196 RED INDIAN SCOUTS. 



the help of anything" but keen eyes and a knowledge 

 of the Indian sign language. 



Indian scouts are, or were, employed by the United 

 States Government at almost all its military frontier 

 posts in the Indian country, their services being invaluable, 

 and indeed indispensable to the success of operations 

 against hostile tribes of Indians. When a United States 

 military force was on the march through a hostile 

 neighbourhood, Colonel Dodge describes the mode of 

 procedure as follows: 



" On the march, the leader or interpreter is kept with the com- 

 manding officer of the troops, while the scouts are sent far in 

 advance or on the flanks. Occasionally he (the scout) shows 

 himself, sometimes a mere speck on a distant ridge, and the 

 interpreter will say at once what he desires to communicate. 

 I learned some of these signals, which are all simple and entirely 

 conventional. For instance, a scout rides up to the top of a 

 hill, walks up his horse, stands motionless for two or three 

 minutes, and then proceeds at a walk. He means, 'All right, 

 no signs of an enemy. ' Another will dash up at full speed 

 to the top, and ride rapidly round in a circle. He means, 

 ' Danger get together as quick as possible. ' These and similar 

 are ordinary signals, used by all plains Indians. The only 

 really wonderful thing is the very great distance it can be 

 read by the Indians. While with an excellent glass I could 

 scarcely make out 'that the distant speck was a horseman, the 

 Indian at my side would tell me what the speck wished to 

 communicate. Indian signallings and telegraphings are simply 

 modifications of the Sign Language." * 



The regular sign language by means of which 

 members of different tribes unable to speak each other's 



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

 of the Great West, by Colonel Richard I. Dodge, U.S.A., 1886, pp. 

 43233- 



