Campaigning with Crook, and Stories of Army Life — John Shaqi
Campaigning with Crook, and Stories of Army LifeKing, Charles
History
Campaigning with Crook, and Stories of Army Life
King, Charles
Crook, George, 1829-1890; Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895; United States. Army. Cavalry, 5th
home among the Apaches of Arizona from 1871 to 1875, and now we found
ourselves, after a long march across country from the Pacific slope,
scraping acquaintance with the redoubtable "Crows" of the Yellowstone
valley, the life-long enemies of the Sioux.
Riding "at ease," the men talk, laugh, and sing if they want to. All
that is required is that they shall not lounge in the saddle, and that
they keep accurately their distance, and ride at a steady walk. The
Crows are scattered along the entire length of our left flank, but a
band of some fifteen or twenty chiefs and headmen keep alongside the
headquarters party at the front of column. There rides General Carr with
his adjutant, the surgeon, the non-commissioned staff, and orderlies,
and, of course, the standard-bearer, who, as previously explained, has a
signal flag for this campaign, and it is this which attracts the
aborigine.
These Crows are fine-looking warriors, and fine horsemen too; but to see
them riding along at ease, their ponies apparently gliding over the
ground in their quick, cat-like walk, their position in the saddle seems
neither graceful nor secure. This knot on our left is full of the most
favorable specimens, and they all ride alike. Every man's blanket is so
disposed that it covers him from the back of his head, folds across his
breast, leaving the arms free play in a manner only an Indian can
accomplish, and then is tucked in about his thighs and knees so as to
give him complete protection. One or two younger bucks have discarded
their blankets for the day, and ride about in dingy calico shirts or old
cavalry jackets. One or two also appear in cavalry trousers instead of
the native breech-clout and legging. But the moment that Indian
dismounts you notice two points in which he is diametrically opposed to
the customs of his white brother: first, that he mounts and dismounts on
the right (off) side of his horse; second, that he carefully cuts out
and throws away that portion of a pair of trousers which with us is
regarded as indispensable. He rides hunched up in his saddle, with a
stirrup so short that his knees are way out to the front and bent in an
acute angle. The stirrup itself is something like the shoe of a lady's
side-saddle, and he thrusts his moccasined foot in full length. He
carries in his right hand a wooden handle a foot long, to which three or
four thongs of deerskin are attached, and with this scourge-like
implement he keeps up an incessant shower of light flaps upon his pony's
flank, rarely striking him heavily, and nothing will convince him that
under that system the pony will not cover more miles in a day at a walk
or lope than any horse in America. His horse equipments are of the most
primitive description--a light wooden frame-work or tree, with high,
narrow pommel and cantle, much shorter in the seat than ours, the whole
covered with hide, stitched with thongs and fastened on with a horsehair
girth, constitute his saddle.
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