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tried to beat the wasichus at theirown game, playing politics. He had been three times to Washington. He had seen that the whites were as grains of sand at the seashore. He had seen factories turning out a thousand rifles a day. He knew that he had to fight the white man with his mind and not with weapons. He played a cat-and-mouse game in which the white man always turned out to be the cat. It could not be helped. He did the best he could. He managed to save our tribe from being shipped to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory. Crow Dog had never been taken prisoner. He had not seen the big cities of the East with their factories. He had never been on a train. He could not imagine the numbers and the power of the whites. He thought that Spotted Tail was too soft on the wasichus, too ready to give in. Crow Dog became the head of those who wanted to live in the old Indian way, the ones the government called ‘hostiles who stood in the way of civilization.’ Spotted Tail became the leader of those the whites called friend-lies and progressives. Crow Dog and Spotted Tail had been friends, but little by little they became rivals and, finally, enemies. It was not their fault, but the fault of the situation they found themselves in, a situation forced upon them by the whites.
    “After they put us on the reservation and fenced us in, Crow Dog was made chief of the akicita, the tribal police. One day he was out scouting all over the reservation. He had another policeman with him, a half-breed who could speak a little English. Crow Dog saw smoke and went to look and see. It came from a campfire. Around it sat some white ranchers and cowhands drinking coffee. They were running a large herd of cattle on tribal land. Crow Dog couldn’t speak English, or write, or read, but he knew a thing or two. He told those ranchers, ‘You are running your steers on our land. You should pay us for this.’ He had his policeman translate it. The white men said, ‘We have already paid to your chief, Spotted Tail. Look, here’s the receipt for three hundred dollars. Here’s your chief’s X mark and his thumbprint.’
    “Crow Dog accused the chief in front of the people. He said that Spotted Tail had kept the money for himself instead of givingit to the tribe. He told the great head chief to his face, ‘You are just a white man’s stooge.’
    “Spotted Tail said, ‘I am the chief. I have many mouths to feed. I have to entertain many visitors, both Indian and white. It is for this that I kept the money.’ This was true, but Crow Dog didn’t see it that way. He thought that he, or Iron Shell, or Two Strikes, had a better right to lead the tribe. Both men were proud and strong-willed. So there was bad blood between them.
    “Spotted Tail was a great chief. He did not drink or use the white man’s tobacco. But he had a weakness for women. He could not resist them, and they could not resist him. One of his nicknames was Speaking With Women. In our language that meant as much as ‘making love with women.’ When he was young, Spotted Tail fell in love with a pretty girl who was about to marry a wealthy chief named Mato Makuwa, or Running Bear. Running Bear had already paid many horses for her, but she liked Spotted Tail better. The two men got into a fight over her, going at each other with knives. When it was over, Spotted Tail was badly wounded and Running Bear was dead. After Spotted Tail was healed, he took the girl as his first wife. Altogether he had four wives, each with a fine tipi for herself and her children. He was a good husband, a good provider, and a loving father. But he had the elk power, which charms women. There was nothing wrong with this from the Indian point of view at that time. We do not think about such matters as white missionaries do. A man called Medicine Bear had a pretty wife, whom Spotted Tail wanted for his fifth wife. Medicine Bear was a cripple and no longer young. The woman went to live with Spotted Tail. Crow Dog was