1 OIO 
Night crept down. The stars peered out 
timidly. Over a shadowy hill in the east the 
moon swung like a huge paper lantern. The 
mist began to rise from the warm river and the 
breeze grew chill. My companion stirred him¬ 
self, and with the embers of the cooking fire, 
started a crackling blaze in a pile of bleached 
drift. Its heat was pleasant and the leaping 
T HIS happened a long time ago, before 
the big fight in 1838 with the Kiowas, 
Comanches and Apaches. A war party 
of Cheyennes set out. Pushing Ahead, Crooked 
Neck and Crow Chief were the ones who carried 
the pipe. Besides these there were Gentle Horse, 
Omaha, Short Tailed Bull, Man-on-the-Hill, 
Medicine Arrow and Angry Man—nine in all. 
It was at the last of the winter or the begin¬ 
ning of spring that they left the main camp 
near the Black Hills. They were going against 
the Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches to take 
horses from them. Their leggings and mocca¬ 
sins were made of well smoked lodge skins, and 
they used lodge skins for blankets. When the 
weather was bad they made little shelters of 
willows like a sweat lodge, and when they had 
built the frames, they covered them with bark 
and long grass. Each man had six or eight 
pairs of moccasins which he carried tied by 
their strings to the coiled rope that hung over 
one shoulder and under the opposite arm, so 
that the moccasins lay flat on the back. Each 
man had also a rope made of twisted buffalo 
forehead hair to use for a bridle. 
Crow Chief was the best hunter and fastest 
runner of them all, and they usually sent him 
ahead to act as scout and to kill game. 
When they reached the Smoky Hill River they 
camped on Running Creek, a tributary coming 
in from the south, and here they determined to 
stop and kill and dry meat and to make small 
ropes. They took strips of dry buffalo rawhide, 
and two of them would climb part way up the 
bluff and would draw these strips backward and 
forward around points of rock until they be¬ 
came soft. While they were doing these things, 
a great herd of buffalo came down and fed all 
about their camp. The calves were just being 
born and someone proposed that they should 
kill a number of calves, and from their skins 
make sacks in which to carry their dried meat. 
The men had awls and sinew, and they made 
the sacks as proposed. 
When they had finished this work they started 
on again. They did not go near Bent’s Fort, 
but passed about sixty miles below it. When 
they crossed the Arkansas they considered that 
they were in the enemy’s country. As they went 
along, those men who best knew the country 
pointed out to the others the way they would 
return, showing where the rivers should be 
crossed, and the different landmarks by which 
the trail might always be found. 
From this on they always had a scout out dur¬ 
ing the day to look for danger. The others 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
flames charmed our drowsy eyes. And we sat 
there late, smoking, talking. From the wood¬ 
land across the river an owl hooted; on the hill 
a fox barked twice. A giant frog drooned at 
the water’s edge. The fire fell low. We spread 
our blankets and turned in. The moon peeped 
into the tent and we slept. 
would remain behind until this scout had crept 
up on the next hill and looked over the coun¬ 
try; then if all was well he would motion them 
to come on. When they reached the Cimarron 
River they were still more careful. Here the 
country is open and level for long distances and 
often they would creep from point to point of 
the hills, or sometimes would run by twos, one 
just behind the other, so that anyone seeing them 
from a long way off might suppose the two to 
be an elk or a horse. They never stopped all 
night in a creek bottom, but after drinking, re¬ 
tired to the head of some ravine and slept there. 
One night just as it was getting dark they came 
to the South Canadian. When they crossed it, 
Crow Chief went first, and the others followed, 
each stepping exactly in his foot prints in the 
sand. The last man carried a brush of willow 
twigs with which he swept away the tracks. 
After they had crossed, they went up into the 
breaks, where they ate and slept. 
The next morning they followed up a ravine 
and Crooked Neck went ahead as scout. After 
he had been gone a little while, the others started 
on after him. They were now, as they supposed, 
in the heart of the enemy’s country. They could 
see Crooked Neck ahead of them, up on the 
side of the hill, looking over the country, while 
they themselves were traveling in the bed of 
the ravine. 
