318 INDIANS. 



was riddled with bullets. Eed Bead ran, was pursued, 

 and, in spite of his Indian cunning and endurance, caught 

 and killed. Subsequently, when the Indians came into 

 this council to make peace, they brought an old widow 

 who they said had lost her sons, and had no one to sup- 

 port her, and they demanded that the United States 

 should give her a pension. On investigation it trans- 

 pired that the widow's two sons were the men killed by 

 the corporal in his last gallant effort. 



Judging from the weak-kneed concessions of previous 

 councils, the Indians had good cause to expect that the 

 widow would get a pension. Fortunately there were 

 men in that council who neither feared the Indian nor 

 expected to make money out of him. The demands of 

 the Cheyennes were not only not entertained, but they 

 were met by so fearless and manly a statement of what 

 would result to them if they continued their warfare, that 

 they left the council lodge under the influence of the 

 only sentiment that can actuate them to humanity viz., 

 fear and have since then behaved tolerably well. 



Though sharp in horse trade and quick to compre- 

 hend the general principles of barter with white men, the 

 idea of devoting himself to a particular occupation or 

 trade, and making a living by the exchange of his pro- 

 ductions for the productions of others, seems never to 

 have occurred to him. Each man is his own artisan. 

 What he needs he must make for himself or buy from 

 the white man. He has indomitable patience, is imita- 

 tive, and, with the assistance of his knife and raw hide, 

 he manages to supply most of his necessities. The skins 

 of animals are to him what the bamboo is to the 

 East Indian, or the breadfruit tree to the South Sea 

 Islander. In various forms they furnish house, bedding, 

 furniture, clothing, horse equipment, almost everything 

 necessary to his comfort. Invention seems almost totally 



wanting. 



