1840Indian rebirth

After resting on the spot for a while, stroking his sore thighs and stretching his hands and feet, Mashao mounted Heifeng and returned to the camp with Jumping Hooves.

Although Hei Feng did not run a straight route away from the camp before, the distance was not short after running for so long. In addition, the people and horses had little physical strength at this time, so it would naturally take a lot of time to return.

By the time the two of them approached the camp, it was already late at night.

The two of them were chatting.

"Hopping Hoof, where did your two feathers come from?" The horse whistle noticed the two feathers on Hopping Hoof's head.

Contrary to the impression of some people, including his previous life, not all Indians wear a big feather-woven hat. Some tribes do not have this thing at all, and not everyone in the tribes with this tradition is qualified to wear it.

Feathers represent meritorious service, and most people will only get two or three feathers to wear on their heads throughout their lives.

Only a few people with high moral standing and outstanding merits, because they obtained too many feathers, would be woven into war crowns and become the classic image of Indian warriors in people's minds.

As for the one with a lot of feathers in the war crown, which is dragged to the ground, in the eyes of today's horse whistle, it is actually similar to Brezhnev's painting style.

In addition, the materials for war crowns are not all eagle feathers. Sometimes, some similar bird feathers are randomly used, similar to "dog tail and mink".

"One comes from my work of raising horses, and the other comes from fighting." Jumping Hoof said.

"Fight with whom?"

"Of course our greatest enemies, the Arapaho." Hopped Hoof blurted out.

After hearing this, the horse whistle couldn't help frowning: "The Arapaho are indeed our great enemy, but I think the white man is a greater threat."

He was disgusted by the complex and fierce internal conflicts among various tribes. Sometimes some tribes would even unite with white people to stab other tribes in the back. If it weren't for this, if the Indians could unite, why would they be beaten to this stage by white people.

Hoppy Hoof disagreed: "If I remember correctly, your father was killed by the Arapaho."

"Yes, but my mother died at the hands of white people." Ma Shao said.

"So you love your mother more?" Hopped Hoof asked.

"..." The horse whistle paused, "This has nothing to do with personal hatred. White people are more united than us and have a more advanced civilization. If we don't unite, all tribes will be driven into barren reservations."

"Etiquette? White people burning, killing, looting, what kind of etiquette is that?" Tiao Hoo said, with some anger in his voice.

The horse whistle sighed. The Indian seemed not to know what civilization was, at least he did not find a suitable Apache word to translate "civilization", but used the word "etiquette". Of course, Jumping Hooves thought this was ridiculous.

The atmosphere was a little awkward, and the two of them walked forward in silence for a while.

"Wait." The horse whistle suddenly whispered vigilantly, making Hei Feng stop while staring at a place not far away.

Jumping Hoof also stopped alertly and followed his gaze.

Thanks to a religious habit of eating raw bison liver, the Mianxiong clan does not suffer from night blindness, and Mashao, who eats a healthy and reasonable diet, certainly does not suffer from night blindness.

So in the night, the two of them quickly noticed something. It turned out to be a dark figure sneaking among the horses.

"Someone is stealing horses!" As an excellent horse breeder, Jumping Hoof immediately understood what this figure was doing and became furious instantly.

Then he took out the battle ax from his waist and roared towards the black figure: "If you dare to steal my horse, you will die!"

The horses quickly separated a path to allow him to pass. The horse sentry also took out his tomahawk and followed closely.

After a while, the two of them met the horse thief who was about to escape.

There are also two people on the other side, Indians from other tribes. Their situation is obviously not good. After all, this is close to the camp where the Sleeping Bear tribe lives. If they don't escape in time, they will definitely die without a burial place.

With his excellent eyesight, Ma Shao became the first person on both sides to see clearly the movements of the other party.

Seeing that one of the horse thieves was also holding a battle ax and preparing to throw it, he made a prompt decision and struck first, throwing his own battle ax with his backhand.

"Ah!" A scream was heard, and the tomahawk hit the horse thief in the chest.

In fact, the whistle missed, and his arm was still very sore, otherwise the ax could have easily knocked the opponent away.

The other horse thief suddenly became frightened and didn't want to fight back. He turned around and was about to run away. He was caught up by Jumping Hoof and cut off his arm with an axe.

Naturally there was another scream.

Of course the tribesmen had heard the noise a long time ago. The first one to arrive was a tall and thin young man. He was riding a horse with an anxious look on his face: "Whistle, Hoof, you are back? What was that sound just now?"

Jumping Hoof pointed at the two horse thieves on the ground, one dead and one injured: "Blind Shot, how did you look at the horses when I was not around? These two horse thieves almost succeeded."

Blind Shot looked ashamed: "I'm sorry, I was negligent in my duty."

After a while, more than a dozen tribesmen arrived one after another, including chiefs and shamans.

They quickly understood the situation. The chief looked at the two horse thieves on the ground, one dead and one injured, and said first: "Stone Crow, treat the wound of the injured one and ask for his identity."

Stone Crow nodded and left with the injured horse thief.

Then the chief looked at Ma Shao and smiled: "Whistle, if you kill an enemy, the clan will award you an eagle feather as a reward."

"Thank you, chief." Ma Shao was a little surprised and then thanked him.

The old chief looked at Blind Shot again with a serious look on his face: "Blind Shot, this is your dereliction of duty. The clan will deprive you of an eagle feather as a punishment for your dereliction of duty."

Blind Shot opened his mouth to argue, but he still lowered his head and said in frustration: "Yes, Chief."

The horse whistle hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Chief, this matter happened because of me. If I hadn't tamed the horse and ran out of the camp, Tiao Hoo would not have left the horse herd, and as the most outstanding horse breeder, he would certainly not have left the herd.

It will bring horse thieves closer."

"So, the responsibility lies with me. Let's take away my eagle feathers. After all, blind shooting is just a temporary care of the horses. It cannot be compared with jumping hoof. It is normal to lack experience."

After hearing his words, Blind Shot immediately looked grateful, and Tiao Hoo's expression was also slightly complacent.

The old chief also thought it made sense. He thought about it and finally nodded: "That's right. In that case, let's cancel the rewards and punishments just now."

"Let's go see the horse thief. His injuries are serious and he might die," someone said.

Everyone immediately came to where Stone Crow was, and next to him lay the injured horse thief.

"Do you know his identity?"

Stone Crow was still bandaging the horse thief's wound, but he nodded: "He is a Comanche, from the Two Wolf clan, not far to the southwest of us."

"Comanches!"