will only let us bide in peace awhile I think I may keep on growing.
Tell me more about the Sioux, Jim. They're a tremendous league, and I
suppose you know as much about 'em as any white man in this part of the
world."

"I've been in their country long enough to learn a lot, and there's a
lot to learn. The Sioux are to the West what the Iroquois were to the
East, that is, so far as their power is concerned, though their range of
territory is far larger than that of the Iroquois ever was. They roam
over an extent of mountain and plain, hundreds and hundreds of miles
either way. I've heard that they can put thirty thousand warriors in the
field, though I don't know whether it's true or not, but I do know that
they are more numerous and warlike than any other Indian nation in the
West, and that they have leaders who are really big men, men who think
as well as fight. There's Mahpeyalute, whom you saw and whom we call Red
Cloud, and Tatanka Yotanka, whom we call Sitting Bull, and Gray Wolf and
War Eagle and lots of others.

"Besides, the Sioux, or, in their own language, the Dakotas, are a great
nation made up of smaller nations, all of the same warlike stock. There
is the tribe of the Mendewakaton, which means Spirit Lake Village, then
you have the Wahpekute or Leaf Shooters; the Wahpeton, the Leaf Village;
the Sisseton, the Swamp Village; the Yankton, the End Village, the
Yanktonnais, the Upper End Village, and the Teton, the Prairie Village.
The Teton tribe, which is very formidable, is subdivided into the
Ogalala, the Brule, and the Hunkpapa. Red Cloud, as I've told you
before, is an Ogalala. And that's a long enough lesson for you for one
day. Now, like a good boy, go catch some fish."

Will had discovered very early that Lake Boyd, which was quite deep,
contained fine lake trout and also other fish almost as good to the
taste. As their packs included strong fishing tackle it was not
difficult to obtain all the fish they wanted, and the task generally
fell to the lad. Now, at Boyd's suggestion, he fulfilled it once more
with the usual success.

Game of all kinds, large and small, was abundant, the valley being
fairly overrun with it. Boyd said that it had come in through the narrow
passes, and its numbers indicated that no hunters had been there in a
long time. Will even found a small herd of about a dozen buffaloes
grazing at the south end of the valley, but the next day they
disappeared, evidently alarmed by the