
There is something about the Prairie of the United States that has stolen a piece of my heart. I have seen the vast desert of the Sahara and the great tundra of the Crimea but there is just something about the lands of the Dakota and Cheyenne. I spent the better part of two years traveling it prior to the War and it has forever been imprinted upon my soul. After the war I might have chosen to travel and settle there but I knew my Mrs. Mina would not appreciate the vast space; she did not care for it the way I did prior to the war. I must admit her argument was valid; the war aged me greatly in the physical sense. I am older and slower with too much of a fondness for drink. All things that can get a man killed in a place where a man who was a friend one moment might well be an enemy the next.
I liked the Lakota and Cheyenne; I found them honest and forthright in their dealings with me. In fact they never once cheated me; I cannot say the same for white men in Minnesota. My reception from the Dakota in Minnesota was not so warm with some only wanting gifts instead of a fair trade. I did not feel the same honesty and integrity in their midst as I would later with the Lakota. I spent some time in camp along a place called Cherry Creek with a band of Mniconjou Lakota led by an elder named Bald Eagle. He and a pair of his sons impressed me greatly. The man was a warrior, leader, storyteller, speaker, dancer and could do things from the back of a horse the envy of any Cossack. I liked the man and his children. Good honest people are not all that uncommon but this family was something different. Had I been born Lakota I would have wished for a family such as his. Had the man asked me to fight with him I would have charged hell with nothing more than a bucket of warm spit.
Mrs. Mina took to the family as well becoming friends with several of the women of the camp. I sometimes regret leaving those fine people; I do not know if I shall ever see them again or even if I would be welcome among them. I admit to some surprise when one of those young sons offered me several very fine horses in trade for Mina. I left the decision to her and she informed me that it would take too long to train a replacement for me. That was when I knew I was hers until the day I die.
Mrs. Mina wished a safe home where she could walk to see neighbors with strong stout walls and a warm fire. I could provide that where I settled but I doubt I ever could have in the Dakota Territory; especially after the Dakota War. Damned fool US Army men who couldn’t tell a Dakota from a Crow expanded the war far further west than there was any need to and picked a fight with the Lakota. Red Cloud gave the US Army quite the black eye. It came as no surprise to me to learn of such. I have faced the Cossack, Taureg, Kabyle & Confederate cavalry across the field of battle and I can tell you none come close to the equal of a Lakota or Cheyenne warrior in the saddle. I would much rather fight beside the Lakota than against them. There are those who have called the Lakota and Cheyenne the finest light cavalry in the world; I believe such a claim to be an accurate. I value my life too highly to foolishly throw it away in battle against them.
I have seen the Lakota and Cheyenne in the field and in camp; they are great warriors but not great soldiers. They lack the discipline and organization of the soldier. They have no true supply line, no quartermaster following them with fresh ammunition and rations. Above all they do not have corn; few grass fed horses have the bottom of a corn fed horse. With all of that it is not a the lack of a quartermaster system, discipline or corn that will be their downfall it is the human want for more. Their children will want more… more steel, more something and that will be in the hands of the white man. The white man of the United States want more as well and are more than willing to take it by force and they will. I fear for the future of the Lakota people; even with worthy allies such as the Cheyenne they are greatly outnumbered and outgunned by a government that barely views them as human beings. Their future will rest in the hands of those strong enough to fight for it both on and off the field of battle. I hope they are strong enough; I have little doubt that they are.