THE INDIAN ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS. 99 



qualities of Indian character. As we have already hinted, 

 this portion of our subject will probably receive but 

 scant acceptance upon the Region of the Great Plains, 

 throughout America, where but few persons will be 

 found to admit the existence of a single redeeming 

 quality in the composition of the red man. The 

 bitterness of race hatred is still too keen for that, and 

 no suggestion of the kind would be listened to. 



The immense natural sagacity which these people 

 show in the way they make themselves at home in 

 the midst of the wilderness, and the apparently mar- 

 vellous faculty which they exhibit in interpreting the 

 meaning of every sign left behind by man, or animals, 

 in their goings to and fro, throughout their country, 

 renders it absurd however to deny that they are possessed 

 of talents of a certain kind, of a very high order. 



Colonel Dodge gives the following picture of the 

 solitary Indian thrown upon his own resources, in the 

 midst of the plains of the great west: 



"Unlike the white man, the Indian never feels so safe as 

 when entirely alone. The fear of surprise is not entertained 

 by the solitary wanderer. He has no fears for his rear, and 

 in advancing he relies on his own sagacity and caution. He 

 seldom makes a fire, and never sleeps near one " (neither the 

 light nor smoke of it can therefore betray him into the 

 enemies' hands). " If he sees signs of an enemy he hides 

 himself in some place from which he can watch, and doubles 

 and hides among rocks and thickets, forcing pursuers to hunt 

 him by the slow process of trailing. In this way he protracts 

 pursuit till dark, and under its friendly cover places as much 

 distance between himself and the dangerous neighbourhood 

 as possible." * 



* Our Wild Indians, or 33 Years* Experience among the Red Men 

 of the Great West, by Lt.-Col. R. J. Dodge, U.S.A., 1882, p. 554. 



