The Fighting Cheyennes
Cód:
491_9781443760577
INTRODUCTION THIS BOOK is the story of the warfare of the most warlike tribe of the warlike Plains Indians, recorded by George Bird Grinnell. No other writer of his generation was associated with so many Plains tribes so continuously and for so long a time. As naturalist he accompanied General George Armstrong Custers expedition to the Black Hills in 1874. For nearly sixty years after that time, until his death In 1938, he was much Indians, and came to enjoy the confidence and respect of the leading chiefs and warriors of several tribes, including the Blackfeet and Pawnees, though as his many books amply prove, he was most intimate with the Cheyennes. His integrity, sincerity, sympathy, and understanding made him welcome in every tipi. own research among the Northern Cheyennes in later years, I found that a letter from Grinnell opened every door was one of the very few historians who knew how to get authentic information from Indians, and how to present things as they saw them in readable form. Now that all the old-time warriors have crossed the Great Divide, it has become the fashion among some writers who never knew the chiefs to impugn the reliability of Indian testimony. No doubt many stories were published purporting to be Indian testimony though with little basis in fact or understanding. But Grinnell found among the Cheyennes, as I did among the Sioux, that their leaders were men of honor and veracity, honest and guarded in their statements, avoiding hearsay. As a matter of fact, anyone familiar with old-time warriors will prefer their account of a battle to any other. For, in the first place, the Indian was an objective, unimaginative observer. Besides, he was keenly interested in what went on because his own rating in the tribe depended upon his proven coups and deeds of daring, and he kept a sharp eye on the warriors who competed with him for such honors. Moreover, he was usually a veteran who had been on the warpath again and again since his early teens,
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