Mrs. E. R. Pond--1843.

After the Indian outbreak the different tribes were broken up and
outside Indians called to the leadership. A little, wavy-haired Indian
named Flute was one of these. He had never learned to wear the white
man's foot gear. With a number of others he was taken to Washington. He
went as a chief and soon after his return came one day to my door. He
was a keen observer and, I knew, would have something interesting to
tell of his journey, so I was glad to ask him about it. He began by
saying that when he had seen the young Indians all dressed up in suits
of store clothes, especially in long boots, he thought, they must be
very comfortable. He was very glad when he reached Yankton, to put on a
suit of white man's clothes. He said all those who were going on the
trip were put into a car where there was not room to lie or sit down and
were in it for two nights. When he got off at Chicago he found his feet
and legs were very sore from his new boots. When he saw all the people
in Chicago he thought, "It seems very strange that Little Crow should be
such a fool as to think he could conquer the white man. Little Crow had
been to Washington and knew how many men 'Grandfather' (president) had."
He knew he had a great many soldiers but he also knew he was having a
big war.

"There were so many people in Chicago that I thought he must have
summoned the young men from all over the country that we might be
impressed by their number. And they were all in such a hurry. No one had
time to stop anywhere. We finally reached New York and were taken up,
up, in a building and allowed to stay there and rest several days. We
wondered a good deal what they would do in case of fire, but supposed
they never had any. We asked the interpreter about it. One evening there
was an unusual noise. It was always noisy, but this was everything
noise. Then the interpreter came and said, 'Come quick now and see how
grandfather fights fire.' We went downstairs quick and every man was
calling as loud as he could. All of a sudden we heard a great bell
ringing and there were a number of those little men with horses hitched
to something that looked like buffalo's paunch with entrails rolled
around it. They had a great many ladders and how they did it I don't
know, but they went to work like squirrels and climbed, one ladder above
another, until they reached the top. White men are wonderful. They ran
up just like squirrels and took the buffal