The Outrider
In the predawn stillness, the outrider, an advance scout for a Blackfoot raiding party, watches the valley below. He has discovered a Cheyenne camp fat with horses.
The outrider, along with six other warriors, had intended to raid their traditional enemy, the Crow, but had not been able to find a vulnerable horse herd not heavily guarded. Now, hundreds of miles south of their Montana homeland, the Blackfoot are trail weary and ready to return to the north but not without the wealth and honor provided by captured enemy horses.
The outrider is stripped to the bare essentials necessary for his mission. He wears the skin of a wolf mainly for disguise but partly because he wishes to acquire the stealth and cunning of the wolf on this dangerous venture. On his back a is short bow of sinew-backed hickory. The short bow is easily maneuvered on horseback and the deer backstrap sinew applied with hide and hoof glue to the bow back gives added strength and cast to the short weapon.
The arrows are also correspondingly short, with shafts of dogwood and wild rose, feather fletchings from the raven, hawk and goose and tipped with iron points obtained from Hudson Bay fur traders. They are accurate and deadly at close range. The simple arrow quiver is made of brain tanned buckskin and attached along the seam to a stiffening stick for rigidity. The shoulder strap and bucksin bow case are attached with rawhide thongs to the quiver.
The sky is growing light to the east as the outrider silently slips back down into the ravine where his pony is tied. Soon he will rendezous with another scout and together they will quietly make their way several miles to the north where the other Blackfoot raiders remain hidden, waiting for their report. If all goes as planned, Cheyenne ponies will travel hundreds of miles to the north to their new home in Blackfoot country.
Bronze
Limited Edition: 3/20
13 1/2" x 13"
$3400