Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/431

 Colonel Mason was not only a good soldier, he was a man of most excellent education, broad views and humane impulses; he had gained a great influence over "Spotted Tail," which he used to the best advantage. He explained to his red-skinned friends that the force soon to be put in the field would embrace hundreds of the Sioux at the agencies, who were desirous of providing themselves with ponies from the herds of their relations, the Minneconjous; that every warrior of the Cheyennes had declared his intention of enlisting to fight "Crazy Horse"; that there would be, if needed, two hundred and fifty men, or even more, from the Utes, Bannocks, and Shoshones; that over one hundred Pawnees were determined to accompany any expedition setting out; that one hundred Winnebagoes had offered their services; that all the able-bodied Arapahoes were enrolled, and that the Crows had sent word that two hundred of their best warriors would take part. In the early part of the winter the Crows had sent two hundred and fifty of their warriors under Major George M. Randall and the interpreter, Fox, to find and join Crook's expedition. After being subjected to indescribable privations and almost frozen to death in a fierce wind and snow storm upon the summits of the Big Horn range—from the fury of which Randall and his companions were saved by the accident of discovering a herd of buffaloes hiding from the blast in a little sag, which animals they attacked, killing a number and eating the flesh raw, as no fire could live in such a blast, and putting their feet inside the carcasses to keep from freezing stiff—the brave detachment of Crows succeeded in uniting with us on Christmas morning, 1876, in one of the most disagreeable blizzards of that trip.

Their number had been reduced below one hundred, but they were still able to aid us greatly, had not Crook deemed it best for them to return home and apprise their tribe of the complete downfall of the Cheyennes and the breaking of the backbone of hostility. There might be other fights and skirmishes in the future, but organized antagonism to the whites was shattered when the Cheyenne camp was laid low, and future military operations would be minimized into the pursuit of straggling detachments or conflicts with desperate bands which had no hope of success, but would wish to sell their lives at the highest rate possible. The best thing for the Crows and Utes and Shoshones to do