Indian Babarities

October 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day describing a massacre of Native Americans in 1867:

INDIAN BARBARITIES

Adapted from Conditions of the Indian Tribes: A Report of the Joint Special Committee of Congress (The Doolittle Report): pp. 41-42, January 26, 1867.

"When the attack was made,
The Indians flocked around the camp
Of the head chief,
And he ran out his flag.
He had a large American flag
Which was presented to him, I think,
By Colonel Greenwood some years ago.
And under this American flag
He had likewise a small white flag."

Was it light, so that the flags
Could be plainly seen?

"Yes, they could be plainly seen."

How many were killed?

"I think about seventy or eighty,
Including men, women, and children;
Twenty-five or thirty of them were warriors, probably,
And the rest women, children, boys, and old men."

Were any Indian barbarities practiced?

"The worst I have ever seen.
All manner of depredations
Were inflicted on their persons;
They were scalped, their brains knocked out;
The men used their knives,
Ripped open women,
Clubbed little children,
Knocked them in the head with their guns,
Beat their brains out,
Mutilated their bodies
In every sense of the word."

Do you know which troops those were
That actually did this work;
Whether they were the hundred-day men
Who came from Denver,
Or the regular First Colorado regiment?

"I am not able to say;
They were all in a body together,
Between eight hundred and one thousand men,
I took them to be.
I saw some of the First Colorado regiment
Committing some very bad acts there
On the persons of the Indians;
And I likewise saw
Some of the one-hundred-day men
In the same kind of business."

When they came back to the Indian village,
Were any of the Indians there,
Men, women, or children,
Left?

"No, sir; they were all gone
Except a few children
Who came into our camp
An hour after we had all returned."

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/india4.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities