According to the arguments already given with Plate 17, the artist might here be representing himself, or with equal likelihood a close Nisson relative to whom he has loaned some of his war regalia. The black wool leggings bear the same beaded strips shown in Plates 17 & 27; and the black shirt worn with nickel-silver arm bands is repeated in Plates 27 & 163. The otter-fur hair wraps terminated with tied strips of green and red cloth appear again in Plate 150.

The Cheyenne's striking, long-trailer eagle feather headdress is nearly identical to that shown in Plates 17 & 27, lacking only the blue silk ribbon edging on the trailer of red wool. Wearing such a protective talisman required specific preparation:

"While the scouts were going ahead...the warrriors... scattered here and there to begin picking out their shields and warbonnets and other things they used. Not too many had warbonnets, though. More used mounted birds or animals and different kinds of charms.

"They had to go through ceremonies with whatever they had...Those with warbonnets smoothed the ground and marked it [that is, they determined the cardinal directions, to properly direct their prayers]. Then each man would pick up his warbonnet after singing special songs and raise it toward the sunrise, bringing it down toward his head. He would stop three times, and the fourth time put it on..." (Stands In Timber & Liberty, 1967: 184).

The simple war lance, dressed in a sleeve of red wool cloth with green accent bands at either end, is the type carried by lay members of the Bowstring Society. These colors might be arranged variously, say a green wool sleeve with red accents. Compare Dunn, 1969: no pagination, "Minimic---Father of Howling Wolf"; and "On the Warpath". Both Minimic (Eagle Head) and Howling Wolf were noted members of the Bowstring Society (Szabo, 1994b). A single golden eagle feather trails from the butt of the lance.

The Cheyenne's war shield has a band of red wool cloth stitched around the circumference, and to this are attached eagle feathers suspended from deerskin thongs. As the rider moved about, this flurry of feathers would tangle and flutter in the wind, hopefully diverting the aim of enemy marksmen.

The shield's simple, painted design shows a red crescent moon against a green sky. The moon, as noted with regard to the similar shield shown in Plate 7, was considered protective against death. Unlike the threatening, blue night sky shown there, however, this green shield connotes the green-tinged thunder clouds of springtime, which shower the land with pale-green hailstones, bringing forth abundant new life (Moore, 1974: 155-56).

Falling hail---particularly the baseball-size variety which may occur in the Plains country---creates a drumming thunder analogous to a stampeding buffalo herd, or the charging horses of a war party. That sound denotes the trampling threat of oblivion. The power of this hail motif is amplified by red spots painted over the entire coat of the Cheyenne's strawberry-roan charger (Hoebel and Petersen, 1964: 25 and Plate One). Eagle feathers flying back from the horse's mane and wrapped tail lend it the grace and swift-killing power of the Thunderbird. The human scalp dangling from the horse's bit indicates that it has "eaten" enemies before. A moment more, and it shall devour this Ute.

Of the early-1870's, Colonel Dodge reported:

"The Utes and Southern Cheyennes illustrate the bitter hatred and mortal fear that many tribes have for each other...The Utes are a mountain tribe, the Southern Cheyennes a Plains tribe. Any single Indian of either tribe considers himself equal to at least three of the other. Brave as they undoubtedly are, the Utes go upon the Plains with fear and trembling, while the Cheyennes will scarcely venture at all into the Ute country so broken as to prevent their operating to advantage on horseback. Though always at war with each other, it is rare that anybody is hurt, each being too wary to venture far into the territory of the other" (Dodge, 1882: 441).

As this drawing, and several historic photographs illustrate (see Cowdrey, 1999: Fig. 16), Cheyenne-Ute warfare was a good deal more constant and deadly than Colonel Dodge believed.

Living in the high country of the Rocky Mountains, the Utes had access to vast herds of Mule deer and elk, consequently making most of their clothing of tanned leather far later in the 19th century than other tribes, such as the Southern Cheyennes, who had access to woven trade cloths much earlier. The Ute man here being dispatched may be recognized from the fact that his clothing is so nondescript: a simple leather shirt, leggings and moccasins; short, dark blue breechcloth, and hair wrapped with strips of red wool. Often, in Cheyenne drawings the Utes' clothing will be shown with fringes along the seams. Ute people produced their own, spectacular masterpieces of beadwork and cloth embroidery, but usually reserved them for special times. On the everyday occasions when Utes and Cheyennes unexpectedly collided, the Cheyennes found these enemies dressed plainly.

An interesting detail is that Arrow momentarily lost his concentration, and drew the wavy line along the outer edge of the Ute's left legging which would mark off the white selvedge of the cloth style worn by the Cheyennes. Lacking any means to erase such an error, he simply ignored it thereafter, as if both leggings were made of uncolored leather, as he had originally intended.

The facing page [not shown here] has a rudimentary sketch showing two women hiding in a circular area. After the Ute man was killed, these two women had tried to hide in a buffalo wallow or other depression, were found out by the Cheyennes, and also struck by this man's lance. They may have been killed as well, like the Pawnee woman in Plate 7; but since no blood is indicated, probably they were only tapped to acknowledge the coup. In 1858, one of the leading Cheyenne chiefs---Lean Bear, who traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit President Lincoln five years later---captured a Ute woman of whom he made a second wife. Later she escaped, and walked all the way home to her people (Hyde, 1968: 297).