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Inhabitants . . . (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1877), pp. 374–75; for Custer on Cheyennes, see Jamieson, Crossing the Deadly Ground, p. 30; on Crook’s comment about the Apaches, see J. H. Sears, The Career of Leonard Wood (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1919), p. 28; and on the Comanches, E. A. Bode, A Dose of Frontier Soldiering: The Memoirs of Corporal E. A. Bode, Frontier Regular Infantry, 1877–1882 ed. T. T. Smith (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), p. 144. Complicating matters still further was the sheer difficulty of distinguishing between friendly and hostile bands within even peaceful tribes; it was often impossible to know whether approaching horsemen would start shooting until they started shooting, let alone whether they would stay amicable if they sensed weakness. Captain Marcy, who wrote a helpful guidebook for “prairie travellers,” advised that settlers never let Indians come too near, even if they seemed friendly or curious, for they were murderous at close quarters. Often, waving a rifle in the air or making hand-signals was enough to warn them off, he had found. R. B. Marcy, The Prairie Traveller . . . (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859), p. 197. See also L. McMurtry, Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West, 1846–1890 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 109.

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3. Marcy, Prairie Traveller, p. 200.

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4. In clashes between native Americans, “a single Indian of either tribe on his own ground counts himself the equal to at least three of the other,” said Colonel Dodge, who knew his onions. Dodge, Plains of Great West, p. 375.

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5. See L. M. Kane, trans., Military Life in Dakota: The Journal of Philippe Régis de Trobriand (St. Paul, Minn.: Alvord Memorial Commission, 1951), p. 64; J. G. Bourke, On the Border with Crook (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1892), p. 251; Jamieson, Crossing the Deadly Ground, pp. 37–38; F.W. Seymour, Indian Agents of the Old Frontier (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1941), p. 235.

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6. Marcy, Prairie Traveller, pp. 200–201.

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7. Bode, Dose of Frontier Soldiering, p. 144.

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8. W.T. Sherman, Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875), p. 227.

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9. R. M. Utley, Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, rev. ed. (Lincoln: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001), p. 58.

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10. Seymour, Indian Agents, pp. 241–42.

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11. Quoted in ibid., pp. 58–59.

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12. George Crook, “General Orders No. 8,” October 24, 1876, quoted in C. King, Campaigning with Crook (1890; reprint Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), p. 158.

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13. Quoted in J.W. Vaughn, Indian Fights: New Facts on Seven Encounters (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), p.231. Vaughn’s account (pp. 14–90) is the most comprehensive one available. See S. S. Calitri, “ ‘Give Me Eighty Men’: Shattering the Myth of the Fetterman Massacre,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Autumn 2004, for a revisionist angle.

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14. Bourke, On the Border with Crook, p. 107. Fort Bowie was “filled with such inscriptions as ‘Killed by the Apaches,’ ‘Met his death at the hands of the Apaches,’ ‘Died of wounds inflicted by Apache Indians,’ and at times ‘Tortured and killed by Apaches. One visit to that cemetery was warranted to furnish the most callous with nightmares for a month.”

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15. Vaughn, Indian Fights, p. 70.

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16. Calitri, “ ‘Give Me Eighty Men,’ ” and J. H. Cook, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier as Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992 ed.), p.198; E. D. Belish, “American Horse ( Wasechun-Tashunka): The Man Who Killed Fetterman,” Annals of Wyoming 58 (Spring 1991), pp. 54–67.

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17. Quoted in R. M. Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891 (New York: Macmillan, 1973), p. 109 n30.

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18. Vaughn,