The Elderly Cheyenne Man

Lieutenant H. Walworth Smith raced through the camp, followed closely by an enlisted man. While passing a group of women wrapped in blankets, Smith instructed the soldier not to fire on them, when suddenly one of the "women" let loose an arrow that struck the soldier in the temple and then slid around slicing through his scalp.The trooper managed to stay mounted and, passing by, shot the Indian, who it was discovered was an elderly man equipped with bow and arrow. According to Lt. Col. Armstrong Custer, the trooper took the man's scalp.

1. Jerry Greene, Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869, pg. 126.