Friendlies

This sketch I made while we were in the Plains, before we came to Salt Lake City and the Mormons. It is of my friend White Dog, with whom I was buffalo hunting, and three of his men. This War of ours will preserve these fine characters for just a little while longer, but I fear once the railway goes through, it will be the end for them and their freedoms. I had to commit this drawing on the back of a piece of skin, with the very few colors that were left me, augmented by some Indian colors - a fine sienna and charcoal from the fire - consequently I find this drawing smells more authentic than it looks. I shall never part from it, in memory of that day flying over the oceans of grass in pursuit of the greatest, stoutest-hearted beasts of the world.