Christian men.

Robert Bent testified thus:

"I saw a little girl about five years of age, who had been hid in
the sand; two soldiers discovered her, drew their pistols and shot
her, and then pulled her out of the sand by her arm," etc.

This occurred at the time government officials in Denver had sent for
them,--had a "talk" with them,--advising them to go just where they
were. Before he was killed, Black Kettle, one of the chiefs, thus
addressed the governor at Denver:

"We have come with our eyes shut, following Major Wynkoop's handful
of men, like coming through the fire. All we ask is, that we may
have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You
are our father. We have been traveling through a cloud. The sky has
been dark ever since the war began.

"These braves who are here with me, are willing to do all I say. We
want to take good news home to our people, that they may sleep in
peace.

"_I have not come here with a little wolf-bark!_ But have come to
talk plain with you. We must live near the buffalo or starve. When
I go home, I will tell my people I have taken your hand, and all of
the white chiefs in Denver, and then they will feel well, and so
will all the tribes on the plains, when we have eaten and drank
with them."

And yet one hundred and twenty friendly Indians were all slain, and the
war that followed cost $40,000,000.

A _council of Indians_ was held previous to the "Chivington massacre,"
which stamped the character of Black Kettle, the Cheyenne chief, as
noble and brave. It seems that he had purchased from an Arapahoe band
two girls named Laura Roper, aged eighteen, and Belle Ewbanks, aged six
years, who were captured by the Indians, after attacking Roper's ranch,
on the Little Blue River, in July, 1864. Two little boys were also
captured at the same time. They were carried off to the Republican
River, and Black Kettle bought them for five or six ponies, to give
them to their parents. Certainly a generous act. He gave them up, and
met the Commissioners in council, together with several Arapahoe chiefs
of small bands, all of whom were confederate together to kill the
Commissioners and bring on a general war.

Black Kettle knew it, and was determined to expose the plot and break
it up. But the party of white officials, with Colonel E. W. Wynkoop,
were in the dark about their evil intentions. The Indians called
Colonel W.