36 HUNTING TRIPS 



toward the Black Hills, there was still dan- 

 ger from Indians. That summer the buffalo 

 hunters had killed a couple of Crows, and 

 while we were on the prairie a long-range 

 skirmish occurred near us between some 

 Cheyennes and a number of cowboys. In 

 fact, we ourselves were one day scared by 

 what we thought to be a party of Sioux; 

 but on riding toward them they proved to 

 be half-breed Crees, who were more afraid 

 of us than we were of them. 



During the past century a good deal of 

 sentimental nonsense has been talked about 

 our taking the Indians' land. Now, I do not 

 mean to say for a moment that gross wrong 

 has not been done the Indians, both by gov- 

 ernment and individuals, again and again. 

 The government makes promises impossible 

 to perform, and then fails to do even what 

 it might toward their fulfilment; and where 

 brutal and reckless frontiersmen are brought 

 into contact with a set of treacherous, re- 

 vengeful, and fiendishly cruel savages a long 

 series of outrages by both sides is sure to 



