DEATH on the OREGON TRAIL - The Tragic Tale of Little Mary Kelly.

we are on the Oregon Trail right now just to give you a feel for what it looks like there is a historical marker here 1841. look at that approximately four miles north on Bend of the North Platte which I just crossed over Robert Stewart in 1812 erected the first White Man's cabin here in Wyoming [Music] yeah it's been like a valley here like a 30 mile per hour wind blowing and it's just absolutely stunning the topography [Music] see on this side so right in the valley here so yeah this is the Oregon Trail it's cool to be standing standing on History walking through history to imagine the wagon trains that came through here hundreds thousands New Life the new adventure going to the West we're just going down more of the Oregon Trail here and I stopped over here at a a spot that's actually pretty famous it was a landmark that the wagon trains off and that way off in the distance Landmark that they would look for probably some of you have heard of it called Independence Rock and it's right off here to the left a massive a massive Landmark natural formation and they would look for this in the distance and you can see it from far away on the Oregon Trail so we're gonna go to a location now where there was a confrontation between the Oglala Sioux and here on the on the Oregon Trail a a wagon train not a big Wagon Train sadly not big enough to defend themselves and we have a very sad end so I'm going to take you there right now and tell you the story hey gang I am about 12 miles from Glen Rock Wyoming and we're at a well an entry to what is a ranch that I've been trying to get in here to get permission to go see the grave this is the Oregon Trail that ran through here very famous I was hoping we could get in here so that I could tell you the story where there was a famous confrontation between the Oglala Sue 250 Punk Papa Lakota and their Chief Came Upon A Wagon Train and it's very famous the two women Fanny Kelly Sarah Larimer and what happens you can't get even get in here and they let some people in to see the grave it's on their private property here so I'm going to go up there with the Cinematic camera and I'll try to get some Zoom footage because it's out there in the in the Foothills where all this happens so that's the best we're going to be able to do so anyway very sad about not being able to get in but it's an unbelievable story so here we go [Music] foreign [Music] oh Lord [Music] we are at the grave site area for a little girl named Mary Hurley Kelly she was buried here with other victims from a massacre that happened right out here now this story is part of the overall story of the Oglala Sioux attack on a wagon train in July of 1864 from which a woman named Sarah Larimer and another named Fanny Kelly were taken captive during which they had many trials and sufferings and our Focus today is on Fanny Fanny Kelly who was Fanny well it was Fannie Wiggins who was born in 1845 in a town called orilla in the province of Upper Canada now Ontario in 1856 when she was 11 years old her parents relocated the family South to the eastern part of the new state a new state that would be called Kansas it was the town of Geneva sadly along the way her father died of Cholera and in 1863 18 year old Fanny married a former Civil War Union veteran named Josiah s Kelly he was from Geneva that's where they met he was a farmer and he was 15 years older than Fanny now Josiah's Health was already failing it's not doing well he was told that a change of climate would be better for him many in those days went West to seek a better climate better air temperature the clean Mountain the clean ocean so he along with Fanny and their seven-year-old Nissan adopted daughter Mary Hurley set out on what would be the Oregon Trail it was May 17 1864. they were headed to the promised land to the West with them they had two black servants named Franklin and Andy and the Kelly's 28 year old neighbor a man named Gardner Wakefield there was a Methodist clergyman named Mr Sharp who joined them a few days later and a couple of weeks later another wagon joined them it would be William and Sarah Larimer and their eight-year-old son Frank they had a large Wagon Train to accompany them but they had left them to join the Kelly's the group was later joined by a man named Noah Daniel Taylor and he was driving the larimer's wagon and so the small vulnerable party began the long arduous Journey one that would be filled with risks and dangers but like many others those risks and dangers were worth it Oregon awaited the ocean the Promised Land [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] interestingly Fannie had big plans when they would arrive in the west she was a daguerreotype photographer and it was her passion and hobby well it was now summer they were making great progress of course the whole plan typically was to make it across before the winter would set in there was no time to waste there had been no major obstacles or confrontations with man nature or beast things were looking looking up but on July 12 1864 when this little wagon train had just crossed the little Box Elder Creek right here right here in front of us that you see here on the Oregon Trail they encountered a large group of 250 mini conscious and hung Papas and they were painted and Ready for War they were led by their war chief Ottawa a Chieftain of the Oglala band the war party had come to see what they called The White Man's holy Road of course this was the Oregon Trail they were curious this holy road that they had heard about of course the little wagon train of pioneers was vastly outnumbered they tried to placate the Warriors and they started with offering food and this seemed to work Chief Ottawa was content now while they were eating though a Sioux messenger arrived he came up fast on his horse he stopped and he reported that U.S soldiers had just killed some of their relatives on the Missouri River apparently they had put their heads on pikes and they were displaying them and bragging well this was actually true but what they didn't know it was a provoked situation it was General Alfred Sully's command they