24 The Rough Riders 



Not all of the Indians were from the Indian Ter- 

 ritory. One of the gamest fighters and best soldiers 

 in the regiment was Pollock, a full-blooded Pawnee. 

 He had been educated, like most of the other In- 

 dians, at one of those admirable Indian schools 

 which have added so much to the total of the small 

 credit account with which the White race balances 

 the very unpleasant debit account of its dealings 

 with the Red. Pollock was a silent, solitary fellow 

 an excellent penman, much given to drawing pic- 

 tures. When we got down to Santiago he devel- 

 oped into the regimental clerk. I never suspected 

 him of having a sense of humor until one day, at 

 the end of our stay in Cuba, as he was sitting in the 

 Adjutant's tent working over the returns, there 

 turned up a trooper of the First who had been act- 

 ing as barber. Eying him with immovable face, 

 Pollock asked, in a guttural voice, "Do you cut 

 hair?" The man answered, "Yes"; and Pollock 

 continued, "Then you'd better cut mine," muttering, 

 in an explanatory soliloquy, "Don't want to wear 

 my hair long like a wild Indian when I'm in civilized 

 warfare." 



Another Indian came from Texas. He was a 

 brakeman on the Southern Pacific, and wrote tell- 

 ing me he was an American Indian, and that he 

 wanted to enlist. His name was Colbert, which at 

 once attracted my attention ; for I was familiar with 



