ROMAN NOSE, a Cheyenne Indian who operated along the Kansas border from 1864 to 1868. He was a brave and daring leader of a resourceful nature and much feared on that account. In 1866 the whites began to push into the country of the Cheyenne and a railway was being extended through it. The Cheyenne protested. A meeting or council to hear the protest was held at Fort Ellsworth, Kansas, in which General Palmer and the leaders of the Indians took part. At this council Roman Nose presented the claims of 'the Cheyenne in a cbncise and forceful manner. The Cheyenne not only protested against the invasion of their territory but they were determined to defend it. Almost immediately the Indians were upon the warpath under Roman Nose and Black Kettle; and they became a terror to western Kansas all along the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Everywhere the isolated homes of settlers were attacked and the inhabitants mas sacred. General Sheridan, military commander of the district, organized from among the more daring settlers a band of 52 so-called scouts and placed them under the command of Major Forsyth. On 10 Sept. 1868 they came upon the trail of a large band of Indians whom they later encountered on the 17th at Beecher s Island in the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River. There the whites, finding themselves
surrounded and outnumbered 20 to 1, re treated to the island where they defended them selves for eight days without food and without horses, the latter having been killed. Roman Nose planned the attack of the island from one side by 500 warriors while he prepared for a cavalry attack with 500 from the opposite side. This latter he led personally in a wild charge which forded the river, reached the island and rode up to the breastworks of the whites who defended themselves steadily and systematically. At the breastworks Roman Nose fell and the Indians broke and fled. But they reorganized and made two more desperate attacks upon the island only to be • repulsed with still greater slaughter. Finally the siege was broken by the arrival of a part of the 10th cavalry. from Fort Wallace, Kansas. Consult Hodge, 'Hand book of American Indians) (Washington 1910) ; Johnston, H. L., 'Famous Indian (Boston 1909).