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Show 544 WESTERN WILDS. testimony only another evidence of his animosity to General Custer. The general result was, settlement of the Black Hills before the In-dian title was extinguished, and another expensive and fruitless In-dian war. The next year Rain- in- the- Face, a noted brave of the Uncpapa Sioux, was arrested for the murder of Dr. Honzinger and Mr. Baliran, of the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873. He was brought before Custer, thoroughly examined, and sentenced to death, but man-aged to escape, joined the hostile band of Sitting Bull, and sent word that he was prepared to take revenge for his imprisonment. There is evidence, though not quite conclusive, that this Indian gave Custer the death- blow. Here it is necessary to point out an important dis-tinction in the organization of different bands. The ordinary Indian government is patriarchal, and in many bands a majority of the fam-ilies are in some way related to the chief; but though the chieftain-ship is nominally hereditary, its continuance in any line finally de-pends on the prowess of the claimant. If he fails in any particular, another chief at once supplants him. Hence the absurdity of the plan generally adopted by our Government of trying to choose chiefs for the Indians, or to recognize one rather than another. If the- young men can not have the leader they want, they generally join the " hos-tiles." These bands are made up on an entirely different plan by convenience rather than relationship. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or some other active fighter, gets a reputation as war chief, and all the discontented braves join him ; as a rule there are few women in such a band, and the number of men is, therefore, apt to be underrated on distant view. Still more distinct is a third class, commonly known as " dog soldiers." These are outcasts or runaways from all the tribes, who get together in squads of from five to five hundred; sometimes they dissolve and melt into the original tribes, sometimes are merged into some one big tribe, or sfrnply wear out. Their communication at first is entirely by the " sign language;" if together long enough, a new Indian dialect arises from the jargon of so many tongues. It has occasionally happened that a large band of " dog soldiers" would cap-ture women enough for their wants, conquer a territory for them-selves, and in time grow into an entirely new tribe. Thus the Comanches, Arapahoes and Apaches are said to have descended from the original Shoshonees; while the Navajoes resulted from the union of part of the old Aztecs with an offshoot of the Shoshonees or of the original Athabascan stock, from which the latter sprang. In 1876, Sitting 1 Bull and Crazy Horse led the hostile Sioux, and to |