knew it far
better than the soldiers did. There were many hiding places.

When the weather began to grow cold, in the fall, the Sitting Bull
people commenced to think of winter. They received word that the
soldiers were stopping everybody from leaving the reservation. This
cut down the supplies.

The Gray Fox, who was General Crook, struck several bands in the midst
of the hunting grounds. He had wiped out American Horse and had
pressed Crazy Horse very hard. More soldiers were pouring in.

The Sitting Bull band numbered three thousand. They used lots of meat.
The buffalo were being frightened by so much travel of soldiers, and
for the band to stay long in one spot was dangerous. Some of the women
and men got faint-hearted, and deserted. They carried word to the
soldiers, and asked to be sent to the reservation. Sitting Bull's
medicine did not prevent them from running away.

He and Gall planned to march farther northward, across the Yellowstone
River, to a better buffalo country, and make camp for a big hunt. A
store of meat ought to be laid in, before winter.

A new fort was being located on the Yellowstone at the mouth of the
Tongue River, southeastern Montana. They marched to cross the
Yellowstone below; this fort; and while near the Yellowstone they drove
back a soldiers' wagon-train that was trying to reach the fort.

The wagons tried again, five days later, and there was another fight.
Sitting Bull sent a note to the white chief.

_Yellowstone_.

I want to know what you are doing traveling by this road. You scare
all the buffalo away. I want to hunt in this place. I want you to
turn back from here. If you don't, I will fight you again. I want you
to leave what you have got here and turn back from here.

I am your friend.

SITTING BULL.

I mean all the rations you have got and some powder. Wish you would
write as soon as you can.

This was a "feeler," to see what kind of a man the white chief was.
The white chief, whose name was Lieutenant-Colonel E. S. Otis, of the
Twenty-second Infantry, answered at once.

To Sitting Bull:

I intend to take this train through to Tongue River, and will be
pleased to accommodate you with a fight at any time.

Sitting Bull and his chiefs held council. If they might make a peace,
they could stay out all winter with their families, and when the grass
greened in the spring they could travel as they pleased. The white
soldiers had the adv