The Cheyennes, also south of the river, were of the same unreliable nature, and about 1815, they joined the Arapahoes, and operated with them for several years.

On the other hand, the Tetons and Ogallalas were always friendly up to this period. Even in the later wars, Spotted Tail, the famous chief of the Ogallalas, was a peace loving Indian, and regretted the necessity of fighting the whites, but he could not do otherwise than "throw in with his people," when the eloquence of Red Cloud won them over to war.

So marked was this condition, that the trappers who made the annual trips up and down the Platte, found it better to keep on the north side of the stream, particularly on the return trip which was made in June. The river made a natural barrier against their predatory foes, and afforded comparative safety to those of the caravans moving along the valley during the high water period.

The greater number of the trappers went north and west from the rendezvous for the same reason. Those who took to the streams on the south to gather beaver usually met with disaster. Goshe was found dead in his cabin, and Gonneville was killed on the creek that bore his name for so many years, and even that friend of the Indian, the gentle Jacques Laramie, was not immune from the vicious Arapahoes.

In 1820, he announced that he would trap on Laramie fork the coming season, and when the other trappers pointed out the dangers, he said he would go alone. He did -- and he died alone, at the base of the great mountain that bears his name. His body was found in his cabin in 1821 by a party of trappers who had gone in search of him.