Presently they saw Crooked Neck look, and 
then jump into a ravine and run down toward 
them, all the time making signs for them to 
keep on up the stream. Soon he met them and 
said, “I do not know what it is, but just over 
the hill is a bunch of buffalo, and I saw the 
bulls begin to run. People must be there, and 
we shall have to wait here for a time.” 
The men all began to put on their light moc¬ 
casins for running. While they were doing this, 
one of them looked up a side ravine and saw 
a buffalo cow come over the hill, and a man 
following it and ranging up alongside to shoot 
it with his arrow, and following the man, a 
woman. 'Both were on fast horses. The man 
must have shot the buffalo in a good place, for 
soon she stopped and stood a moment and then 
fell. The man did not at once dismount, but 
he and his wife sat on their horses looking all 
over the country. Then the man got off his 
horse and began to cut off meat, but he handed 
the rope to his wife and she sat there on her 
horse close to him. 
“Now,” said Pushing Ahead, “we will creep 
up close to those people and kill them.” The 
Cheyennes slipped down into a side ravine, and 
[Dec. 26, 1908. 
following one behind another, crept up until 
they had come within two hundred yards of the 
man. They could approach no nearer without 
being seen. Pushing Ahead said, “Now, let us 
make a rush and kill him before he can get on 
his horse.” 
“No,” said Crow Chief, “we cannot do that. 
We shall be running up hill, and long before 
we can get to him he will be on his horse and 
away.” 
They crouched there, watching. As fast as 
the man cut off pieces of meat he put them on 
his own and his wife’s saddle. 
“It will be better,” said Crow Chief, “to watch 
these people and see where they go. The vil¬ 
lage must be close at hand.” The others thought 
that this was good counsel, and said to Crow 
Chief, “Now, since you are the fastest runner, 
as soon as this man gets over the hill do you 
follow him and see where he goes. We will 
come after you and will carry your gun and 
your other things.” 
At last the man finished his butchering, and 
mounted his horse, and he and his wife rode off. 
As soon as he had passed over the crest of the 
nearest hill, Crow Chief ran hard after him, 
and when he reached the top of the hill he could 
see the man, and watched him. He motioned 
the others to come on, and waiting until the 
Kiowa had passed over the next high hill, he 
again ran hard after him. Those who had fol¬ 
lowed Crow Chief, when they peeped over the 
hill, saw him on the next hill, signing to them 
to come on. When they reached him he said, 
“You see that hill over there. It is there that 
he passed.” Pushing Ahead said, “Now, make 
a quick run over there and see what you can 
discover.” Crow Chief made the run and crept 
to the hilltop and soon came back a little way 
down the hill and motioned the others to come 
on. They ran across to him as hard as they 
could, and when they reached him he said to 
them, “Well, I think we have found our friends.” 
They looked down the valley where he pointed, 
and there, on both sides the Washita River, the 
hills were covered with horses as far as they 
could see. 
Not far off there was a large buffalo wallow 
where the grass grew high. They went there, 
hid, and began to get ready—to straighten and 
soften their ropes by pulling on them, or by 
running them back and forth over the soles of 
the feet, and to fill their saddle pads with grass. 
This took a long time. 
Then they chose partners, saying, “How shall 
we go to the camp?” Pushing Ahead and Crook¬ 
ed Neck said that they would go together. Crow 
Chief said, “I will go by myself, for I am tl\e 
fastest runner, and I do not wish to be obliged 
to wait for anyone.” Six agreed to go in pairs, 
but Crow Chief, Gentle Horse and Omaha were 
to start together, but to part before they reached 
the camp. At the buffalo wallow they left all 
their things except their lariats and their hair 
ropes, and it was agreed that they should come 
back to this place to meet. 
As soon as it grew dark, they started out, run¬ 
ning for the camp. Crow Chief was soon far 
ahead. Gentle Horse and Omaha parted com¬ 
pany, and Gentle Horse went on the hills above 
the camp. Soon he came upon a bunch of horses 
standing close together, as if being herded. When 
the horses saw him they put up their heads and 
snorted, but he walked around them for a few 
The Fleetness of Crow Chief 
By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
