traveling on the plains in trains amassed themselves together for
protection, and the people at Fort Larned with their soldiers were very
much wrought up over the atrocious murders and the destruction of
property all along the whole Western frontier. In time of war one false
step may cause the death of hundreds. In this case the commanding
officer of the fort took the precaution to send out runners to call the
Indians together to the fort, in order to learn, if possible, the cause
of this fearful massacre and to get their statement concerning
their action.

The two Indians who came in verified the statement of the ox-driver, and
declared that if the teamster had not killed their inoffensive warrior
who only asked for something to eat there would have been no trouble at
all from them.

In defense of the Indian I will say that the people in general were all
the time seeking to abuse him. In almost all instances where I have read
of Indian troubles I have noticed that at all times it grew out of the
fact that the whites invariably raised the trouble and were always the
aggressors. Nevertheless, newspaper reports and any other report for
that matter, laid the blame at the door of the wigwam of the red man of
the forest.

It is my opinion that most of the trouble on the frontier was uncalled
for. The white man learned to fear the Indians always, when there was no
attempt on the part of the Indian to do him harm. Many times while I was
crossing the plains have bands of from thirty to forty Indians or more
come to us, catching up with us or passing us by. Had I not understood
them and their intentions as well as I did we would more than likely
have had trouble with them or have suffered severe inconvenience. We