What happens to Dunbar's diary in "Dances with Wolves"?

Dunbar’s diary is used as toilet paper in “Dances with Wolves.” A soldier from the returning Union party has taken the journal and tears out its pages because he cannot read it, treating Dunbar’s carefully written record as something worthless.

The diary matters greatly to Lieutenant John Dunbar. Throughout the 1990 film, he uses it to document life at Fort Sedgwick, his growing friendship with the Lakota, and his changing identity. When Dunbar returns to the abandoned fort to retrieve it, the journal is one of the few objects connecting him to his former life—and it also contains evidence that could support his explanation of where he has been.

The scene is often remembered simply as the diary being destroyed, but the pages are specifically used for wiping. The soldiers’ contempt also highlights the gulf between Dunbar’s personal transformation and the military world he has left behind. After the Lakota rescue him, the journal is recovered amid the confrontation and ultimately drops into the river, reinforcing the film’s sense that Dunbar’s old identity is slipping away.