A Cold Day in Hell: The Dull Knife Battle, 1876

“You cannot—it is too dangerous!” Morning Star told his friend. “Those soldiers will see you—and train their guns on you.”

“Look there!” Black White Man had said suddenly, pointing into the dazzling light of that sunny morning.

“I see!” Morning Star exclaimed, his heart rising in hope.

Some of Little Wolf’s warriors were crawling up on their bellies to the crest of the adjoining ridge. There they began to train their fire on the soldiers among the fringe of the village.

Black White Man got to his knees, slapping his friend on the back enthusiastically. “Because those ve-ho-e will be worried about the bullets—they will not worry about one lone warrior going in among the ponies! Aiyeee!”

And with that he bolted to his feet, dashing away from Morning Star, who watched, his heart in his throat, as the daring warrior reached his lodge pitched close to the stream. There he plunged into the midst of the frightened, rearing ponies he had picketed nearby, each of the frightened animals darting, lunging, pitching back and forth at the ends of their tethers.

One by one he cut them loose, then waved and shouted, “Hey! Hey! Hey!”

Running behind them, he drove his ponies toward the upper end of the village, into the narrow canyon behind the ridge where the women and children were singing with loud, clear voices at the breastworks.

As he was fleeing the village, Black White Man encountered a young boy who dashed from the doorway of a lodge to join him in his race to safety. While Morning Star watched, the enemy’s bullets landed all around the two, warrior and boy, sometimes kicking up the trampled snow between their legs—but neither was hit.

Later, as the sun continued to slip into the southwest that long winter afternoon, Morning Star heard a lone warrior begin the steady, rhythmic work with his big gun, tucked somewhere among the rocks down the slope of the ridge where the women sang. With each shot came a deep boom, then its fainter echo—as the warrior placed his bullets in among those who were destroying the village. Burning everything that belonged to the Ohmeseheso. Bringing to a sudden, savage end their whole way of life.

When Morning Star went to talk with the white squaw man named “Long Knife” Rowland who had married the daughter of Old Frog, Little Wolf, Roman Nose, and Turkey Leg joined the sour-tongued Last Bull in refusing to surrender long enough to assure that the little ones, the sick, and the wounded would have a warm place beside fires in the valley while twilight descended and this brutal night fell around them like winter ice.

As many of his people as he had seen die this day, now he mourned most his relatives: sons and grandsons and nephews.

Why some fathers like Black White Man were spared by the spirits, while others had to die in this fight, Morning Star did not understand.

Oh, Ma-heo-o, why?

Perhaps the Everywhere Spirit was punishing him for selfishly wanting his family to remain in this north country, their true home … when the ve-ho-e demanded they move to that hot southern land.

Oh, Ma-heo-o, spare us this terrible day!

How many times before had he learned that in all things concerning the white man—there was simply too high a price to pay.

By now it was plain to Colonel Mackenzie and everyone else around him that the Northern Cheyenne were not about to surrender.

Since it would be nothing short of suicide to attempt to dislodge the warriors from their fortifications in the hills, that work would be left to Dodge’s infantry, being summoned up by the half-breed Grouard. In the meantime, Mackenzie’s cavalry and Indian scouts would proceed with rounding up the enemy’s ponies and turning to ash everything the Cheyenne possessed.

With the pack train finally reaching the valley and the units being fed in rotation after a night-long march and more than half a day of battle, the colonel got down to the business of not just defeating the Cheyenne, but decimating any hope Morning Star’s people might ever have of again becoming a powerful people.

“We must end once and for all any thought these people might entertain of surviving off their reservation,” the colonel instructed.

“Hear! Hear!” some of the officers shouted enthusiastically as they pitched into the destruction.

“Every blanket and buffalo robe, every last shred of clothing, every bit of shelter these people can put between themselves and the wrath of winter,” Mackenzie instructed his officers as they set a torch to the village. “Those of you who fought with me on the southern plains know firsthand how vital it is to thoroughly destroy the enemy’s ability to wage war in the future.”

“Hurrah!” a chorus of officers cheered.

“We drove Quanah Parker’s Comanche into that winter. So as you feed everything to the flames—think how much deadlier will be our destruction here on these northern plains.”

William Earl Smith shuddered involuntarily.