lum Creek, Beaver Creek,
Godfrey's, Moore's, Brever's at Old California Crossing and Jack
Morrow's at the junction of the north and south Platte, Fort
Julesburg, Cotton Wood and the Junction, each one hundred miles apart,
and John Corlew's and William Kirby near O'Fallow's Bluffs. It was
said of these ranchmen that some were honest and some were not; others
were in league with the Indians, and cattle and mule thieves, and, as
a rule, a bad lot. They traded supplies to the Indians for furs of
every kind. The winter passed in hunting, trapping, drinking, and
gambling.

O'FALLOW'S BLUFFS

O'Fallow's Bluffs was a point where the river ran to the very foot of
the bluffs making it necessary for all of the trains to cross, then
again strike Platte river trail at Alkali Creek, the waters of which
were poisonous to man and beast. The trail over the bluffs was of
sand, and those heavily ladened, white covered prairie schooners would
often sink to the hubs, requiring from fifty to seventy-five yoke of
oxen to haul them across, often being compelled to double the leading
yoke as far back as the wheelers, then doubling again, would start
them on a trot, and with all in line and pulling together, would land
the deeply sunken wheels on solid ground. It took one entire day to
again reach river trail, which was hard and smooth. O'Fallow's Bluffs
was a point feared by freighters and emigrants alike. At this point
many a band of pilgrims met destruction at the hands of the fiendish
redskins of the plains. Directly upon going into camp at night a party
of them would ride up, demand coffee, whiskey, or whatever they
wanted, and having received it, would massacre the men and children,
reserving the women for a fate a thousand fold worse, as they were
very seldom rescued by the tardy government, whose agents were
supplying the Indians with guns, ammunition and whiskey to carry on
their hellish work unmolested. When captured, which was seldom, were
they hung as they deserved? No, the chief with a few others, who stood
high in the councils of the tribe, were taken by stage to Atchison,
Kansas, there transferred to luxuriantly equipped sleeping cars of
that day, and whirled on to Washington; and, in war paint and feather
and with great pomp, were presented to their great white father (the
President) as they called him.

ABUSES OF THE INDIAN DEPARTMENT

They were then taken in charge by Representatives of the Indian
department of the Go