But what did “getting out” mean when you had left your lodge, your food, and most of your horses behind?

It meant winter on the Staked Plains without adequate shelter, without adequate food, without adequate transportation.

It meant children sleeping in the open, or huddled in inadequate brush shelters, or crowded into whatever remaining lodges other bands might have to share.

It meant elders who could not walk far being carried by people who were already exhausted.

It meant horses that were tired, horses that were scarce, horses that were now the most precious thing a family possessed — and therefore horses that could not be risked in the kind of hunting forays that might provide fresh food.

The Staked Plains in October 1874 were not a kind environment.