Show TRAILING INDIAN THIEVES in the summer of 1852 1832 word came tf aci parowan carowan that indians indian had stolen stock from fort johnson the previous night and help was asked to recover it as fort johnson was too weak to retake it alone and at the ciatu time leave ma enough ough a at home to protect the farni la milies lies T about a dozen men went to their assistance from parowan carowan Pa rowan the writer being among the number and a party of some fifteen ailtee men immediately left fort johnson following the trail of the indians progress in pursuit was much retarded at times by reason of losing the trail the thieves according to their custom endeavoring to conceal it and when lost it was absolutely necessary to recover it it would be a waste of time to try iry to follow a marauding ma band or a war party except as guided by their trail as they employ all their stracy to elude pursuit to recover a lost trail it was necessary to scatter a little distance apart and closely scan every inch of ground between watching for signs which to an hu practiced eye would be without as for instance a twig lately broken a pebble lately displaced a pear r of grass trampled or bent sometimes ame for quite a distance the ground gro und was waft so hard that an ox would leave no visible risible track in such a case the only thing thine to do was to follow a course which we ourselves would pursue it we and mot hot the indians were trying to escape until such stich time as the trail could be de imad again I 1 will here remark that constant practice had rendered many of oft tt young men very expert trailers equal to those of cooper in his ug feam tales alter after many miles we found that the tolen atlen stock driven most of the time on the run had bad become tired and the indians had bad repeatedly shot arrows into them not lot so as to seriously injure them but to hasten their movements and now fad fid then we found arrows by the trail as bey dropped from the skin oi of poor beasts at length we saw some ravens circling gifth above a small rocky hill and sur ased the stock bad been killed near by ft was hidden there hastening Has lening to the place db we found we were right for a ca osseful refill search disclosed the meat of the tolen stock cunningly hidden bidden in a cavity a of the tl rocks and so well covered b by flat tones stones that it if we had bad not been tord told by the he ravens we never would have suspected the fact As the indians had scattered the party Ws divided a part to scout the county north of the iron mountain and the rest to ac scout alt south of it each man took a bato pece piece of beef and tied it to his sad 4 lie as the only chance for supper our party scouted the south of iron mountain and late at night camped at the iron spring the scene of many a bloody deed of the natives without habinc g seen any sign of in indians ans and next t day we returned to Fon ort johnson where w we I 1 e found the rest of our party who had had bad a much more exciting experience peri ence they had bad suddenly come upon some indians and a boy of eight or nine years hidden in a bunch of willow shad cap them em taken away their bows and and arrows and butcher knives and then started for fort johnson driving two olen before them and carrying the boy behind one of the horsemen coming to a small stream with steep banks four or five teet feet bi high h and with a soft oft miry bottom impassible impassible for horses hones the indians saw their opportune opp opportunity ty cleared the stream and fled like fri frightened t deer by the time our boys had ad found a crossing the indians were far dway away A hard bard chase brought their pur some W within gun shot and a brisk fire il was opened but without apparent though our men were all excellent marksmen As soon as a gun was leveled the indian would jump sideways to the right and left so that a sure aim was impossible and as soon as the gun was fired away he dashed on a run so swift that a horseman could hardly overtake him several times the indian would turn upon the horseman when his gun was empty and try to pull him from his bis horse and it was all one could do to get away from the savage and reload his rifle his only weapon at length john hamilton determined to seize by main lorce force the one he was alter after but atter after a lively scuffle was compelled belled to shoot the indian to avoid being himself myself pulled from his horse during the melee the other indian escaped badly wounded they brought the boy to the fort where he was adopted into the family of joel H johnson for whom the settlement was named a veteran of early kirtland days they named the boy sam barn treated him as one of the family and he finally grew to manhood Ka narra the chief said the killing of the indian was all right he had otten often told him to quit stealing or he would get killed and it had served him right but there was a sequel to all this five years later as the tribe sat around their camp fire the brother oi of the slain indian said the spirit of his brother was crying for revenge and could not rest until some white man or woman should be killed to pay the dept according to indian logic this was strictly correct and they were about to go down to parowan carowan that night to kill some one but said no it we go tonight we may kill in the dark some one the mormons cormons love very much and they will be very mad I 1 will go down in the morning and find out it there is any one they dont dihe much we will kill him and then the people wont be so mad nor make war on us this was a approved by all next morning came to president william H dame and asked if there was any one in parowan carowan whom he did not love much the question seemed suspicious and president dame answered no I 1 love them all but said batarra there some one you love only me a a very little measuring about half an inch on his finger no said brother dame 1 I love them alil all I 1 shakuntl Shaun shakuntl tl very much at last he found out the cause ot of Ka Kanar narras rals visit as explained above and had to labor a long time with him before he would consent to forego his tribes revenge and in his turn had a hard bard task to get his men to stand to the agreement he had made with president dame he was able to do this only by reminding them that if a war ensued they could no longer beg from the whites nor obtain any anymore more guns and ammunition and so this forseen unforeseen un danger was averted by the blessing of the lord J H MARTINEAU |