red their
bullhide boat, and the two Sioux stood there looking at them.

"Suddenly Big Whip exclaimed: 'Friend, let us kill the chief. I dare you
to kill and scalp him!' His friend replied:

"'It shall be as you say. I will stand by you in all things. I am
willing to die with you.'

"Accordingly Bald Eagle pulled out his gun and shot the Ree dead. From
that day he took his name. The old man fell backward into his boat, and
the old woman screamed and wept as she rowed him across the river. The
other young man shot an arrow or two at the wife, but she continued to
row until she reached the other bank.

"There was great excitement on both sides of the river as soon as
the people saw what had happened. There were two camps of Sioux, the
Blackfoot Sioux and the Yanktonnais, or our people. Of course the
Mandans and Rees greatly outnumbered us; their camp must have numbered
two or three thousand, which was more than we had in our combined camps.

"There was a Sioux whose name was Black Shield, who had intermarried
among the Rees. He came down to the opposite bank of the Missouri and
shouted to us:

"'Of which one of your bands is the man who killed Bald Eagle?'

"One of the Blackfoot Sioux replied:

"'It is a man of the Yanktonnais Sioux who killed Bald Eagle.'

"Then he said: 'The Rees wish to do battle with them; you had better
withdraw from their camp.'

"Accordingly the Blackfeet retired about a mile from us upon the bluffs
and pitched their tents, while the Yanktonnais remained on the flats.
The two bands had been great rivals in courage and the art of war, so
we did not ask for help from our kinsfolk, but during the night we dug
trenches about the camp, the inner one for the women and children, and
the outer one for the men to stay in and do battle.

"The next morning at daybreak the enemy landed and approached our camp
in great numbers. Some of their women and old men came also, and sat
upon the bluffs to watch the fight and to carry off their dead and
wounded. The Blackfeet likewise were watching the battle from the
bluffs, and just before the fight began one Blackfoot came in with his
wife and joined us. His name was Red Dog's Track, but from that day he
was called He-Came-Back. His wife was a Yanktonnais, and he had said to
her: 'If I don't join your tribe to-day, my brothers-in-law will call me
a coward.'

"The Sioux were well entrenched and well armed with guns and arrows,
and their aim was deadly, s