284 Hunting the Grisly 



irritating, incidents of the affair was to see 

 the plumed and painted warriors race head 

 long for the camp, plunge into the stream, 

 wash off their war paint, and remove their 

 feathers; in another moment they would be 

 stolidly sitting on the ground, with their 

 blankets over their shoulders, rising to greet 

 the pursuing cavalry with unmoved compos 

 ure and calm assurances that they had always 

 been friendly and had much disapproved the 

 conduct of the young bucks who had just 

 been scattered on the field outside. It was 

 much to the credit of the discipline of the 

 army that no bloodshed followed the fight 

 proper. The loss to the whites was small. 



The other incident, related by Lieutenant 

 Pitcher, took place, in 1890, near Tongue 

 River, in northern Wyoming. The command 

 with which he was serving was camped near 

 the Cheyenne Reservation. One day two 

 young Cheyenne bucks, met one of the gov 

 ernment herders, and promptly killed him 

 in a sudden fit, half of ungovernable blood 

 lust, half of mere ferocious lightheartedness. 

 They then dragged his body into the brush 

 and left it. The disappearance of the herder 

 of course attracted attention, and a search 

 was organized by the cavalry. At first the 



