While Indians were slow and often unwilling to adapt and assimilate
themselves to the innovations and customs of the white settlers, the
pioneers and soldiers were quick to utilize aspects of Indian life to help
them adjust to the harsh environment of the western plains.  Corn, for
example, was unknown in the homelands of the settlers, yet it became an
integral part of the pioneer diet.  Shown here is the camp of the Fifth
Cavalry, north of the Black Hills, during the Indian Wars of 1876.  The
wounded soldier is being carried in a travois, a horse-drawn stretcher,
which the Plains Indians first developed from strapping their tipi stakes
to their horses when moving camp.