Germaine Sisters.—One of the most thrilling instances of Indian atrocity that ever occurred in Kansas was the murder of an emigrant named Germaine, with several members of his family, and the carrying off of four daughters into captivity in the fall of 1874. In the early part of that year a great number of buffaloes were killed by hunters and frontiersmen, the hides being shipped east, the tongues used for food and the carcasses left to rot on the plains. This wholesale slaughter of their main food supply exasperated the Indians to such an extent that the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes and Arapahoes held a council and determined to make war upon the whites.

The Germaine family, consisting of the father, mother, one son and six daughters, was on the way to Colorado. On the morning of Sept. 10, 1874, they were attacked on the bank of the Smoky Hill river in western Kansas. Mr. Germaine, his wife and son were killed and scalped; one daughter was shot; another burned to death, and the other four girls carried off to be subjected to a worse treatment than death.

The youngest girl was rescued from the Indians at a village on the banks of the Solomon river by James Cannon and Lieut. Whittemore, in command of 100 men of the Fifth United States infantry from Fort Wallace. A blizzard came up and the soldiers were forced to march to Fort Dodge, where it was learned from the rescued child that her three sisters were still captives. Later Mr. Cannon discovered that the girls were held at a Cheyenne village on Crooked creek, near the Cimarron river, about 40 miles from Fort Dodge, and he managed to rescue a second girl.

Gen. Pope was notified, and an expedition was started for the village. A messenger was sent to the band holding the girls to surrender to the authorities and the Indians returned to their agency, where they surrendered to Gen. Miles' command. The girls were sent to Fort Leavenworth. Gen. Miles was appointed their guardian, and Congress diverted $10,000 of the Indian annuities for their benefit. The income from this sum was to be used for their support during their minority and the principal divided among them when they became of age.