“BEING LOCKED UP IN Fort Starke, I did not see the exchange,” Dane said, “but Red Bird Woman was there. She can tell about it. And what happened afterward.”
Her dark eyes regarded me as though she were dubious of my loyalties. She did not quite trust me, the white stranger. “Belcourt was evil spirit,” she said slowly. “Some evil spirits have no fear, but that one was coward. He brought many Bluecoats close by Ghost Timbers, with two big guns on wheels. Then he sent his young men with stripes on sleeves to Big Star to talk about white children.”
“Belcourt was afraid to come in himself?” I asked. “So he sent some enlisted men?”
“Yes, the young men with stripes on sleeves kept riding back and forth between Big Star and Belcourt. Belcourt was way out on rising ground with Bluecoats all around him like he in great fear of us.
“Then they brought doctor soldier. He said Belcourt want him to look at little girl to see if she been harmed. If she been harmed, Belcourt shoot one of our boys, Little Cloud or Spotted Shield, and trade his dead body for little girl. Doctor soldier took little girl in Big Star’s tipi. Bear Woman went in with them. She said little girl cried when doctor soldier took her clothes off and put his fingers on her san. Doctor soldier seem surprised no harm been done to her.
“Soon after, Big Star and Pleasant and some other Dog Soldiers took children out to edge of Ghost Timbers, and Bluecoats with stripes on sleeves brought Little Cloud and Spotted Shield. Little boy with red hair not want to leave us. He kept on begging Pleasant to let him stay and live with us. Little girl was crying and would not let doctor soldier carry her. Two Bluecoats then come in with horses and dragged big gun away.
“I thought Bluecoats go away after they trade us Little Cloud and Spotted Shield for children. They put children in wagon and it went along Platte in direction of ford, toward Denver. Then Bluecoats separated, some going one way, some another way, till Bluecoats around us in all four directions. Some more wagons come then from fort. They put up tent, and start feasting and singing. Pleasant told me tent was for Belcourt and one of wagons was filled with whiskey for Bluecoats to drink to drive away fear. I said it take much whiskey to make them not cowards, but I guess they had much whiskey.
“Late in day they start firing big guns at Hinta Nagi. Pieces of metal like hail tore leaves and bark from trees and stung our horses. All us except Big Star got into dugouts. Big Star was dressed in that Bluecoat uniform the Veheos gave him at Horse Creek. I thought Big Star’s medicine must be strong because pieces of metal flying everywhere but nothing could hit him. Bear Woman was with me in sandpit nearby and she kept on lifting up tree boughs to see if Big Star all right.
“When daylight got like color of brown water in creek, just before dark, we heard bugles blowing all around us. The Bluecoats yelled all together, and then their horses started toward us from the four directions, their hoofbeats pounding, so many fast hoofbeats, like that time one summer we camped on the Nako and buffalo herd got scared of Thunderbird’s lightning and ran right through our village. Buffalo herd ran on us from one direction, but Bluecoats come from four directions, firing guns and screaming like wolves gone crazy. When they come in on us, children and most women stay down in sandpits and dugouts. Some women like me and Bear Woman and Rising Fawn, we have guns instead of children and like warriors we rise up to shoot.
“Some of us got killed and bad wounded. Some of our children got frightened and tried to run and Bluecoats shot them like buffalo calves. I saw little girl not quite hid in sandpit. Two Bluecoats shot her with pistols and pulled her out of sand and dragged her. I saw woman trying to hide baby in her arms, but Bluecoat slashed it with saber and cut woman’s belly open. But I think what happened to us at Ghost Timbers not so bad as happened later on to our relatives at Black Kettle’s camp on Sand Creek. There Bluecoats waited till Black Kettle’s warriors went off to hunt buffalo, and then they come and killed many women and children and old men. Bluecoats cut up bodies, cut off private parts, and wore them on hats. If we all stayed at Sand Creek, same might of happened to us.
“At Ghost Timbers we had warriors and good guns to fight with. Many Bluecoats so drunk they can’t shoot straight. They rode horses into sandpits and dugouts, hurting selves and horses and some of our people. Our warriors shot many Bluecoats. After Bluecoats rode once through our camp, they not come back again, not even try to get their dead and wounded. Those Bluecoats scalps worthless, because such cowards nobody wanted scalps. But when we found Big Star lying dead in front of tipi, eyes open looking at sky, medal with white man’s hand shaking red man’s hand all covered with blood, and Big Star’s fingers froze around that treaty paper, we all became crazy, we women crazier than men, and so we went and killed all Bluecoat wounded and scalped them. One of wounded Bluecoats had a pistol and he shot Rising Fawn.”