were on patrol and his topographical engineer he went out on his own little Mission with two soldiers and unfortunately he was ambushed and murdered by three Sioux they were waiting in a bush they wanted the horses they tracked those three Sioux down and they riddled them with bullets and this was the Revenge the Cavalry soldiers took they cut their heads off and put them on display but of course the messenger didn't bring the earlier part of the story The provocation part it was not told so the Sioux obviously exploded they immediately started shooting anyone in sight in short order and they killed and wounded some of the men luckily both Sarah and Fanny's husbands were able to scramble away in the confusion slip away and they were able to eventually Escape Josiah had a particularly unnerving Escape Josiah was hiding in the grass and there were rattlesnakes all around him he waited there with his heart beating breathless for hours it was now dark but they were still looking for him and there was one Brave One Warrior that was very close who would not give up and he was inching closer to Josiah but he laid there still and held his breath the warrior was just feet away from him stalking in the High Grass looking and he was about to come upon Him practically stepping on him but then several rattlesnakes did their rattle you've ever heard a rattlesnake that one of the most spine tingling noises in nature and you run and that brave ran he was terrified and he was gone well for Sarah and Fanny along with two children of course Sarah's young Frank her son and Fanny's little niece little Mary Hurley they were taken captive Fanny would watch the band destroy everything they had brought with including her camera equipment and chemicals it broke her heart although this was devastating what was worse was that this massacre claimed the lives of several people now little Mary Hurley was Fanny's sister's child she was only six or seven years old and little Mary had a predisposition to be very afraid of the Indians on the trip they had met some friendly tribes and Fanny tried her best to indoctrinate her that they were all friendly but it didn't work little Mary was almost out of her skin now with this horrible experience so shortly after they were captured at what seemed like an opportune time and was at night and he made the decision to send little Mary off to escape on her own and she did slip away sad to say though poor little Mary didn't make it very far that night she was discovered and what happened next was terrible let's read the passage that tells what finally happened from Fanny's testimony from her book which picks up the story after the whole Affair was over as they finally were able to gather men and go out to search for little Mary in accordance with his plan Mr Kelly procured a squad of men and being unsafe to go alone proceeded In Search Of The Lost Child it was now six days since she had been left by herself [Music] Squad of soldiers in their search came up upon a company of immigrants standing a little back from the road but alas the body of little Mary had been found pierced by three arrows and she had been scalped by the ruthless knife she was seen by a terrified soldier who was sitting upon a bluff and when discovered her body lay with her little hands stretched out as if she'd received while running the piercing deadly Arrow to The Travelers that found her she was only the mutilated corpse of a murdered child they cannot guess her name or people but with Humane feelings gave her a resting place in the earth and with the usual precaution in such cases secured a piece of her dress by which the body might possibly be identified when these duties were over and The Sorrowing father had the sad satisfaction of smoothing the Earth upon the unconscious breath that had ceased to suffer or be afraid and to know that the task was done they left her in the wilderness a little grave all alone far from The Happy Home of her childhood and the sisters and brothers among whom she had played with Innocent Joy of all the strange and terrible Fates no one no one who had seen her gentle little face and its loving sweetness the joy and comfort of her adoptive parents Hearts would ever have predicted such a barbarous one for her [Music] [Applause] [Music] killed Noah Taylor and three others Reverend sharp one of the black servants who was a cook for the Kelly's name Franklin we talked about and there was another traveler whose name is unknown they were all buried in a single grave right there where they were killed Fanny was literally a few feet away from Mr Taylor when he was shot in the forehead with a rifle ball and she said that he looked at her as he fell backwards mortally wounded and Franklin who they called Frank died at her feet covered in arrows she could only just stand there the grave Noah shared with the other men was relocated during a 1954 construction of a new Reservoir here it's maybe a quarter mile hike away from where Mary lies of course she lies where she was killed so they are all with her it's right out there Fanny Kelly would endure months of torture in captivity even having to participate in a scalp dance or two sometimes the camp would be excited and on the Move women and children in Old heading in One Direction with the beasts of Burden while the Warriors prepared for battle and headed in the opposite direction the women would carry as much as the horses even the children would carry loads they had dogs many many dogs with the two poles strapped to their backs or harnesses with weight equal to their own weights course the horses had to carry large loads and they had to drag large loads with the poles Fanny would also have to do the work and suffering right there with them Warriors would come back and the cheering enchanting would begin the night of the celebration of the scalps would be made no doubt it would have been another immigrant Wagon Train that had been massacred in the final days of captivity in October of that year she would witness an unbelievable atrocity one that really stood out and was perpetrated by her captors there was an unsuspecting flat boat coming down the Yellowstone River they were