THE BOY THE INDIANS COULD NOT KILL
On May 31, 1869, settlers escorted by a detachment of 7th U.S. Cavalry troopers retraced the deadly events of the previous afternoon when Cheyenne Dog Soldiers had raided the Saline Valley in Lincoln County, Kansas. The troopers’ grim search revealed that eight settlers were dead and three missing—two young married women and an 8-month-old girl.
About 60 Dog Soldiers under Chief Tall Bull had staged the May 30 raid in north-central Kansas. Splitting into sorties of six to 20 warriors, they’d hunted down the homesteaders then scrabbling out a living in the valley.
The Cheyennes had eluded pursuit by the 7th Cavalry in the wake of Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s Nov. 27, 1868, victory on the banks of the Washita River
