THE WAR PARTY

Why had the chief not told him? The chief had only talked of the glory of battle. No one spoke of the pain and the terror. No one told him that the enemy was just like himself."" Such are the thoughts of the ""new young warrior"" as he lies wounded (crushed leg) on the battlefield after participating with great pride in an attack on another village. In an appended note Steele identifies the tribe as Cherokee, notes that they were not particularly warlike although their young men (like many others) believed that fighting brought honor, and announces (unnecessarily) that he wrote the story to dispel such beliefs. The message comes through unmistakably and so do the details of some Cherokee customs, but the story is clearly a tool of Steele's didactic intent.