Now the buffaloes were gone, save for a few scattered herds in the
mountains. The Indians did not fully realize this, although they
realized that as the Whites came in, the game went out. The Sioux were
hunters and horsemen by nature. They traveled and moved about with
great freedom. If restrained or interfered with they grew irritable
and then hostile.

Now they were full of fight. The Whites had ruined the hunting-grounds;
besides that, white soldiers had fought them if they moved to their
old haunts, sacred for their use and bequeathed to them by their
ancestors. In dead of Winter, when the snows lay deep and they were in
their teepees, crouching around the scanty fire, soldiers had charged
on horseback through the villages, shooting into the teepees, killing
women and children.

At the head of these soldiers was a white chief, whom they called
Yellow Hair. He was a smashing, dashing, fearless soldier who
understood the Indian ways and haunts, and then used this knowledge
for the undoing of the Red Men.

Yellow Hair wanted to keep them in one little place all the time, and
desired that they should raise corn like cowardly Crows, when what
they wanted was to be free and hunt!

They feared Yellow Hair—and hated him.

Custer was a man of intelligence—nervous, energetic, proud. His
honesty and sincerity were beyond dispute. He was a natural Indian
fighter. He could pull his belt one hole tighter and go three whole