Night settled upon the prairie world, and the Sioux warriors started upon the war-path. Morning dawned and a Pawnee village was in ashes, and the bodies of many hundred men, women and children were left upon the ground as food for the wolf and vulture. The Sioux warriors returned to their own encampment when it was ascertained that the nameless leader had taken more than twice as many scalps as his brother warriors. Then it was that a feeling of jealousy arose, which was soon quieted, however, by the news that the Crow Indians had stolen a number of horses and many valuable furs from a Sioux hunter as he was returning from the mountains. Another warlike expedition was planned, and as before the nameless warrior took the lead.
The sun was near his setting, and as the Sioux party looked down upon a Crow village, which occupied the center of a charming valley, the Sioux chief commanded the attention of his braves and addressed them in the following language:
“I am about to die, my brothers, and must speak my mind. To be fortunate in war is your chief ambition and because I have been successful you are unhappy. Is this right? Have you acted like men? I despise you for your meanness and I intend to prove to you this night that I am the bravest man in the nation. The task will cost me my life, but I am anxious that my nature should be changed and I shall be satisfied. I intend to enter the Crow village alone, but before departing, I have one favor to request. If I succeed in destroying that village, and lose my life, I want you, when I am dead, to cut off my head and protect it with care. You must then kill one of the largest buffaloes in the country and cut off his head. You must then bring his body and my head together, and breathe upon them, when I shall be free to roam in the Spirit-land at all times, and over our great prairie-land wherever I please. And when your hearts are troubled with wickedness remember the Lone Buffalo.”
The attack upon the Crow village was successful, but according to his prophecy the Lone Buffalo received his death wound, and his brother warriors remembered his parting request. The fate of the hero’s mother is unknown, but the Indians believe that it is she who annually sends from the Spirit-land the warm winds of spring, which cover the prairies with grass for the sustenance of the Buffalo race. As to the Lone Buffalo, he is never seen even by the most cunning hunter, excepting when the moon is at its full. At such times he is invariably alone, cropping his food in some remote part of the prairies; and whenever the heavens resound with the moanings of the thunder, the red man banishes from his breast every feeling of jealousy, for he believes it to be the warning voice of the Lone Buffalo.
Charles Lanman.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
AGREEMENT BETWEEN EDMUND MUNRO AND JOHN SELLON
[Edmund Munro of Lexington, Mass. [1736–1778], lieutenant in the French and Indian war. Served at the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775; Lieutenant, Captain Miles’s company, Colonel Reed’s regiment, also Quartermaster at Ticonderoga and with the Northern army in the campaign ending with Burgoyne’s surrender; also Captain, Colonel Bigelow’s (13th Mass.) regiment, Continental army; killed in the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778.
The agreement between him and Sellon, executed at Crown Point, is a curious proof of the caution of the New England nature. Sellon practically insures him against loss, for a premium of £3. It is a unique document, as far as we know.—Ed.]
Crown Point July 1. 1762