With this drawing we can be sure that Arrow has returned to self-portraiture, for he carries the same Elk Society straight lance as in Plate No. 7. His headdress , with its long, single trailer edged in blue silk ribbon appears to be the same one shown in Plate 17, where another Pawnee is being dispatched, perhaps also by Arrow. The same dark-blue wool leggings with beaded strips, and the same long-sleeved, black shirt are worn in both drawings; although here the nickel-silver arm bands from Plates 2 & 5 have reappeared. The pair of beaded moccasins, with a blue vamp, appears again in Plate 88.

Arrow's mount this time is white, with iron-grey legs. Its tail wrapping, nickel-silver headstall, and painted scalp tied to the bit are the same that we have seen before. The fact that this horse's ears have not been notched indicates that he is not quite as swift as those in Plates 2, 7 & 13.

As noted earlier, the shield design depicted in Plate 7 may be the outer cover for the design Arrow shows himself carrying here. Both apparently are associated with the same trailer, decorated with four, overlapping tiers of golden eagle feathers. The structure of this asymmetrical painted design---the right half filled with stripes, and the left half filled with animal tracks---is repeated in another well-known Cheyenne shield composition, collected from the Southern Cheyenne chief Whirlwind (Dyer Collection, Kansas City Museum, Cat. No. 40.616---see Cowdrey, 1999: Fig. 23b). In this related design the right half has green horizontal stripes on a white background, the stripes bordered either by black dots or dashed black lines; and the left half has two pairs of grizzly pawprints on a black background. The two halves are separated by a vertical band of yellow.

Two other, extant shields bear the same design (National Museum of the American Indian, Cat. No.21/4017---illustrated in Cowdrey, 1999: Fig. 23a; and one in a private collection illustrated in Carter, 1978). Another example is in the James Mooney collection of model shields at Field Museum, Chicago, Cat. No. 96953; and five variants are illustrated in Cheyenne drawings published in Afton, et. al., 1997: Plates 70, 81, 100, 111 & page 156. In most of these drawings, due to compressed space only two of the grizzly pawprints are shown, one above the other.

These comparisons may be instructive on two points: first, that the design depicted by Arrow is typical of Cheyenne composition; and second, that because of the small scale of the drawing, we might anticipate that the actual shield may have had additional hoof prints represented on its left half.

As with the shield represented in Plate 17, we may safely assume that the actual shield had a balanced arrangement of attachments---four, arrayed in the semi-cardinal positions. The artist was forced to represent only two of these clusters, because he had already drawn the feathers of the headdress trailer. The four clusters, then, each include two golden eagle feathers, each of these having a narrow strip of parfleche wrapped with yellow-dyed porcupine quillwork tied along the feather's quill, and tipped with a white spot of ermine fur or burnt-gypsum glue, and yellow-dyed horsehair. The larger, dark-colored feather in each group of pendants is a "spike" feather from the forewing of an eagle, decorated like the others with a strip of wrapped quillwork tied along its length, and small brass hawk bells attached at intervals.

While the origins of visionary designs employed on war shields were mostly unrelated to the warrior societies, still a man could obtain any particular design of shield he preferred, so long as he was able to pay the price, and willing to accept the varied catalog of taboos, restrictions and obligations which accompanied any particular design. It is likely, therefore, that some members of the Elk Society, although they themselves had not dreamed an elk motif, may have preferred to obtain the copy of one from some respected shield maker. We may guess, then, that the hoof designs on this shield represent those of the bull elk, rather than the buffalo; just as the dewclaws on the society's otter-wrapped lances were almost certainly those of the elk. Whichever animal was intended, however, the symbolic meaning of the motif would be the same: the rumble of trampling hooves conjuring the sound of thunder, to accompany the quick-killing power of lightning, represented by the yellow quillwork strips tied to the eagle feather (Thunderbird) pendants, and radiating out in four directions.

