35-xx-xx ep18Santa Fe Trail

Frontier fighters, fear fighters. Never to be forgotten heroic exploits in the history of a few brave men who made the West safe for civilization.

The danger which characterized the early days of trailblazing reached its height during the post-Civil War days, when a few hundred men guarded almost 1,800 miles of Santa Fe Trail, which stretched from Kansas City to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The one element that held back a great tide of migration into the Plains country was the fear of attacks from Indians. In 1866, travel along the Santa Fe Trail became so hazardous that something drastic had to be done.

At the headquarters of General Windfield Scott Hancock in command of the Army of the Missouri, an old friend says to him, �Widfield, I tell you if something isn't done to stop these marauding, scalping red devils, the Plains will never be made safe for civilization.� Well, I hate to take up the march again.

I thought our Indian agents were the Comanches, Kyos, Cheyens, the Rappahoes, and the Patchez had solved the question. There will always be a question, General, until every last man of those bloodthirsty savages is wiped out.

The Red Man has his rights to, my friend. General, the only good Indian is a dead one. These red kids have gotten so bold, they're burning the Oberlin mail station, killing its employees, driving the livestock off.

Well, I'll send runners out to the head chiefs. I think we can meet in council at Fort Lana, the dodge by the 10th of April. Paul, I won't do any good this time. It's going to be a fight to the finish.

Well, I'd rather have the United tribes of Indians be more friends than my enemies. Even a soldier knows that sometimes it's better to talk than fight. Fort Lana, April 14, 30 miles from the encampment of the Sioux in the Cheyenne.