330 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 26, 1910. 
Winter War Stories 
By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
Among the Indians in olden times people were occasionally found who believed that they had a certain 
spiritual power, which enabled them to foretell coming events. Some of them could also call “spirits from the 
vasty deep,” and those spirits, when summoned, conversed with them, told them about events that were then 
happening at a distance, about the location and condition of persons far away, and foretold matters that should 
happen. This foreknowledge came to those who possessed this mysterious power, and whom we call “Medi¬ 
cine Men” sometimes, while they slept—in dreams—at other times they saw visions while awake, or again some 
bird or some animal might call out to them and they would understand its cries, just as if it had spoken in 
the man’s own tongue. Some of these men possessed amulets or charms which warned them of the approach of 
danger. Their powers, which were very varied, thus resembled in some respects those of the Old Testament 
prophets in that they often heard and saw things not seen and heard by common people, and communicated with 
beings of which the people knew nothing except by hearsay. . 
All Indian tribes have a great oral literature; that is to say, they have a multitude of stories dealing with 
things ancient and modern, sacred and profane. Many of their tales purport to give the history of the origin of 
things. There are stories of the gods, tales told simply for purposes of entertainment, and stories about the 
events of wars. In all these tales the mysterious appears from time to time, miraculous happenings which 
we are familiar with in the stories of ancient times, whether they be those of sacred history or of classical 
antiquity, or merely the folk-tales of the common people. 
Two or three stories recently told me by Cheyenne Indians of occurrences which took place less than sixty years 
ago, though dealing with actual events of war and winter, contain those elements of the miraculous, and are 
offered here as interesting both for the facts which they contain, and for what they show of the working of 
the mind of primitive men. 
The Prophecy of Bear Man. 
N the winter of 1856-57 a part of the Chey¬ 
ennes were camped for the winter on Run¬ 
ning Creek. Three clans of them were 
there, the Wuh'ta piu, O i'vl manah' and Hev'a- 
taniu. One day a medicine man called Bear 
Man, after coming out of a sweat house where 
many old men were taking a sweat, stopped by 
some men who were sitting, smoking near the 
pile of earth where the buffalo skull faces the 
sweat house, and said to them: “While my 
friends there were all singing inside the sweat 
house, I saw something.” 
“What is it,” said the others; “tell us about it.” 
“As we were sitting there,” said Bear Man, 
“praying and sweating, it came into my mind 
strongly that it will be good for us to keep close 
and tie up all our gentle horses, for in my mind 
I saw coming toward our camp on foot a war 
party of Pawnees. The leader was carrying in 
his arms something wrapped up in a cloth.” 
When Bear Man had finished speaking, Bear 
Tongue rose to his feet and went through the 
camp, crying out and telling all the people what 
Bear Man had seen in his vision. 
As the sun drew to the west, all the people 
drove up their horses and all the gentle ones 
were tied up. Some young men went out a little 
way from the camp and watched during the 
night for the Pawnees. Two nights passed and 
nothing happened. On the third day people be¬ 
gan to say that Bear Man must have been mis¬ 
taken in his vision, and that night they did not 
tie up their horses, and on this third night every¬ 
thing was quiet. Nobody now thought anything 
of Bear Man’s vision. 
Early in the morning after the fourth night 
a young man came running into the camp, call¬ 
ing out that the Pawnees had stolen horses. He 
held in his hand a Pawnee arrow that had drop¬ 
ped out of a Pawnee quiver while its owner was 
getting on a horse. The man’s tracks showed 
where he had mounted a Cheyenne horse. All 
the men now ran out to see if their horses were 
taken. When the women went down to the 
stream for water they found a blanket that a 
Pawnee had lost. Those who were out hunt¬ 
ing for their horses came to a place on the hill 
below the camp where the Pawnees had sat in 
a row and made prayers before taking the 
horses. On the ground they had marked horse 
tracks leading toward the Pawnee country. They 
had left their sacks just as they had set them 
in a row, with corn and dried meat in the sacks 
and also some moccasins. They had driven the 
horses by this place and taken a few of their 
things, for their tracks showed where they had 
dismounted. 
