TROUBLE BETWEEN THE TROOPS AND INDIANS.
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T.,
October 8, 1858.
A most deplorable emeute has occurred between a battalion of troops and a portion of Pet-tete-nete's band of Pah-Utah Indians, which may end in the alienation from the Americans of all the Utah Indians in the Territory who have hitherto sympathized with them against the Mormons, and will certainly result in the abandonment of the Indian farm on Spanish Fork, which I described in a recent letter.
I wrote to you that it was reported that a Danish woman and her child, a girl nine years old, had been outraged on Sept. 10 by two Indiana at a little village called Pondtown, between Payson and Spanish Fork settlement, and that Dr. Hurt had gone down from this city to investigate the affair. The facts in the case appear to be these: During the absence of Dr. Forney, on his journey to the Humboldt, Gov. Cumming has arrogated to himself the functions of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and assumed the authority of giving direc-tions to the subordinates in that department. Dr. Hurt's commission as Indian Agent ran out during the month of August, but he has been retained since that time in the employ of the Superin-tendent. The Governor directed him to proceed to the Indian Farm on the business referred to, and has guided his subsequent movements. On his arrival, he called a council of the chiefs and demanded the surrender of the two young men charged with the commission of the out-rage. After deliberation, the chiefs expressed their willingness to give them up on the spot, pro-vided the Doctor would cause them to be shot im-mediately, but not otherwise. They said that the young men had rather die than be imprisoned and suffer what other Indians had done who have been confined in past years by the Mormons. Dr. Hurt then placed a warrant for their arrest in the hands of a Mormon constable, who proceeded with it to the camp of the army in Cedar Valley, whither the two young men had gone. On his arrival he found that they had returned from the camp to the neigh-borhood of the farm, and he accordingly traveled back again. The Doctor then called another coun-cil, with the same result as before. He then re-ported the facts to the Governor, who directed him to summon a military posse for the arrest, and made a requisition on Gen. Johnson for that pur-pose.
After holding a third council, with no different result, the Doctor went to Camp Floyd on Sept. 27, and returned to the farm on the morning of the 2d inst., with two companies of the 7th in-fantry, commanded by Bvt. Maj. Paul, and a squadron of dragoons under Lieut. Anderson. quitted the farm and its neighborhood, except fifteen or twenty Indians among whom were two chiefs, Tintick and Pintutts—the latter an adopted Tet-tete-ete. These the Governor's direction, intending to take and hold them as hostages for the surrender of the two criminals, who were not present. The Indians broke and ran in every direction—some toward the Lake, others toward the Spanish Fork settlement—pursued by the dragoons. Pintutts, who was on foot, took the latter direction, and had almost reached the settlement when a dragoon, by whom he was pursued, shot him dead, after first ordering him to surrender and then firing his pistol into the a signal that he would shoot him if he did not halt. Another Indian, who had snapped an old brass pis-tol at his pursuers and then run into the lake, would have been killed had not Lieut. Livingston of the 2d Dragoons knocked up the muzzle of the revolver of the soldier by whom the Indian was followed. Among those captured was Tintick. The next day two of them were set free on parole, to proceed to the tribe and offer a release of all the prisoners on condition of the surrender of the two criminals. A desire for the liberation of Tintick, who is one of the most popular chiefs of the Utah nation, probably contributed to the decision which was made The criminals were surrendered and Tintick and his fellow-prisoners were thereupon liberated. The Indians who were given up are very young men, neither of them, to judge from their appear-ance, being no more than eighteen years old. They were brought to this city yesterday by a Mormon guard, and a complaint against them was entered before Judge Sinclair. Upon the hearing, affidavit was made that time was necessary to produce witnesses for the Government, and further proceed-ings were postponed to next Friday, the Indians being consigned in the meantime to the Penitentiary. The Governor has made a requisition upon Gen. Johnson for more troops, for the protection of the inhabitants of Springville and its neighborhood, and 100 men from the 5th Infantry under Bvt. Lieut. Col. Ruggles, and 100 from the 10th under Capt. Tracy, marched yesterday from Camp Floyd with three weeks' rations, to take post in that neighbor-hood, making altogether a military force of more than 500 on the eastern shore of Lake Utah.
The Indian Farm is totally deserted. Pet-tete-nete, with his whole band, remains among the mountains, and is probably arranging some plan of action in combination with Arapine, another powerful Pah-Utah chief.
