352 INDIANS. 



1,500 souls. They then belonged to a reservation, and 

 should have been upon it. The small escort of troops 

 with me alarmed them not a little, and, in a council talk 

 which we had subsequently, Two Lance, the principal 

 chief present, informed me that he and his people were 

 forced to leave the reservation by actual hunger. ' You 

 may look,' said he, ' through every one of the 200 lodges 

 in this camp without finding a bit of meat, except the 

 fresh buffalo we killed yesterday. We know we are 

 doing wrong in leaving the reservation, but we could not 

 see our wives and children die of starvation. Though in 

 going to the Eepublican to kill buffalo we know we are 

 in danger from the Ute Indians, from the white buffalo 

 hunters, and from the soldiers, yet we are going because 

 if we do not soon get meat we shall starve.' 



With a disposition naturally prone to war, and such 

 incentives as are forced upon him, it is scarcely too much 

 to say that the principal employment of the Indian warrior 

 is war and preparation for war. If not of equal import- 

 ance as an incentive to manual employment as war, the 

 chase requires even more time and labour. Hunger is of 

 perpetual recurrence, and the work of the Indian in sup- 

 plying food for himself and family is never done. 



Only a few years ago the plains were covered with 

 buffalo, elk, and antelope ; white men passed and repassed, 

 killing such game as was necessary for food, or occasionally 

 for the mere wanton love of killing. These few animals 

 were not missed from the numberless throng, and the 

 Indian had no real competition in hunting. The work 

 of getting ready for the hunt was greater, but the hunt 

 itself comparatively easy. All is .now changed. The 

 countless millions of animals on which the Indian depended 

 for food, clothing, comfort, and even for life, are gone. 

 Their bones whiten the plains, the fell victims of the 

 universal greed for money. 

 Slaughtered for their hides ! 

 The Indian is the most patient of men. Were he 



