One day while I was out on a scouting tour I ran on to a little
band of Navajo Indians on their way to the St. Louis Mountains for
a hunt. They had some blankets with them of their own manufacture,
and being confident that the Lieutenant had never seen a blanket
of that kind, I induced them to go with me to our quarters to show
their blankets to the Lieutenant and others as well. I told the
Lieutenant that he could carry water in one of those all day and
it would not leak through. We took one of them, he taking two
corners and I two, and the third man poured a bucket of water in
the center of it, and we carried it twenty rods and the water did
not leak through it. The Lieutenant asked how long it took to make
one of them, and the Indian said it took about six months. He
bought a blanket for five dollars, being about all the silver
dollars in the command. The blanket had a horse worked in each
corner, of various colors, also a man in the center with a spear
in his hand. How this could be done was a mystery to all of us, as
it contained many colors and showed identically the same on both
sides.
By this time our three months' supply was running short, and
Lieut. Jackson commenced making preparations to return to
headquarters with his entire command. We pulled out for the fort,
and did not see an Indian or even a fresh track on our way.
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