Pearl Jolly: Testimony about the Ludlow Massacre

. . . From my first experience in the Ludlow tent colony the gunmen would come there and would try in every way to provoke trouble. They were trying to cause a battle between the miners and the gunmen, but we knew that and we did not want to have any trouble. At one time the gunmen came to the Ludlow tent colony, just as near as they could get, fired two shots into the tent colony. Our men took their rifles and went to the hills, thinking that by so doing they would lead the fire that way and keep them from firing on the colony, where the women and children were. There was no way to protect the women and children. After that our men took and dug pits under the tents, so that if the same thing should happen again there would be some means of escape for those women and children. Following that, the militia came into the field. When the militia came in there we made them welcome; we thought they were going to treat us right. They were escorted into the camp with a brass band. They attended all of our dances. They came down and took dinner with us two or three different evenings, but when they were in there two or three days they turned, and we could see that, but we did not want to have any trouble with them. One of the women, I believe, told them that they could not be on two sides at once. So following that they would come into our tent colony and searched about once a week or more. When they came there our arms were all turned over to the militia....