mpse of a coyote
slinking into the gulches, returning from night hunting to sleep. While
intently watching some moving body at a distance, we could not yet tell
whether of men or animals, I heard a faint noise behind me and slowly
turned my head. Behold! a grizzly bear sneaking up on all fours and
almost ready to spring!

"'Run!' I yelled into the ear of my companion, and we both leaped to our
feet in a second. 'Separate! separate!' he shouted, and as we did so,
the bear chose me for his meat. I ran downhill as fast as I could, but
he was gaining. 'Dodge around a tree!' screamed Young-Man-Afraid. I took
a deep breath and made a last spurt, desperately circling the first tree
I came to. As the ground was steep just there, I turned a somersault
one way and the bear the other. I picked myself up in time to climb the
tree, and was fairly out of reach when he gathered himself together and
came at me more furiously than ever, holding in one paw the shreds of
my breechcloth, for in the fall he had just scratched my back and cut my
belt in two, and carried off my only garment for a trophy!

"My friend was well up another tree and laughing heartily at my
predicament, and when the bear saw that he could not get at either of us
he reluctantly departed, after I had politely addressed him and promised
to make an offering to his spirit on my safe return. I don't think I
ever had a narrower escape," he concluded.

During the troublous times from 1865 to 1877, American Horse advocated
yielding to the government at any cost, being no doubt convinced of the
uselessness of resistance. He was not a recognized leader until 1876,
when he took the name and place of his uncle. Up to this time he bore
the nickname of Manishnee (Can not walk, or Played out.)

When the greater part of the Ogallalas, to which band he belonged, came
into the reservation, he at once allied himself with the peace element
at the Red Cloud agency, near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and took no small
part in keeping the young braves quiet. Since the older and better-known
chiefs, with the exception of Spotted Tail, were believed to be hostile
at heart, the military made much use of him. Many of his young men
enlisted as scouts by his advice, and even he himself entered the
service.

In the early part of the year 1876, there was a rumor that certain bands
were in danger of breaking away. Their leader was one Sioux Jim, so
nicknamed by the soldiers. American Horse went to