As a Plains Indian . . .

Preparations for the battle began two weeks earlier when some leaders, including Red Leaf, High Back Bone, and Black Leg, decided that soldiers from the Buffalo Creek Fort could be ambushed. At the main camp on the Tongue River two days to the north, the village gathered horses, weapons, and food, while Red Cloud sought allies. A combined force of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors moved south along Prairie Dog Creek a week earlier and camped just north of here. One ambush failed two days earlier. The day before the battle, a spiritual leader was consulted, and three times he rode blowing a whistle and seeking a vision of the coming fight, each time returning with an increasing number of soldiers in his hand. On the fourth try, he returned carrying one hundred, and the victory was named One Hundred in the Hand.

Wyoming · United States