Both of them died far from that homeland.

The choice at Bear Paw was not between a good option and a bad option.

It was between two versions of the same loss, made bearable or unbearable by different individual calculations about what could be trusted and what could not.

White Bird did not trust the army’s promises.

He was right that the promises would not be kept.

He was not able to find, in Canada, the safety that the promises had offered instead.

There was no right choice at Bear Paw.