I had gone out in company with
Major North, and watched them make a "surround." Twenty Pawnees,
circling a herd, killed thirty-two buffaloes.
As they were cutting up the animals, another herd appeared. The Pawnees
were getting ready to surround it, when I asked Major North to keep
them back to let me show them what I could do. He did as I requested. I
knew Buckskin Joe was a good buffalo horse, and, feeling confident that
I would astonish the Indians, I galloped in among the herd. I did
astonish them. In less than a half-mile run I dropped thirty-six,
killing a buffalo at nearly every shot. The dead animals were strung
out over the prairie less than fifty feet apart. This manner of killing
greatly pleased the Indians. They called me "Big Chief," and thereafter
I had a high place in their esteem.
We soon left the camp and took a westward course up the Republican
River. Major North, with two companies of his Pawnees, and Colonel
Royal, with two or three companies of cavalry, made a scout north of
the river.
After making camp on the Blacktail Deer Fork we observed a band of
Indians coming over the prairie at full gallop, singing and yelling and
waving their lances and long poles. We first supposed them to be the
hostile Sioux, and for a few moments all was excitement. But the
Pawnees, to our surprise, made no effort to go out to attack them.
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