Interesting stuff, richr. It shows how much attitudes have changed in the last 130 years or so.

I think the last one, about the "bold chief at the head of the band" my refer to the Hay Field Fight or the Wagon Box Fight, during Red Cloud's War with the US Army in 1867. In both of those engagements, several hundred Indians attacked a much smaller group of white soldiers and civilians. The whites, however, were armed with a brand new rife, the breech-loading, fast firing Springfield...and they were well prepared in defensive positions. The Springfield rifles enabled them to lay down a volume of fire that decimated the ranks of the charging warriors, who had never fought against such rifles before. Both attacks were bloodily repulsed, much to the dismay of the Cheyenne and the Lakota, and some great warriors fell that day.

The Indians were not able to repeat their earlier successes, such as the Fetterman massacre (the "Battle of the Hundred Slain") where they had wiped out Captain Fetterman's column of 80 men with minor losses. (There have got to be some songs and poetry about that one too.)

Red Cloud still managed to win his war, however, by a very skillful guerilla campaign, and the US Army was forced by treaty to abandon the Powder River country, and all of their forts there. Little Wolf of the Cheyennes was given the special honour of burning Fort Phil Kearney to the ground after its evacuation. Fort C.F. Smith was burned down by Red Cloud's warriors.

The treaty that was signed would soon be broken, and the US Army would soon be back, but for a brief time the Lakota and Cheyenne were in their glory. It was a victory which will not be forgotten by those who care to remember.

- Little Hawk