new arriving settlers they had no idea the party consisted of about 20 men women and children now the Oglala Sioux Warriors crept behind all the rocks and bushes up on The High Ground on the banks of the river they patiently waited like leopards awaiting their prey yeah it was nearing sundown and at that moment the unsuspecting Travelers pushed their boats to shore to make camp for the night they suspected no danger and they left all of their guns in the boat after all there was a U.S army cavalry all that not far away but as soon as the boat came to shore all of the Warriors streaked and descended down upon those poor families the men spun around and tried to make it back to the boat for their arms but they were cut off in Rapid succession they were all cut down and massacred and then started the torture of the women and children and last the mutilations not a soul was left alive and Sandy was watching all of this when the Warriors returned to the camp they brought their frightening trophies with among the trophies was a scalp of a woman her thick chestnut hair golden beautifully combed four feet in length now that night when the Braves would assemble they'd assemble at the big fire it was another scalp dance and he was watching sitting by herself there was one Brave sitting by himself also he was not participating [Applause] he was the one who had taken that fair Maiden scalp Fanny walked over to him and she asked him what are you thinking he said he was sad he was sad that he had done that he said that the woman's eyes were now haunting him all he could see were her beautiful blue eyes wide open with Terror staring inches from his face that last moment [Applause] most of the boats traveling down that river that year were attacked and many had a similar fate sadly there's a decent chance that little Mary Kelly would have survived had she not been sent off to try to escape but one can only speculate [Music] so what would be Fanny's fate well she would Trek North through Wyoming with the band and continue the sufferings along with Sarah Larimer and the children but one night Sarah Larimer would make an escape she would take her little son Frank she took off her shoes not to leave deep footprints and she would tiptoe her way carrying him to the edge of the Bluffs and up she would hike one and then another they would move by night and they would stay under a rock or a crevice during the day the Big Challenge was to find water and they finally did barely then they would finally find a German immigrant camp in Wagon Train they would be saved but Fanny would have to endure enslavement much longer she would be lost or traded between different Indian bands and finally the sea hasapa the Blackfoot would get her now they were more lenient they were more pitiful of her they treated her better and then she learned there was a reward offered for her return at one point there were white traitors in four wagons they came to purchase her release but alas all but one were killed so Fanny began to fear them now there was a fort nearby Fort Sully and there was talk of trading her for riches blankets and guns but they intended to attack the fort and not give her up at all that was going to be the plan so one day there was a brave that came to her a brave name jumping bear jumping bear had protected Fanny when she was first captured now he came to visit her and he was reminding her that he had saved her life he said that he wanted to be more than a friend so Fanny apparently placated him she asked him to take a letter from her to General Sully himself he didn't want to but he finally reluctantly agreed and in the letter she warned of the planned attack using her return as a ruse to gain entry to the Fort she was taking a huge chance these Warriors these men were very treacherous they would lie constantly if you would say but she was going to take the risk and she gave him the letter well he did take the letter to them and they were warned and this would save them foreign [Music] it was a freezing December day well below zero and there in the band was between 1 000 and 1200 Warriors and they all approached the fort with the plan when the band came close they were surprised and told that only 12 leaders were allowed to come in and the rest must stand back far away and stand down the Chiefs came through the gate with Fanny and then the gates were rapidly closed behind them so the vast numbers of Warriors could not penetrate before they were confused yes Fanny's letter has saved the fort and all the lives of the soldiers they would have been surely overcome by this massive Force well Fanny got her Freedom that day and she was eventually reunited with her husband oh [Music] well this is but one small story of the epic battle for the lands of the Sioux and the bigger fight by all Native Americans these were their lands for at least ten thousand years maybe more what would any people do they were slowly being overtaken overrun flooded by these Invaders well the fight would continue the overall fight for many many years whites with scalp and mutilate Indians and Indians would do the same to the whites it went both ways anger Revenge desperation all-out War but the strong bands would eventually be worn away round down defeated in despair this has been the way of the world as in centuries before everywhere where cultures are overtaken by more advanced the more powerful so this came to pass here too in this place in this land these peoples would yield their lands of their fathers and their fathers and in the end all would succumb to the rules of the white man and for a Time nothing would be left but the reservations yet the Native American culture was strong and most would persevere and then they would thrive their traditions and culture lived on it is strong and today it grows with pride because no one can take away their Rich heritage their Traditions or their spirit no one no one can take away their soul [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Faces of the Forgotten

Views: 159,266

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Id: uLXAoJLO1zI

Length: 29min 30sec (1770 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023