in its years of experience in Indian warfare; frequently in the wildest and
most rugged sections of the country, amid canyons, mountains, and lava-
beds, under the tropical heats of the South or in the Arctic blizzards of the
extreme North. Yet year after year it discharges whatever services is re-
quired of it with most commendable fidelity." ³ GeneralMiles concluded
that "this nation of 50,000,000 people calls upon its Army for more than
double the labor required of any other troops in the world." ⁴ In return for
this service, the frontier army received little reward or praise, partly be-
cause the general public rarely saw the frontier soldier who performed in
remote places; therefore, few took interest in his fate. Furthermore, the In-
dian-fighting army labored in a no-win situation. General William Tec-
umseh Sherman succinctly expressed the dilemma when he wrote, "There
are two classes of people, one demanding the utter extinction of the In-
dians, and the other full of love for their conversion to civilization and
Christianity. Unfortunately the army stands between them and gets the
cuff from both sides." ⁵

In the case of the Indians who inhabited the prairies, plains, and moun-
tains of the West, the engagements with the army were battles for survival.
They fought to keep their homeland and their way of life. Indians realized
very early that if whites came and settled near them game would be killed
or driven away. This meant that Indian families would have no means of
livelihood. At a council held at Fort Phil Kearny in April 1868, a Sioux war-
rior explained why he had been fighting: "The white men drove our deer
and buffalo away and we had to fight each other and the white man for the
possession of the land to hunt upon or starve." ⁶ And fight they did, caught
as it were in a total war, where their women and children became combat-
ants. Two Moon remembered the sacrifices that were necessary, when he
spoke about the attack on his village by U.S. Troops on March 17, 1876:
"The soldiers burned all our teepees, food, robes, and everything they
could find. They fired on all they saw, wounding many and killing some.
And our hearts were bad when our babies and children cried from the
cold." ⁷

The army officers who were their opponents did not mince words. The
soldier-novelist Charles King labeled them "foemen far more to be dreaded
than any European cavalry." Frederick Benteen declared: "[They were]
good shots, good riders, and the best fighters the sun ever shone on." An-
son Mills concluded that "they were the best cavalry on earth," and Wesley
Merritt defined them as "the finest light troops the world has ever
known." ⁸

-xviii-