"Ye tarnal fool, Jim, ye got me into this scrape, and I got myself out. I wanted to shoot mine, but you wanted to kill and sculp 'em with butcher knives. So as the ba'r fight were yourn, I thought I wouldn't interfere, and let ye have it plenty."

After some reflection. Baker answered :

"Dod rot it, Jim, if ye aint right, but I'll never fight nary another grizzly, without a good shootin' iron in my paws."

These old, rough characters had their philosophy and ideas of humor.

It would seem that before the time of Marcus Whitman, and even before the trappers built the first fort at the junction of the Laramie and Platte, Col. Dodge had conferences with the Indians with the hope when the whites came on into the west, conflicts would be avoided. But the Indians, even so early as that, had doubt in the white man's pretentions.

These councils occurred during the years 1832 to 1835. On June 23, 1832, there was a Grand Council of the Chiefs of the lodge of Angry Man. On July 5. 1835, Col. Dodge held a council at a point about twenty miles above the forks of the Platte, which was attended by Angry Man, Two Axe, Little Chief;

Mole in the Face, Bloddy Hand, Two Bulls, Big Head or Star. Mole in the Face was chief spokeman, and the years of wandering had been lean ones, so that these Indians wanted land to settle upon "like the Pawnees."