It was the custom in those days for the older men to walk ahead of the
moving caravan and decide upon all halts and camping places. One day the
councilors came to a grove of wild cherries covered with ripe fruit, and
they stopped at once. Suddenly a grizzly charged from the thicket. The
men yelped and hooted, but the bear was not to be bluffed. He knocked
down the first warrior who dared to face him and dragged his victim into
the bushes.

The whole caravan was in the wildest excitement. Several of the
swiftest-footed warriors charged the bear, to bring him out into the
open, while the women and dogs made all the noise they could. The bear
accepted the challenge, and as he did so, the man whom they had supposed
dead came running from the opposite end of the thicket. The Indians were
delighted, and especially so when in the midst of their cheers, the man
stopped running for his life and began to sing a Brave Heart song as he
approached the grove with his butcher knife in his hand. He would dare
his enemy again!

The grizzly met him with a tremendous rush, and they went down together.
Instantly the bear began to utter cries of distress, and at the same
time the knife flashed, and he rolled over dead. The warrior was too
quick for the animal; he first bit his sensitive nose to distract his
attention, and then used the knife to stab him to the heart. He fought
many battles with knives thereafter and claimed that the spirit of the
bear gave him success. On one occasion, however, the enemy had a strong
buffalo-hide shield which the Cheyenne bear fighter could not pierce
through, and he was wounded; nevertheless he managed to dispatch his
foe. It was from this incident that he received the name of Dull Knife,
which was handed down to his descendant.

As is well known, the Northern Cheyennes uncompromisingly supported
the Sioux in their desperate defense of the Black Hills and Big Horn
country. Why not? It was their last buffalo region--their subsistence.
It was what our wheat fields are to a civilized nation.

About the year 1875, a propaganda was started for confining all the
Indians upon reservations, where they would be practically interned or
imprisoned, regardless of their possessions and rights. The men who
were the strongest advocates of the scheme generally wanted the Indians'
property--the one main cause back of all Indian wars. From the warlike
Apaches to the peaceful Nez Perces, all the tribes of the plains wer