Raids and FightsBy those years, the provocations to raiding had come close, and were sharply felt. Fur-traders sent agents out toward the Rockies. Merchant caravans moved regularly back and forth between St. Louis and Santa Fe. Indigenous nations to the north of the Cheyennes were always ready to trade guns for horses. The people at Bent's Fort, on the upper Arkansas, or from Taos in New Mexico, offered liquor to encourage trade. To the older leaders of the Cheyennes, the opportunities spelled some prosperity, and time enough to take it in. To the younger, and to the hard-drinking, the same opportunities said: Quick. Now. The older said: It is acceptable to raid, but sacred custom says that we should take the time for ceremonial precautions before setting out. The younger said: No, we shall go right now, and strike quickly against some of those people who are closer to the source of horses. The older said: Such rashness will suffer. And so it did. Forty-two members of one soldier lodge were killed by Kiowas. With tension high inside one Cheyenne encampment, fights erupted, and a killing. The guilty faction, outlawed, now lived on the margins of encampment, still part of Cheyenne life, yet free from ceremonial restraints on warfare. When the time came to seek vengeance for the 42 slain soldiers, the outlaws moved in advance of the attack. They and the main body of Cheyennes fell on an encampment of Kiowas and Comanches. Leader after leader, and soldier after soldier, on both sides, and among all factions, were killed. But raiding was not the only kind of exchange across the area. There was also the making of allies. And there was marriage. The Cheyennes were allied to the Arapahos. The Comanches were allied to the Kiowas and to the Plains Apaches, and there were marriages between the Arapahos and the Plains Apaches. Through this route, signals to parley could be sent back through channels, without dishonoring any of the fighters.