twenty men, and but nine were armed with fusees. They showed themselves, however, as braveand
skilful in war as they had been mild and long-suffering in peace. Their first care was to dig holesinside of their lodges; thus ensconced they fought desperately, laying several of the enemy deadupon the ground; while they, though Some of them were wounded, lost not a single warrior.
During the heat of the battle, a woman of the Nez Perces, seeing her warrior badly woundedand
unable to fight, seized his bow and arrows, and bravely and successfully defended his person,contributing to the safety of the whole party.
In another part of the field of action, a Nez Perce had crouched behind the trunk of a fallentree, and
kept up a galling fire from his covert. A Blackfoot seeing this, procured a round log, and placingit
before him as he lay prostrate, rolled it forward toward the trunk of the tree behind which hisenemy
lay crouched. It was a moment of breathless interest; whoever first showed himself would be indanger of a shot. The Nez Perce put an end to the suspense. The moment the logs touched heSprang
upon his feet and discharged the contents of his fusee into the back of his antagonist. By this timethe Blackfeet had got possession of the horses, several of their warriors lay dead on the field, andthe Nez Perces, ensconced in their lodges, seemed resolved to defend themselves to the last gasp.
It so happened that the chief of the Blackfeet party was a renegade from the Nez Perces; unlikeKosato, however, he had no vindictive rage against his native tribe, but was rather disposed, nowhe
had got the booty, to spare all unnecessary effusion of blood. He held a long parley, therefore,with
the besieged, and finally drew off his warriors, taking with him seventy horses. It appeared,afterward, that the bullets of the Blackfeet had been entirely expended in the course of the battle,so
that they were obliged to make use of stones as substitute.
At the outset of the fight Kosato, the renegade, fought with fury rather than valor, animatingthe
others by word as well as deed. A wound in the head from a rifle ball laid him senseless on theearth.
There his body remained when the battle was over, and the victors were leading off the horses.
His
wife hung over him with frantic lamentations. The conquerors paused and urged her to leave thelifeless renegade, and return with them to her kindred. She refused to listen to their solicitations,and
they passed on. As she sat watching the features of Kosato, and giving way to passionate grief,she
thought she perceived him to breathe. She was not mistaken. The ball, which had been nearlyspent
before it struck him, had stunned instead of killing him. By the ministry of his faithful wife hegradually recovered, reviving to a redoubled love for her, and hatred of his tribe.
As to the female who had so bravely defended her husband, she was elevated by the tribe to arank
far above her sex, and beside other honorable distinctions, was thenceforward permitted to take apart in the war dances of the braves! [Return to Contents].