The enemy figure may be recognized as a Pawnee, from all of the features discussed with Plate 17, but principally for his hairstyle, and black-painted, high-cuff moccasins. He wears a shirt of printed calico or silk, a short breechcloth of red wool with a white selvedge, and nothing else. Often when going into combat, a Pawnee man chose to wear even less. In 1867, Col. Richard Dodge was hunting with a Pawnee guide on Loup River, when they were discovered and attacked by a party of nearly fifty Sioux:

"...we dismounted and made our preparations for fight. The Pawnee positively refused to fight on foot, and when I was ready I found him ready also; not a rag of clothing on his body, and nothing but a bridle on his horse. From some receptacle he had fished out a lot of narrow red, blue and white ribbons, which he had tied in his hair, and in the mane and tail of his horse, and which as he moved streamed out for yards in the rear. Sitting perfectly naked, with unwonted ease and grace on his barebacked horse, with fire in his eye, determination in his face, a Spencer carbine in one hand, the reins and a Colt's revolver in the other, he looked no mean ally in a fight for life. I had hardly time to admire his 'get-up' when the whole plain in front seemed alive with yelling savages charging directly down upon us."

Because the Pawnee and the colonel had selected a strong position from which to make their stand, the Sioux with inferior firearms were unable to safely approach near enough to overrun them. After four hours of strategems, and aborted charges, they gave up the attack.

"During all the charges the Pawnee had evinced the greatest eagerness for fight, and I had no little difficulty in keeping him by me whenever the enemy ran away after a charge. Answering yell for yell, he heaped upon them all the opprobrious epithets he could think of in English, Spanish, Sioux and Pawnee. When they wheeled and went off the last time, he turned to me with the most intense disgust and contempt, and said emphatically, 'Dam coward Sioux !' " (Dodge, 1882: 457-58).

We cannot certainly know why the Pawnee here, and in Plate 17, are fighting on foot, but probably it is because the Cheyennes have surprised them by choosing the moment for their attack. Note that even though facing Arrow's horse at full charge, the Pawnee has nonetheless managed to get off three deadly arrows: the first has lodged in the top of Arrow's shield; the second went wide, and the third has just struck the Cheyenne's left hand. Ignoring the pain, and the blood streaming down the neck of his horse, Arrow bears the point of his Elk lance straight into the Pawnee's heart, a split-second before the enemy could loose his own killing shot. It profits naught the reputation of a brave man to trifle with cowards. Here Arrow acknowledges the courage of the Pawnee whom he has killed. Contrast this composition with Arrow's depiction of the Whitemen in Plates 1, 2-3 and 5.

The order in which Arrow has chosen to represent events is not necessarily chronological. For example, he may have shown his comrade's brave exploit in Plate 21 first, so that here he could contrast his own brave accomplishment. In Plates 118 & 120 he does the same, first portraying a well-armed George Bent killing a turkey cock, then in the next drawing showing himself killing TWO birds with a single shot.

"The chief or warrior who put a low estimate on his qualities or achievements would be taken at his word, and nothing thought of. There are no reporters, no newspapers to herald the praises of a skillful warrior. He must blow his own trumpet, and he does it with magnificent success. Self-praise is no disgrace to him, and half the talk of warriors to each other is made up of exaggerated boasts of what they have done, and most extraordinary assertions of what they intend to do" (Dodge, 1882: 62-63).

Similarly, dating the five, inter-tribal conflicts which Arrow has portrayed is a matter of some speculation. They may have happened earlier than his acquisition of the ledgerbook, so they could represent events of the 1860's, and probably do. The famous company of Pawnee Scouts, under Major Frank North, were assigned to Gen. Carr's command during the campaign of 1869, when they had many small battles with the Southern Cheyennes. The Pawnee Scouts also located, and were first to attack Tall Bull's village of Dog Soldiers at Summit Springs in July 1869, and did great damage during that battle. Plates 17-27 could have happened any time during that period (Grinnell, 1915: 310-18; Hyde, 1968: 328-40; North, 1961: 110-24).

A final detail of note in this drawing is the small and unusual correction which the artist has made near the Pawnee's left ankle. At first he drew the limb too wide, in proportion to the right leg; so he merely redrew the line.