papers and magazines, these events are rehearsed over and over with
few variations. Though orally preserved, their accounts are therefore
accurate. But they have seldom been willing to give reliable information
to strangers, especially when asked and paid for.

Racial prejudice naturally enters into the account of a man's life by
enemy writers, while one is likely to favor his own race. I am conscious
that many readers may think that I have idealized the Indian. Therefore
I will confess now that we have too many weak and unprincipled men among
us. When I speak of the Indian hero, I do not forget the mongrel in
spirit, false to the ideals of his people. Our trustfulness has been our
weakness, and when the vices of civilization were added to our own, we
fell heavily.

It is said that Dull Knife as a boy was resourceful and self-reliant. He
was only nine years old when his family was separated from the rest of
the tribe while on a buffalo hunt. His father was away and his mother
busy, and he was playing with his little sister on the banks of a
stream, when a large herd of buffalo swept down upon them on a stampede
for water. His mother climbed a tree, but the little boy led his sister
into an old beaver house whose entrance was above water, and here they
remained in shelter until the buffalo passed and they were found by
their distracted parents.

Dull Knife was quite a youth when his tribe was caught one winter in a
region devoid of game, and threatened with starvation. The situation was
made worse by heavy storms, but he secured help and led a relief party
a hundred and fifty miles, carrying bales of dried buffalo meat on pack
horses.

Another exploit that made him dear to his people occurred in battle,
when his brother-in-law was severely wounded and left lying where no one
on either side dared to approach him. As soon as Dull Knife heard of it
he got on a fresh horse, and made so daring a charge that others joined
him; thus under cover of their fire he rescued his brother-in-law, and
in so doing was wounded twice.

The Sioux knew him as a man of high type, perhaps not so brilliant as
Roman Nose and Two Moon, but surpassing both in honesty and simplicity,
as well as in his war record. (Two Moon, in fact, was never a leader of
his people, and became distinguished only in wars with the whites during
the period of revolt.) A story is told of an ancestor of the same name
that illustrates well the spirit of the age.