Even several emigrant trains, with women and children along, had foolishly ventured, and Buffalo Bill had reported that the groups of whitened bones he had found told the story of their fate.
Though the soldiers were trying to protect their country from invasion, the hostile Sioux were as bitter toward them as toward those who sought to make homes there, and war, merciless and unending, had been declared.
“If I had Buffalo Bill, as my chief of scouts, I believe he could, with his knowledge of the country, of these Indians, and his great skill as a frontiersman, head off these would-be settlers and bands of gold seekers from what they regard as a promised land, and this done, the Sioux would be more willing to make peace with the army, realizing that our desire was to protect them.”
So wrote Major Armes, the commandant of Fort Aspen, to Colonel Carr, in seeking to have the valuable services of William F. Cody as chief of scouts.
And the letter further said:
“The Tenth Cavalry of colored troops also needs just such a man as Buffalo Bill to steady them and give them perfect confidence in the one who leads them upon deadly trails.
“They one and all have perfect confidence in Buffalo Bill, believe that he bears a charmed life—as I also am inclined to believe—and they know that the Indians dread him, regard him with a certain superstitious fear, and his influence is very great along the whole border.
“I, therefore, respectfully urge that he be sent to Fort Aspen, for a while at least, if only to bring confidence to the garrison.”
The result of Major Armes’ letter was that the next courier through to Fort Aspen brought dispatches stating that Buffalo Bill should come very soon, and that, spoken to upon the subject, he had said that, instead of making up a scouting band of white scouts, he would pick colored soldiers to be his allies.