When Carpenter's men were looking for the besieged command of Sandy Forsyth, one of the troopers noticed something white in a small valley through which he was scouting. Calling one of his companions to him, they galloped up to it, and found it to be a beautiful wigwam made of freshly tanned, white buffalo skins. As one of them entered, he saw, upon a brush heap, a human figure, wrapped in buffalo robes. Stripping off the covering, his eyes fell upon the body of a splendid specimen of Indian manhood. Over six feet in height, the savage had a stern and royal look, a majestic brow, a firm and placid mouth, a magnificently modelled torso, and limbs like whipcord. Rich garments had clothed him, and heavily ornamented weapons were carefully placed near by. In his breast was a deep, gaping wound from a bullet which had pierced his heart.
"It is Roman Nose," said one of the scouts. "See the face. It is that of a hero."
On the return from the rescue of Forsyth, the men stopped at the lonely tepee in the valley. The arms and equipment were appropriated, as the legitimate spoils of war, but the famed war chief was allowed to sleep on undisturbed. With a regard for his great bravery, the frontiersmen did not move the body of the courageous warrior from its bed of boughs. Thus, alone, unguarded, and unwatched, the remains of the invincible Cheyenne were left to the vultures and lurking gray wolves: the scavengers of the wide, untouched and illimitable plains.
GERONIMO: THE TERRIBLE APACHE
At the inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt, March 4, 1905, an aged Indian chieftain rode in the procession, clothed in rich and gaudy attire. As he passed by the reviewing stand, I watched the expression upon his face. It was stolid, imperturbable, sad, and as he looked up at the figure of the Chief Executive of the all-conquering Anglo-Saxons, he did not deign to give him a nod of salutation. With a scowl upon his countenance, he rode up the broad avenue, while the people gazed at him in some amazement. It was the renowned Geronimo: the bloodthirsty Apache chief.
This warrior had fought in many a desperate encounter with the whites of Arizona and New Mexico, and, because of his strength of body and ability to live in a country in which his pursuers could scarcely exist, it was many years before he was eventually captured. Physically he was somewhat "squatty," but with a tremendous girth of chest. His muscles were as hard as bone, so hard that he could light a match upon the bottom of his feet. His wants were few, and he cared for no luxuries. War was his business, his life, and victory was his dream. He would gladly travel hundreds of miles to attack a Mexican camp, or an isolated village. He would incur every risk to run off a herd of cattle, mules, or sheep.