2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 39: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE OLD WEST'S STRANGEST INDIAN : Fort Collins. But Crazylegs led the Army patrols many a merry chase, usually into the foothills of the Rockies where he and his men would hide among the crags and rock for- mations until the soldiers wore them- selves out searching for the men they ‘never found, -_ | 6 pres his period as a gang leader Crazylegs made frequent trips to the village of his people who -were still encamped in the wooded Platte river bluffs on the Colorado- ‘Nebraska border/ Each time he took — his share of the gang’s loot and stashed it away enroute. On one of those visits to his peo- -ple—in May, 1867—he learned that 'a renegade trader by the name of . Jules Irwine had gotten the Indians ‘stirred up with the promise of re- peating rifles. So once more the ‘tribes were talking of war on the whites. Chief Wahatoga stated his view simply when he told Crazylegs, “White soldiers will die this time.” —_— Crazylegs cursed and said with dis- gust, “It’s no use. More soldiers will come.” “We kill them too,” Wahatoga said stubbornly. “Then still more white soldiers will come. They'll kill every squaw and papoose—as well as every buck in the Arapahoe nation.” Crazylegs cited the Indian’s pre- vious military failures and he talked glowingly of the bountiful reserva- tion which would soon be available to them. But Wahatoga was determ- ined to fight again. He must have been a man who was incapable of learning from either experience or observation. Crazylegs left the camp dejected and low in spirits. But on the way to rejoin his gang he was inspired by an idea—he would find trader Ir- Wine and dispose of him before he supplied the Arapahoes with the new rifles. Thus the war would end be- fore it began. Crazylegs explained his plan to the men of his gang who, while they cared little whether the Indians and whites fought, were mighty interested _in laying hands on those new-style rifles that trader Irwine possessed. 39 Those guns could be sold to any of the region’s major trading posts for a pleasant price. In those days there was no such term as “hot merchan- dise.” If a man had goods to sell no one was indiscreet enough to ask how he came into their possession, So the gang went on the prowl for Jules Irwine. But the trader got word, somehow, of his impending doom and he vanished into the can- yons of the northern Colorado Rock- ies. The gang hunted him down, though, and when he was captured Crazy- legs promptly shot him to death— before he had a chance to reveal the cache of his guns. Routt, in his mem- oirs, advanced the logical theory that Crazylegs disposed of Irwine in such a hurried manner to preclude any possibility of his guns falling into the hands of the Indians. Crazylegs had trouble with his gang after that. They felt, quite cor- rectly, that his quick trigger finger had done them out of a substantial profit. In truth, it was a double- cross—the first that Crazylegs had pulled on his own men. One of the gang’s members, an army deserter named John Rhodes, became so loud- mouthed about it that Crazylegs de- cided to silence him. He ordered his men to cut a deck of cards and draw —the low man would be Rhodes’ ex- ecutioner. Two of the men refused and for the first time in his gang’s operation, Crazylegs was confronted by a king- sized disciplinary problem. But he solved it in a forthright manner— he simply shot the two troublemakers... Then he administered the Indian slow-kill to Rhodes which Routt, whose memoirs are in the possession of his grandson in Omaha, described as follows: “Crazylegs informed me and anoth- er man to affix the victim to a needle (pine) tree. Then Crazylegs revert- ed to the bestial savagery of his an- cestors. He shot one of Rhodes’ fin- gers off, then another and another and between each shot he would sit and stare at Rhodes and puff on his pipe. Then he shot his victim in the knees, elbows and shoulders... _ All that time BSAA Deor Onn