Red Cloud requested of the army officers that the knives be taken away from the Indians, for in event that the government should order that they be taken again south, they would, rather than yield to the order, take their own lives. This request was ignored by the military. In. the time that elapsed in getting orders from Washington there was apparently some laxity in vigilence, and the Indians had gotten possession of about fifteen guns and some pistols.

On the 3d day of January. 1879, the order came to return them to Indian Territory, and the next day Wild Hog gave an unequivocal negative to the proposition, saying that the fol-

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

lowing would prefer to die. There were fortynine men, fifty-one women, and forty-eight children prisoners at the time, and it was undertaken to starve and freeze them into submission. Water was denied them three days, and fuel and food five days, but it was ineffecual. Dull Knife was wary, and Wild Hog. after being induced to come out, was put in irons, after stabbing a soldier.

At this, the others barricaded the doors, and covered the windows to conceal their movements. They then tore up the floors and constructed rifle pits in the enclosure, to command all the windows. About ten o'clock at night, on the night of January 9th, they killed two sentinels, took their guns and made good their escape. As they fled over the snow in the valley of Soldier creek, the alarm was given and hundreds of shots were exchanged with not many casualties, after which a tense quietness settled on the Pine Ridge hills.