Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
About sundown the two armies again withdrew for refreshments and
repairs.
That evening after eating my supper! went over to White Bird's
wick-i-up and found him sitting there, bloody from head to foot,
with a huge cut on one cheek, another on one side of the head, and
numerous other wounds, making him the most horrible specimen of
humanity that I had ever seen living. He had not even washed the
blood from his face or hands, but was sitting there telling his
squaw and children how many Utes he had killed during the day,
apparently as cool and unconcerned as though nothing had happened
him. But he was not able for duty the next day, and died about ten
o'clock.
We never learned where the Indians buried their dead, for they
took them away during the night and disposed of them in some
manner.
There were more Indians killed and wounded the second day than the
first, and that night the Comanches had a big war-dance over the
scalps they had taken.
The morning of the third day each tribe marched down at about the
usual hour and resumed their positions in the line of battle, and
that morning they fought more cautiously than before, until about
ten o'clock, when the Utes made their first big charge on the
Comanches, and they had a hard fight, which resulted in the death
of many Indians, and the Utes retreated with considerably the
worst of it.
In this charge we counted over forty Utes that were killed and
scalped.
After the Comanches had driven the Utes back, Johnnie West and I
went down within about fifty yards and sat there until the war was
ended. About the middle of the afternoon of the third day, the old
war-chief of the Comanches rushed up and commenced to shout, "Co-
chah! Co-chah!" which meant to go ahead, or, in other words, to
charge. Johnnie West, who understood the language, turned to me
and said:
"The Comanches are going to make another charge."
Sure enough, they did; crossing the creek and made a desperate
rush for the Utes, but the Utes could not stand the pressure and
retreated, the Comanches following them to the top of the hill
where the Utes were camped, it being understood between the two
chiefs that, when either army or tribe was driven back to the top
of the hill, they had lost the battle.
The Comanches now returned, singing and shouting at the top of
their voices, and in a short time a little squad of Comanches came
in with about one hundred head of Ute horses. We never learned
whether they had captured the horses or whether they had won them
in the battle.
That night the Comanches had another big war-dance, and while the
unfortunate squaws and children were weeping over the loss of
their fathers and husbands, the victorious warriors were dancing,
singing and shouting, and while dancing, each warrior would try to
show as near as he could the manner in which he killed and
scalped his enemy, and of all the silly maneuvers a white man ever
witnessed, it was there at that war-dance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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