Discovery of the Trail--Prairie Detectives.
Meanwhile, Kit Carson, who was with Major Carleton, had discovered a
trail made by three of the enemy. Carefully following it up, it was
found to join the principal path, a short distance away. When Quinn
arrived he had also some discoveries to report, and the scouts held a
consultation over the question. It was agreed by all that they were on
the track of the enemy they were seeking.
The general reader is not apt to appreciate the skill, patience and
intelligence shown by the scouts and hunters in tracing the flight of
an enemy through a wild and desolate country. As an evidence of the
wonderful attainments of border men in woodcraft, the following letter
may be given, written by the surgeon at Fort Randall in Dacotah in 1869:
"The most extraordinary skill that is exhibited in this part of the
country, either by the white man, or red native, is in the practice of
trailing. Here it may be accounted an art as much as music, painting
or sculpture is in the East. The Indian or trapper that is a shrewd
trailer, is a man of close observation, quick perception, and prompt
action. As he goes along, nothing escapes his observation, and what he
sees and hears he accounts for immediately. Often not another step is
taken until a mystery that may present itself in this line is fairly
solved. The Indian trailer will stand still for hours in succession, to
account for certain traces or effects in tracks, and sometimes gives to
the matter unremitting attention for days and weeks.
"The trailer is not a graceful man. He carries his head much inclined,
his eye is quick and restless, always on the watch, and he is practising
his art unconsciously, hardly ever crossing the track of man or animal
without seeing it. When he enters a house, he brings the habits he
contracted in the practice of his art with him. I know a trailer as soon
he enters my room. He comes in through the door softly, and with an air
of exceeding caution. Before he is fairly in, or at least has sat down,
he has taken note of every article and person. Though there may be a
dozen vacant chairs in the room, he is not used to chairs, and, like
the Indian, prefers a more humble seat. When I was employed by General
Harney last summer to take charge temporarily of the Indians that were
gathered here to form a new reservation, one day a guide and trailer
came into the General's headquarters. I told him to be seated. He sat
down on the floor, bracing his back against the wall. The General saw
this, and in vexation cried out, 'My God, why don't you take a chair
when there are plenty here not occupied?' The man arose and seated
himself in a chair, but in so awkward and uncomfortable a manner that he
looked as if he might slip from it at any moment. But when this uncouth
person came to transact his business with the General, he turned out to
be a man of no ordinary abilities. His description of a route he took as
guide and trailer for the Ogallalas in bringing them from the Platte
to this place was minute, and to me exceedingly interesting. Every
war party that for the season had crossed his trail, he described with
minuteness as to their number, the kinds of arms they had, and stated
the tribes they belonged to. In these strange revelations that he made
there was neither imposition nor supposition, for he gave satisfactory
reasons for every assertion he made.
"I have rode several hundred miles with an experienced guide and
trailer, Hack, whom I interrogated upon many points in the practice of
this art. Nearly all tracks I saw, either old or new, as a novice in the
art, I questioned him about. In going to the Niobrara River crossed the
track of an Indian pony. My guide followed the track a few miles and
then said, 'It is a stray, black horse, with a long, bushy tail, nearly
starved to death, has a split hoof of the left fore foot, and goes
very lame, and he passed here early this morning.' Astonished and
incredulous, I asked him the reasons for knowing these particulars by
the tracks of the animal, when he replied:
"'It was a stray horse, because it did not go in a direct line; his tail
was long, for he dragged it over the snow; in brushing against a bush he
left some of his hair which shows its color. He was very hungry, for, in
going along, he has nipped at those high, dry weeds, which horses seldom
eat. The fissure of the left fore foot left also its track, and the
depth of the indentation shows the degree of his lameness; and his
tracks show he was here this morning, when the snow was hard with
frost.'
"At another place we came across an Indian track, and he said, 'It is
an old Yankton who came across the Missouri last evening to look at his
traps. In coming over he carried in his right hand a trap, and in his
left a lasso to catch a pony which he had lost. He returned without
finding the horse, but had caught in the trap he had out a prairie wolf,
which he carried home on his back and a bundle of kinikinic wood in
his right hand.' Then, he gave his reasons: 'I know he is old, by the
impression his gait has made and a Yankton by that of his moccasin. He
is from the other side of the river, as there are no Yanktons on this
side. The trap he carried struck the snow now and then, and in same
manner as when he came, shows that he did not find his pony. A drop of
blood in the centre of his tracks shows that he carried the wolf on his
back, and the bundle of kinikinic wood he used for a staff for support,
and catching a wolf, shows that he had traps out.' But I asked, 'how do
you know it is wolf; why not a fox, or a coyote, or even a deer?' Said
he: 'If it had been a fox, or coyote or any other small game he would
have slipped the head of the animal in his waist belt, and so carried it
by his side, and not on his shoulders. Deer are not caught by traps but
if it had been a deer, he would not have crossed this high hill, but
would have gone back by way of the ravine, and the load would have made
his steps still more tottering.'
"Another Indian track which we saw twenty miles west of this he put
this serious construction upon: 'He is an upper Indian--a prowling horse
thief--carried a double shot gun, and is a rascal that killed some white
man lately, and passed here one week ago; for,' said he, 'a lone Indian
in these parts is on mischief, and generally on the lookout for horses.
He had on the shoes of a white man whom he had in all probability
killed, but his steps are those of an Indian. Going through the ravine,
the end of his gun hit into the deep snow. A week ago we had a very warm
day, and the snow being soft, he made these deep tracks; ever since it
has been intensely cold weather, which makes very shallow tracks.' I
suggested that perhaps he bought those shoes. 'Indians don't buy shoes,
and if they did they would not buy them as large as these were, for
Indians have very small feet.'
"The most noted trailer of this country was Paul Daloria, a half breed,
who died under my hands of Indian consumption last summer. I have spoken
of him in a former letter. At one time I rode with him, and trailing was
naturally the subject of our conversation. I begged to trail with him an
old track over the prairie, in order to learn its history. I had hardly
made the proposition, when he drew up his horse, which was at a ravine,
and said, 'Well, here is an old elk track. Let us get off our horses and
follow it.' We followed it but a few rods, when he said, it was exactly
a month old, and made at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. This he knew, as
then we had our last rain, and at the hour named the ground was softer
than at any other time. The track before us was then made. He broke up
here and there clusters of grass that lay in the path of the track, and
showed me the dry ends of some, the stumps of others, and by numerous
other similar items accounted for many circumstances that astonished me.
We followed the trail over a mile. Now and then we saw that a wolf, a
fox, and other animals had practised their trailing instincts on the
elk's tracks. Here and there, he would show me where a snake, a rat, and
a prairie dog had crossed the track. Nothing had followed or crossed the
track that the quick eye of Daloria did not detect. He gave an account
of the habits of all the animals that had left their footprints on the
track, also of the state of the weather since the elk passed, and the
effect of sunshine, winds, aridity, sand storms, and other influences
that had a bearing on these tracks."