He said, "I am a medicine man, a shaman."
Taylor looked at him gravely. "Educated as a white man and educated in the way of the spirits, too, eh? And with all that learning you couldn't warn Black Hawk away from this disaster?"
White Bear shook his head. "He listened to other voices."
Taylor's eyes narrowed. "Well, whatever advice you gave him, it's all over for your chief now. God pity your people."
White Bear said, "All they want now is to go back across the Mississippi and live in peace. Those who are left."
Taylor fixed him with an angry stare. "It's too late for that. Things have gone too far. You people are going to have to suffer for what you've done."
White Bear felt his limbs go cold as he heard the steel in Taylor's voice. This was not a bad man, White Bear sensed, not a man like Raoul. But whatever mercy was in him had no doubt long since been washed away by the blood shed by Black Hawk's war parties.
No doubt while he talks about making my people suffer he thinks of himself as quite a civilized man.
"Revenge, Colonel?" White Bear said. "I thought you were professional soldiers."
The sergeant balled his fists. "Please, sir, let me teach him some respect."