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St. Louis Post Dispatch
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Contributed by Gigimo

Description: A Piute Maiden. Married to a Piute Brave and Then Returning to Eureka in Sorrow.

Date: April 9 1884

Newspaper published in: St. Louis, MO

(Eureka (Nev.) Cor. New York Sun.)

The sorrows of Maggie KNIGHT, a Piute Indian girl, are attracting some attention here. She is prettier than the far-famed Princess Sarah WINNEMUCCA, and fully as bright, though not so well educated. She abandoned her tribe a few years ago, owing to the horror which some of the practices of the Indians inspired in her. She was present when the tribe stoned old Chief WINNEMUCCA's widow to death, and was compelled by the fanatical leaders to take part in that sacrifice. Taking refuge in Eureka soon after this occurrence, she was kindly cared for by the white people, and in time secured work in a private family. She renounced her barbarous friends, threw aside her Indian toggery, and appeared frequently on the streets neatly attired in stylish civilized garb. For a long time Maggie's trim figure was familiar to the citizens of Eureka. She learned to speak English correctly, and, in consequence of her virtuous life, industrious habits, and attractive appearance, she became quite a celebrity. No one ever supposed that she would relapse to barbarism, but this she did a few weeks ago.

For several months she had been receiving visits from a young Piute brave, and he finally induced her to marry him and return to the roving life of the tribe. Disposing of her handsome dresses and retaining only her high heeled shoes, she appeared on the streets here one day wearing a short white dress trimmed with blue and wrapped in a coarse red blanket. Her jaunty turban had vanished and her long black hair streamed in the wind. The remonstrances of her friends were in vain. The dusky lover pleaded too hard and the impulses of her race were too strong to permit her to listen to the advice of the whites. Bidding all her acquaintances farewell, she set out for the mountains, the neatest-looking Indian maid in the country. Nothing was heard from her until one day this week, when she came into town bruised and bleeding from many wounds, her gaiters and stockings gone, her white and blue frock torn and bedraggled and her warm red blanket replaced by a cheap and greasy Government affair. She had been found in her wickiup by some friendly Piutes who were passing, and who, yielding to her earnest solicitation, had carried her to town. The poor creature was delighted to be among her friends once more, and it did not take the ladies of Eureka long to fix her up again in becoming attire.

Her husband, after the fashion of many of the Piutes, had treated her most barbarously, and she found her dream of wedded bliss in the primeval forest of short duration. From an ardent lover the brave had speedily degenerated into a drunken and neglectful wretch. Joining the dissolute members of his tribe in the cities, he left her to freeze and starve, and, returning to his wretched wickiup after one of his protracted gambling sprees he had assaulted her most inhumanly, leaving her to die. She probably would have perished if a strolling band of Indians had not chanced to pass her miserable habitation. She now declares most vehemently that she will never return to the tribe, and the white people will make an effort to help her into a useful life.

Submitted: 07/28/10

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