The Prairie Wars 1840-1890

      For the Teton bands the idyllic life reached its zenith in the mid-nineteenth century.  Life was good.  In the early spring the men and older boys rode to the hunt with their best buffalo horses to catch the herds before they separated into smaller herds for the summer grazing.  The women, old people and small children followed close behind.  The horses for the hunt were marvels of skilled assistants for the hunters.  They sensed the chase.  They seemed to invigorate for the approach to the herd and to cut a single animal from the rest.  Then, without command, the horses would position their riders at the perfect distance and angle from the bison so that the hunters could send an arrow at the moment that the forelegs were stretched out and the ribs expanded to the greatest extent.  The Indian would draw his bow and release the arrow at the instant of opportunity.  It would enter the side of the fleeing bison between the expanded ribs or just behind the outstretched shoulder.  With velocity magnified by the square of the mass, the force of the arrow would sink deep into the chest cavity, piercing the lungs and heart.      

       There was no time to wait for any alternate orders.  Reno started his attack along the left bank of the river.  He had a distance of two miles to the edge of the cloud of dust.  The command started at a trot.  The battalion maneuvered into "attack" configuration.  They increased the gait to a canter.  The dust cloud before them was starting to reveal ponies and warriors.  The battalion spurred into a gallop.  The troopers' adrenalin ran fast.  Revolvers drawn, the troopers fired into the air.

        Joseph's surrender speech stands, in eloquence, with the greatest speeches in American literature:

            "Tell General Howard I know his heart.  What he told me before, I have in my heart.  I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Too-Hul-Hul-Sote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say yes or no [that is, vote in the tribal councils].  He who led on the young men [Alokut] is dead.  It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are---perhaps freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead."

        "Hear me,my chiefs.  I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."