Thus it was seen that Bear Man’s vision had 
come true. His prophecy was fulfilled. The 
Cheyennes came back to the camp and told what 
they had seen, and now men began to saddle up 
their horses to follow the trail. As the men 
were beginning to start, Bear Tongue cried out, 
“Follow them slowly, for the Pawnees have not 
taken very many good horses.” The best horses 
w r ere above the camp, but the Pawnees coming 
up the stream had taken the horses below the 
camp and mainly from the camp of the Hev'a- 
taniu. The clans Wuh'ta piu and O I'vl manah 
were camped further up the creek and had their 
horses above the camp. 
As fast as the men got saddled up they started 
on the trail. It was very plain and led toward 
Solomon Forks. In the evening the pursuers 
stopped on a small stream that runs into those 
creeks. The trail was now very fresh. 
Black Kettle had been chosen as the leader 
on this trip. Pie was a young chief and had 
married into the Wuh'ta piu clan. When they 
stopped that evening he said to the young men: 
“Now we are getting close to the Pawnees. All 
those of you who have good horses must saddle 
them and leave your poor horses here. Those 
of you who are riding slow 'horses stay here 
with these horses.” A good many of the men 
were riding common horses and leading their 
war horses, but some people who were riding 
poor horses were those who had had their good 
horses stolen. Buffalo were all about them, and 
Black Kettle told those who were going to stay 
here not to go away from this place, but 
to go out and kill some fat cows, so that when 
his party returned they might have plenty to 
eat. He told them also to keep up a good fire 
during the night, for he and his party would come 
back as soon as they had overtaken the Pawnees. 
Black Kettle and his party started on the trail 
and when they got near the Solomon River, 
Black Kettle told his men to form in line and 
all to get off their horses. They did so and all 
the men stood in line in front of their horses. 
Then Black Kettle took an arrow from his 
quiver and stepped ahead of his men and held 
the arrow as if he were going to shoot; then 
he drew the arrow back and came to his men 
and said to them: “Do you see the point of 
that hill over there? Right under it the Pawnees 
are resting and eating.” All mounted their horses 
and charged for this point, and when they 
reached it they found that the Pawnees had 
just left it. The fire was still burning. They 
had killed a buffalo and had been roasting meat. 
The Cheyennes had started down this creek and 
had not gone very far when they saw the 
Pawnees rounding up the horses and trying to 
catch the fast horses to get away on. But the 
Cheyennes were all on good horses and they 
were too quick for the Pawnees. Two Pawnees 
caught fast horses, one a white horse that be¬ 
longed to Thin Face and one a gray horse that 
belonged to Lump Nose. These two were noted 
horses. Thin Face and Lump Nose had stayed 
back with those that had the slow horses and 
were left as leaders of that party. In their 
younger days both had been great warriors. 
Five Pawnees ran to the timber nearby and 
got among the willows and cottonwood trees, 
but the Cheyennes got all around them, and it 
did not take them long to kill all five. The two 
on fast horses got away. The Cheyennes knew 
that they could not catch them, so they let them 
go. Antelope was the first man to count a coup. 
They had recovered all their horses except the 
two that the Pawnees had ridden off and nine 
more that were still missing. These nine were 
eight unbroken mares and a very old mule that 
had been broken to ride. 
It was night when they turned back. On the 
way they stopped to rest, and next day early 
started on, though their horses were getting very 
tired. Black Kettle said: “Let us stop on the 
creek and dress the scalps,” and they did so and 
rested for a time. They all said: “We must 
not show the scalps to the other party until we 
get near them and then we can shake the scalps 
in their faces.” This was the custom in those 
days. 
The party that had been left behind got up 
on the hill to watch those who w'ere approach¬ 
ing to see whether anyone had been hurt or 
killed, but those who were coming made no 
signal. When Black Kettle and others got close 
to those who had stayed behind and were just 
about to shake the Pawnee scalps at them, Thin 
Face, who was Black Kettle’s brother-in-law, 
ran up to Black Kettle and pulled out a scalp 
from under his robe and waved, it in front of 
Black Kettle’s face. Black Kettle and his party 
were surprised at this. Thin Face pointed down 
the creek and said to them: “You will find his 
carcass there.” He meant that they had killed 
the Pawnee there. 
When those that were left behind went out to 
kill buffalo, they saw a man driving eight head 
of horses and riding a mule. This Pawnee was 
unlucky. The horses he had taken were all un¬ 
broken mares. Only the old mule was gentle and 
could be ridden. In the darkness these wild 
mares looked fat to the Pawnee, and he thought 
he was getting a fine herd, but in the morning 
he found his mistake, for he had nothing to ride 
but this very old mule. 
