FIGHTING. 373 



kill for a chance to escape. The moment he receives a 

 disabling wound he becomes utterly reckless ; and, seeming 

 to devote his whole remaining energies to the one single 

 object of killing as many as possible of his enemies, he 

 fights with the fierceness of the wolf, but with coolness 

 of aim and desperation of purpose, as long as his eye can 

 distinguish an enemy, or his finger pull a trigger. 



Many a white man has been sent to the Happy Hunt- 

 ing Grounds from carelessly going up to an Indian sup- 

 posed to be dead. An officer of high rank in our service 

 has suffered all his life from a wound inflicted under such 

 circumstances. Stampeded and demoralised, an Indian 

 was running for life, without thought of using his arms. 

 He was pursued, shot, and fell ; and the officer, stopping 

 his horse, was in the act of turning himself round to return 

 to his command, when he was struck under the shoulder- 

 blade by an arrow, sped with the last breath of the Indian. 



I have heretofore mentioned the deadly hate which 

 exists between the Pawnees and the Sioux. Thirty years 

 ago the Pawnees occupied and claimed as their own all 

 the whole vast country from the Arkansas Eiver to the 

 Black Hills. The Sioux of Iowa, Minnesota, and 

 Wisconsin, pushed back by the advancing tide of civilisa- 

 tion, thrust themselves between the Pawnees on the 

 south and the Crows on the north, against each of which 

 tribes an incessant and most bitter war was then and has 

 been since waged. Gradually they spread over the wide 

 plains of Dacotah and Nebraska. The Pawnees, who are 

 undoubtedly the very hardest of Indian fighters, defended 

 for a long time, with desperation and success, the line of 

 the Platte, covering their chosen home, the great Buffalo 

 region of the Eepublican and Smoky Eivers. One fall, 

 about fifteen years ago, the whole Pawnee tribe was 

 encamped on the south bank of the Platte, near the 

 mouth of Plum Creek. Several hundred of the best 

 warriors, taking with them only a comparatively few of 

 the strongest and quickest working squaws, went over to 



