LAST OF THE INDIAN WARS

Within two decades, the Indians were in a depressed and deprived state. They had seen their lands taken away. The government had decided that a cut in the promised supplies would encourage the Indians to become more self-sufficient. Dishonest Indian agents and unscrupulous government contractors stole from the meager supplies the government did give them. Many Indians had and were dying of starvation and disease. Their children were forced into white men’s schools, and their religious ceremonies had been forbidden.
By 1889, the Indians were desperate for some hope to cling to. They needed something to help them believe that things would get better. It was at this time that Wovoka who lived with the Nevada Paiute Indians received his vision. In the vision, he had seen the world reborn. In this new world, the Indians were free from the white man’s rules and restrictions. He saw old warriors risen from the dead and the return of the buffalo and the open prairies. Part of the vision included instructions for a new dance, the ghost dance. At the end of the vision, Wovoka was made the Great Spirit’s representative on the earth. He was the new Messiah, who would lead the Indians to deliverance.
The religion of the Ghost Dance spread like wild fire to all the reservation tribes, including the Sioux. Kicking Bear of the Cheyenne Agency was sent to find out more about the religion. When he returned with information about, the new faith was embraced and a religious frenzy which included the Ghost Dance was born. Part of Kicking Bear’s version of the new religion was that if the Indians danced the Ghost Dance, knew the Ghost songs and wore their special ghost shirts, the white men’s gun powder would have no power against them. He also told of a day that the earth would be covered with new soil and all white men would be buried under it. Then from the new soil would come new land, springs and running water, sweet grass, and herds of buffalo.
As the religious fervor spread, so did interest in the Indian’s new activities. Newspaper reporters flooded in the area and the events got national attention. They hinted at the blood bath the red men were planning against the whites. Although the reports were exaggerated, the fear of an Indian uprising was very real. By this time, Newcastle had been established as the county seat of Weston County and the local paper carried weekly reports updating the situation. Weston County residents had reason to be concerned. The new religion was shared by several Plain’s Tribes and the members began to travel from tribe to tribe to share in the dancing and the religion. Sioux Indians from South Dakota left the reservation to go to the Crow, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet reservations. They had to travel through Weston County to get there.
Indians roving through Weston County were believed to be on the war path and were considered very dangerous. Their new religion led them to believe that they were invincible in a war with whites and they had made claims that classified all whites as Indian oppressors.
With the newspaper reports and alarm on the part of the settlers, Newcastle took precautions. Settlers were informed that perparations were being made for them to seek safety in Newcastle if it came to it. The KB & C Commissary, now the Antler’s Hotel, was fortified. Guns, ammo, bedding and food were stock piled inside. Windows were barricaded with sacks of flour leaving port holes to shoot from. A ladder was built to provide access to the roof so that men could shoot form there if it came to it. The Antler’s Hotel was made into an honest to goodness fort prepared and ready to do battle.
Fortunately, for Newcastle and Weston County, it never came to that. There were no battles and no bloodshed in the county at this time. It wasn’t that way for other places. The same events that led to the fortification of the Antler’s Hotel led to other bloody Indian-White battles. In November 1889, the U.S. Government took action. President Harrison ordered the War Department to get involved. Troops poured into the reservations. On December 15, 1890, troops tried to arrest Chief Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull resisted arrest and was shot in the head. As the chief fell, both sides opened fire on each other. This battle was followed by another famous bloody massacre at Wounded Knee Creek.
It is fortunate that things never came to that in Weston County and tales of Indian White blood flowing in the street of Newcastle don’t darken the pages of Weston County’s history.
Unfortunately, things turned oout differently three years later at Lightning Creek. (Sources: Land Of The Dacotahs, Bruce Nelson, Only a County Country, Dick Nelson; Following Custer, Progulske.)

The Battle of Lightning Creek

The bloodshed and clashes connected with the Ghost Dance Religion settled down after Wounded Knee. The Indians ere confined to the reservations, but on October 20, 1903, Weston County Sheriff William Miller received word of several bands of Indians in the southern part of the county. They had left the Pine Ridge Reservation and were hunting illegally in Weston County. The Indians had not only violated game laws, but had also killed stock on the range.
On October 23, Sheriff Miller organized a posse and set out after the Indians. A small band of twelve Indians was apprehended at the mouth of Lance Creek. These were disarmed and escorted back to Newcastle by Deputy Hilton, Ed Buchanan and Arthur Edlund.
The rest of the posse went after the rest of the band. They overtook a group of twenty braves and thirty squaws on the Dry Fork of the Cheyenne River. Miller demanded a surrender. The Indians refused and Chief Charley Smith, also known as Eagle Feather,...the posse wasn’t strong...take them. Miller realized he..., and so he withdrew. The next day he enlisted additional forces, and Miller and twelve other men went after the Indians again. His force included: Oliver Johnson, Jack Moore, James Davis, John Owens, Fred Howell, Ralph Hackney, Louis Falkenberg, Frank Zerbst, Charlie Harvey, Steve Franklin, Henry Coonand George Fountain.
They caught up with the band at Lightning Creek. Again, Miller asked the Indians to surrender. They refused and one Indian opened fire on the posse. Gun fire was exchanged for several minutes. Five Indians were killed in the battle. The next day Chief Charley Smith died from wounds received in the battle. Louis Falkenberg, one of the deputies was shot in the neck. Sheriff Miller was shot in the thigh. The femoral artery was severed and in less than a half hour, he bled to death.
The rest of the Indians fled and headed back to the reservation. Deputy Sheriff Lee Mather of Crook County and a posse set out to intercept the Indians in Edgemont, South Dakota. They were able to arrest nine braves and twelve squaws. The rest, it is believed, escaped to the reservation.
On November 12, a preliminary hearing was held with County Attorney Mecum representing the U.S. Government, Attorney Burke of Cheyenne for the defense, and Indian Agent Brennan of the Pine Ridge Reservation to assist the Indians. The Indians plead innocence. They admitted to being part of the hunting party, but denied having had a part in the battle. At the end of the hearing, they were all discharged for lack of evidence. Authorities agreed that it would be impossible to pinpoint exactly which Indian did the actual killing, and that a trial to find out would be a financial drain the county could not sustain.
Wyoming Governor Chatterton upon hearing the news of the Indians’ release, was outraged that the Indians, who had been the aggressors, got away with not only the intentional murder of two fine lawmen but with killing game and the stock of area ranchers as well.
Weston County mourned the loss of the well know and love Sheriff Miller, who fell in the line of duty. The Battle of Lightning Creek is not only a dark spot in Weston County history; it also holds a place in Wyoming history as being one of the last Indian-White battle to be fought in the State of Wyoming. (Sources: Gold In The Black Hills, Parker; Land of the Dacotahs, Nelson; Following Custer, Progulske; Newsletter Journal, 8/17/1939; Files of the Anna Miller Museum, courtesy of the Anna Miller Museum.
by Shelly Ritthaler