Bloody Beaver

War is hell. I know that sounds cliché but there’s a simple, irrefutable truth in that short yet powerful statement, one that is unchanging through time. Although our modern weapons may not be the same now as they were in the past, the end result is the same. Death, dismemberment, chaos, and pain. Grieving families, survivor guilt, and, sometimes, an elation that borders on the euphoric. For tribes like the Shoshone, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and the Crow, war was an unfortunate yet necessary part of life. And for centuries untold these tribes clashed with their enemies on battlegrounds with no names, in skirmishes long forgotten. And the warriors who emerged victorious are likewise lost to history. Well, on today’s episode we’ll take a glimpse behind the curtain. Find out what it was like to accompany the Shoshone into battle, to hear the cries of victory mixed with the agonizing wails of mourning. This is the fourth installment William T. Hamilton’s My Sixty Years on the Plains, chapter’s 7 and 8 if you’re readi