Wasu, Student at the Carlisle Indian School

Editorial Introduction. Mary Jane (Rippey) Heistand was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1856 of a family long settled in that town and part of the county. In 1878 she married Lieutenant Henry O.S. Heistand, who had graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in that same year. She accompanied him to the West, where he was stationed at the Poplar Creek Indian Agency in Montana Territory and at Forts Abraham Lincoln and Yates in Dakota Territory. Subsequently Captain Heistand was assigned as instructor to the Ohio National Guard, and there Mrs. Heistand became intimately acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. William McKinley of Canton, with whom her husband's family were friendly. As Mrs. McKinley was an invalid, she gladly and gratefully accepted the many services and kindnesses provided her as Governor McKinley's wife by her friend Mrs. Heistand. When McKinley was elected president in 1896 the Heistands accompanied him to Washington, the major assigned to the Adjutant General's Department with duties at the White House, and Mrs. Heistand running errands, arranging appointments, and acting almost as a substitute hostess for the First Lady, as in Ohio. She had made herself indispensable by "cleverness and push," a journalist wrote; the wives of the Cabinet members did not approve; and the arrangement soon came to an end.

Colonel Heistand remained in Washington, his service punctuated by tours in the Philippines, the China Relief Expedition, and as military attaché to the embassy in Paris. He was an artist, an able public speaker and toastmaster, author of a book on Alaska, and a trustee of American University in Washington. He retired from the army in 1920 and died in Washington in 1921. Meanwhile Mrs. Heistand, under the ride "Scraps from an Army Woman's Diary," had begun to publish her recollections of life on the Plains in the old Army. The first—"The Last Sun Dance" and "An Old Army Christmas"—appeared in Army and Navy Life in 1907. The next to last of eighteen sketches- "Wasu: My Indian Protegee"-her account of the little Sioux girl whom she befriended, was published in Army and Navy Life, XIV (1909), 229-32.

The editor is grateful to Mrs. Heistand's great-nephew, John E. Robinson, III, of Santa Monica, California, for calling this article to his attention. It is reprinted here with only minor changes in punctuation and paragraphing in the interest of clarity.

WASU: MY INDIAN PROTEGEE

One of the peering faces that watched us from outside our windows at Camp Poplar River became very familiar by reason of its frequent and regular appearance. It was that of a child. Sometimes it was there near the sill of the window, alone; again the worn, hungry face of a woman leaned above it. I would not attempt to describe the effect that the spectre-like appearances had upon me as I would glance out of my windows and unexpectedly encounter the pair of eyes intent upon my every move. Those young eyes were at first frankly inquiring; soon they took on an expression of child-like curiosity; finally one day I surprised in them the warmth and caress that is associated with personal interest.

I spoke to the child and her mother and gave them food at different times. It seemed that the girl, "Wasu" (the Hail), was about eleven years of age, though her size led me to judge her older. Her mother told me Wasu was very fond of me and liked to watch me, which was fully corroborated by her daily attendance at the windows that commanded a view of me at my various employments. The Indian woman urged me to take her child and keep her, but the suggestion did not at first attract me. However, as the days passed, each marked by the girl's tireless watching, I concluded it would be preferable having her indoors rather than seeing her pitiful appealing face as she would stand outside for hours.

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