(64) THE Indians were the cause of a good deal of anxiety to the settlers for six or seven years. A number of times they raided the settlements and stole horses, and once they broke into a house while the owners were absent and carried off or destroyed everything of value. When the first settlers of Cedar Creek were making hay in the fall of 1869, they discovered two camps that had been recently occupied by predatory Indians. These camps had been used over night only, and both were very near the creek, under cover of a bank overgrown with brush, and hidden on all sides by growing timber, where they would not be easily discovered. The campfires in both cases were very small so as not to be readily seen in so secluded a place. Around these campfires were five or six beds in the grass, each one made by an Indian who had lain there during the night. No doubt these Indians were on a horse-stealing expedition. When out on the hunt the Indians go in large numbers with their ponies, their tepees, and their families, and make no attempt at concealment; when on a stealing trip, they go on foot in small bands, carefully secreting themselves, leaving no trail that can be followed, intending to steal horses to ride back home on. When on the war path, they, of course, travel on horseback, and in large parties. These war parties, however, never passed through Antelope County after the settlement began. In June, 1871, Colonel Mathewson, his son C. P. Mathewson, and Louis Sessions of Norfolk, while on a trip to capture young elk and deer, met one such war party of about one hundred Sioux braves. These men were in camp on the Cedar River, in Greeley (65) County, just below the present town of Spaulding. While the men were all in camp in a bend of the river they saw a number of men approaching on horseback. It was the advance guard of the maurauders, riding about a mile ahead of the main body. They came into camp and waited for the main body of Sioux, who soon came riding rapidly, singing and displaying on a pole the scalp of a Pawnee whom they had killed. In a few minutes the rear guard came up. They all remained sitting on their horses, many of them shaking hands with the whites and appearing to be in an exceedingly good humor. They told about killing the Pawnee and bantered the whites to trade for a span of mules they had stolen from the Pawnees. In a few minutes the advance guard struck out up the valley, followed by the main body, singing, and waving the scalp as they went, and lastly the rear guard followed on, keeping a mile or so behind the main body. The Poncas and Santees not infrequently came into the county from their reservations and spent some time in trapping along the Elkhorn, or passed on southwest to go on a hunt. These Indians brought their families and tepees along, as well as their horses and dogs, were always very friendly, and gave no trouble at all. The only Indians to be feared were the Brule Sioux, who occupied the White River country in South Dakota. They were always at war with the Pawnees, whose village was located at Genoa, at the junction of Beaver Creek with the Loup River. The route from the Pawnee village to the White River country lay directly through Antelope County. There was nothing to be feared from the Pawnees, but if the horse-stealing Sioux made an unsuccessful raid on the Pawnees, they were apt to carry off some horses from the new settlers of Antelope County rather than go back empty-handed. The first trouble from the Indians came the last of February, 1870.

     Martin L. Freeman was one of the first settlers in the Elkhorn valley above Neligh. He first located in the summer of 1869 on the northwest quarter of section 26, Frenchtown township, on the farm now owned by (66) V. M. Switzer. Here he built a cabin and moved in with his family. Late in the fall a prairie fire burned up most of his hay, and, not having feed sufficient for all his stock, he took his team and started down the valley to find work, leaving his wife and baby in the care of his brother, Theron Freeman. During Mr. Freeman's absence the Indians raided the settlement and Mrs. Freeman had an interesting adventure with them, which is given herewith in her own words, as related by her to the writer in 1888:

     "About seven o'clock in the evening of February 27, 1870, while about my work, the door suddenly opened and in stalked ten painted Indians, armed with bows and arrows and guns, and with feathers stuck in their hair. They grunted out some kind of salutation, shook hands with me and with Theron, and seated themselves in a semicircle around the stove. I think I must have been scared or excited, but I didn't mean to let the Indians know it. I tried to get Theron to go to Contois', about a half-mile away, where I knew there were four or five men camped, and get help, but he wouldn't do it. So I told him I would go. I laid the baby on the bed and took up a pail as though I was going after water, but when I got outside, I set the pail down and started on a run for Contois' place. I got more than half way there, when, hearing a noise behind me, and looking back, I could see in the dim light two Indians coming after me. I couldn't run away from them and I felt mad, and just thought I would make the best of it and wouldn't run another step. So I waited for them to come up. They took hold of me and made motions for me to go back. I said no. One of them could talk a little English and said, 'No go back; Indians get 'em papoose.' Well, I thought that I had better go back. When we got to the house, I tell you Theron looked pretty white. I believe he was scared. There were two who could speak a little English, -- one small Indian and one old, big fellow. They told me, 'Hungry,' 'bread,' ' coffee,' ' heap cold,' 'stay 'em all night.' I told them I had (67) no bread, but would make some coffee. So I told Theron to put on the kettle and boil them some coffee. After they had drunk all the coffee they wanted they filled their pipes and took a smoke, each Indian taking a whiff or two and passing the pipe on to the next one. One of them partly lay down on the bed beside the baby. I made him get up. He laughed when I motioned him to get up, but he minded me. Another started to open a trunk, but I told him to shut it up and he did so. The big fellow who could talk a little English seemed to have some authority over the others, and I asked him if he was a chief. He said, ' Me chief.' They stayed until eleven o'clock, and then began to bundle up as if they were going away, and the big fellow said, 'Go 'way.' `No come back.' 'Heap good squaw.' 'No hurt 'em squaw.' I tell you, I was glad when they were gone, but we packed up and went down to Judge Sniders' and stayed until Mart came home. I said I would never go back to that place to live, and we never did. We took a place farther down the valley, where we live now, and got a better one, too. Oh, these women who have come here the last few years and complain of hard times and privations don't know anything about it."

     The next day, February 28, these same Indians came to the house of Louis Patras, one of the settlers about two miles down the valley from Mr. Freeman's place, and fired four of five shots into the building, one or two of the shots passing through the inside and lodging in the opposite wall. Fortunately, none of the inmates were harmed. They then killed a number of chickens, shot a cow, and after behaving for some time in a very threatening manner, went off toward the river and were seen no more.

     That night they stole ten horses, one for each, and left before morning. Two of the stolen horses belonged to A. M. Salnave, one to Louis Contois, two to Louis Patras, one to Andrew Thibault, two to F. X. Patras, and two to M. L. Freeman. One of the horses escaped and came back in a few days, and seven were taken from the Indians by (68) the soldiers stationed at Fort Randall. These were advertised and were finally reclaimed by the owners. The other two horses were never recovered. This raid caused a great deal of uneasiness, and to quite an extent retarded the settlement of the county, especially in the upper part of the valley.