First Expedition to Kansas Chalk 37 



About a mile below camp I was startled to come 

 upon a pony trail, so deeply cut into the soft chalk 

 that I knew each horse must be carrying a burden. 

 It had been made within the hour, and as I was 

 anxious to find out what it meant, I took the back 

 trail to the river. There I found that a large band 

 of warriors had sought shelter from the rain in a 

 willow thicket, tying bunches of the. twigs together 

 and throwing deer or antelope skins over them to 

 shed the water. They had squatted within these 

 shelters until the storm had passed, and then cooked 

 their breakfasts, as the live coals in many of the 

 ash heaps testified. 



There were no squaws or children along ; it makes 

 no difference whether women are white or red, they 

 always lose some of their belongings wherever they 

 go, and there was none of such property at this 

 camp. The ponies had been tied to the bushes and 

 not allowed to graze, showing that the party had 

 not expected to camp here, but had simply taken 

 shelter from the rain to avoid the discomfort of 

 traveling with wet buckskin moccasins and leggings. 

 I learned later that it was a large band of Kiowas, 

 Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, under their famous 

 chief, Crazy Horse, going north to join commands 

 with Sitting Bull, in Montana. 



The chalk beds which were the field of my labors 

 once composed the floor of the old Cretaceous ocean, 



