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Show SKELETONS FOUND IN A CAVE.j Seem to Verify Legend of Indians! Slain by Whites 100 Years Ago. j Accident has led to the discovery i near Sheridan of what is probably one of the most ancient burial grounds in Wyoming, dating back as early as 1S11, and as a result it is believed much corroborative cor-roborative historical data has been , confirmed. , All Italian hunter near Carneyville, one of the coal camps near Sheridan, ' reaching in a hole in the rocks for a rabbit, pulled out a skull, which so , frightened him that he ran to summon his companions. A blast revealed a ' cave in the rocks, long since covered ' over, in which was found seven com- ', plete skeletons, as well as blankets, beads, tomahawks and other Indian relics that authorities declare were the ' property of the Arickarees. who found- ' ed a village of that name in 1S00 near I where Pierre. S. D.. now stands. . The discovery seems to substantiate 4 an old Indian legend long held in doubt M by Wyoming historians, but which hash been handed down with unerring accu-!.; racy among the Crows and Sioux. The j legend deals with the expedition of 4 Wilson P. Hunt, who in 1S10 headed the lS AMor expedition starting trom Omaha in April of that year to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. On July 18, 1S11. Hunt and a party of sixty men, seven Ariekaroo Indians and one Sioux interpreter left Arickaree village for the northwest. The Indian legend is that near the crossing of Lit-tl" Lit-tl" Powder river the whites became suspicious of the actions of the seven Arickarees, fearing they meant to betray be-tray the band into the hands of the Blackfeet According to the Indian story, the v Arickarees were detailed with a party of twenty whites to scout to the north of the Little Powder river camp, and that later on the whites returned, re-turned, declaring the Indians had deserted. de-serted. The Indians have always said that the whites murdered the entire band, but not until the discovery of the seven skeletons has the story been gi ven a ny credence. It i's now asserted that the relics found by the Carneyville miners are undoubtedly those of the Arickarees, and as the number of skeletons tallies with the Indian legend, it now seems probable that a story regarded as extremely ex-tremely doubtful has at last been proved to be correct. Not realizing the importance of their discovery, the miners divided the plunder plun-der artel scattered the biines. so that it wlil be almost impossible to reassemble reassem-ble the skeletons. Two Sheridan physicians phy-sicians have been making a canvass of th? camp in the hone of being abl to collect some of the skeletons entire. The plunder is being anxiously sought by relic hunters, one of the tomahawks bringing $33 and an hour later selling for $40. Denver Republican. |