away by shaking his buffalo scalp on a stick. The animals thought the sound of the rattle was a rattlesnake, so they scattered. The Sioux begin to call him Washakie (Wash-a-ki), The Rattler.

Washakie’s father, Paseego, a Flathead Indian, was killed by a Blackfoot war party. The Shoshone band was scattered. Washakie and his family later were taken in by the Lemhis tribe; he lived with them until he was grown. It was believed he then lived with the Bannock tribe for almost five years.

Washakie was well known and respected for his lasting friendship with the white people until the time of his death. But a fact has puzzled many historians through the years, giving them cause to ponder. What about those five years he spent with the warring Bannocks? What kind of life did he lead and what effect did it have on his being a friend to the white people?

Leaving the Bannock tribe, Washakie supposedly lived with the Green River Snake Indians until the year 1830. At this time in his life, Washakie joined the Shoshone tribe and remained with them for the next ten years. Washakie was a natural leader, and his outstanding courage in battle was well noted quickly making him the leader of the young Shoshone Warriors Society. In 1840, Washakie became a sub-chief of the entire Shoshone tribe. Four years later, he was Chief of the Shoshone Nation, an outstanding feat for any man.

Washakie pulled