Youthful memories

Our imagination took us to great heights and some of our happiest days

Howard E. Cummins

Columnist

When we were little boys, my three brothers and I played a popular game called “Cowboys and Indians.” We were always the Indians, and some of our friends were cast as the cowboys. They didn’t mind that at all since most movies we watched at Saturday matinees always had the Indians scalping and burning down cabins. My brothers and I knew better. We had read all the American history that was available, either in our family library or at the school library. We had read everything we could find about the Sioux, the Cheyennes, and the Arpahoes, and especially about Chief Crazy Horse, long before we entered high school.

We had read about a place near Sheridan, Wyoming Territory, where on June l4, l876 eleven hundred cavalry and infantrymen under General George Crook, United States Army, campaigned against a determined alliance of Arapahos, Cheyennes and Sioux led by Chief Crazy Horse. That section of history provided us with enough material for an entire summer of playing “Cowboys and Indians.”

When we played the game, we were the Indians and our friends made up the army, which was, according to history, the strongest force ever seen on the frontier. However, we frequently changed the facts of history to meet our own unwritten scripts. But sometimes we did not rewrite history, and I recall that one of our best games was played out when the Crows, under Old Crow, Medicine Crow, and Good Heart arrived to cooperate with General George Crook to have it out with the Sioux, their enemy.

When we were older, we went far beyond playing the game of white man against the red man. We graduated to James Fenimore Cooper, and we started reading the “Leatherstocking Tales”, which included The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, and The Prairie.

Our new hero became Natty Bumppo, the hero of the series. Natty was a young hunter who was brought up among the Delaware Indians. Natty engaged in warfare against the Hurons, but he helped to defend the family of a settler from being attacked. Through James Fenimore Cooper, we also met Chingaechgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Iroquois aristocracy, and the scout Hawkeye, who became another of our heroes.

As the years passed and we grew into young men, we continued to study everything we could find on Indian lore, Indian myths and the history of a people who were the first Americans.

I am among the many who is lucky enough to look back on my childhood as one of the greatest learning experiences of my existence. My imagination took me to great heights and some of my happiest days.