A Shoshone brave (Fort Hall, Idaho).
The squaws began to cry and say that the Crows were getting the better of our Indians and were driving them back. They kept coming closer and closer to us. When I looked around I saw that the squaws were getting their butcher knives; they were ready to fight if they had to. Then I noticed that our men were not coming towards us any longer. I could see Washakie on his big buckskin horse dashing around among the Indians and telling them what to do, and very soon the driving turned the other way; they began to disappear over the ridge again, and I could tell that our Indians were beating the Crows.
We could tell the Crow Indians from ours, for they had something white over one shoulder and under one arm, and they wore white feathers in their hair. There were about fifteen hundred Indians engaged in the fight on both sides, as the battle ground covered quite a piece of country. We could see a good many horses running around without riders.
I believe that the squaws would have taken part in the battle if it had not been for the guard of about fifty old Indians that kept riding around us all the time to keep the squaws and papooses and horses close together.
When our men had driven the Crows back to the ridge, they seemed to stick there; but they were still fighting and yelling and circling around. It looked as if they could not force the enemy back any farther. I got so excited that I jumped on my horse and said to another Indian boy, “Come on, let’s go up and see what they are doing and try to help them.”
Mother grabbed my bridle and said, “You crazy little dunce; haven’t you one bit of sense?”
“I might kill a whole flock of Crows,” I said, “for all you know.” But she would not let me go, and I guess it was a good thing I did not.
After about six hours of fighting, one Indian, badly wounded, came in and told us to go back to the lake, but not to unpack until we got word from the War Chief. We went back and when we got to the top of the divide we could still see the Indians fighting, although they were about two miles away, and we could see loose horses all over the prairie. The sun was nearly an hour high when we reached the lake.
About dark half of our Indians came to us and the War Chief told us to unpack and put up the tepees, for very likely we should stay there for a while. He told us that about sundown the Crows broke and ran and that Washakie with the other half of our Indians was following them to try to head them off and keep them from getting away. Washakie thought that he and his warriors could stop them until morning, and then all of his band could attack them again. The War Chief sent twenty Indians with one hundred fresh horses to overtake the Indians that were following the Crows, for their horses had been on the go all day and were about worn out. He said that he had seen twenty-five of our Indians that were dead. How many more had been killed he did not know. Mother told them that they might take two of her horses and I let them have my roan pony to help them in their chase after the fleeing Crows.
By this time three or four hundred squaws and papooses were wailing and moaning till they could be heard for two miles. I asked mother when our turn would come.