nt. The old chief
refused to be intimidated and was shot dead on the spot. Not one soldier
ever reached the gate of Fort Laramie! Here Red Cloud led the young
Ogallalas, and so intense was the feeling that they even killed the
half-breed interpreter.

Curiously enough, there was no attempt at retaliation on the part of the
army, and no serious break until 1860, when the Sioux were involved in
troubles with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. In 1862, a grave outbreak
was precipitated by the eastern Sioux in Minnesota under Little Crow,
in which the western bands took no part. Yet this event ushered in a new
period for their race. The surveyors of the Union Pacific were laying
out the proposed road through the heart of the southern buffalo country,
the rendezvous of Ogallalas, Brules, Arapahoes, Comanches, and Pawnees,
who followed the buffalo as a means of livelihood. To be sure, most of
these tribes were at war with one another, yet during the summer
months they met often to proclaim a truce and hold joint councils and
festivities, which were now largely turned into discussions of the
common enemy. It became evident, however, that some of the smaller
and weaker tribes were inclined to welcome the new order of things,
recognizing that it was the policy of the government to put an end to
tribal warfare.

Red Cloud's position was uncompromisingly against submission. He made
some noted speeches in this line, one of which was repeated to me by
an old man who had heard and remembered it with the remarkable verbal
memory of an Indian.

"Friends," said Red Cloud, "it has been our misfortune to welcome the
white man. We have been deceived. He brought with him some shining
things that pleased our eyes; he brought weapons more effective than our
own: above all, he brought the spirit water that makes one forget for a
time old age, weakness, and sorrow. But I wish to say to you that if you
would possess these things for yourselves, you must begin anew and put
away the wisdom of your fathers. You must lay up food, and forget the
hungry. When your house is built, your storeroom filled, then look
around for a neighbor whom you can take at a disadvantage, and seize all
that he has! Give away only what you do not want; or rather, do not part
with any of your possessions unless in exchange for another's.

"My countrymen, shall the glittering trinkets of this rich man, his
deceitful drink that overcomes the mind, shall these things tempt us