When we reached the crest of the General Crook and his

plateau [in Montana Territory}, there impressive column of just

appeared in our front a formidable
band of those justly celebrated Sioux
and Cheyenne warriors, magnificently
mounted and in all the splendor of war
paint and feathers. Every hill appeared
to be covered with their swarming le-
gions, and up from every ravine and
out of every little vale more seemed to
be coming. Many wore the long Sioux
warbonnet of eagle plumes, which float-
ed and fluttered in the air, back of the
wearer, to the distance of 5 or 6 feet,
while others wore half masks of the
heads of wild animals, with the ears
and sometimes the horns still protrud-
ing, giving them the appearance of
devils from the netherworld or uncouth
demons from the hills of Brocken.
under 1,000 soldiers (from
the 2nd and 3rd cavalries
and 4th and 9th infantries)
left Fort Fetterman in east-
central Wyoming Territory
on May 29, 1876. The cam-
paign could be considered
Round 2 in Crook’s at-
tempt to corral the hos-
tile warriors of the north-
ern Plains. An earlier foray
in March of the same year
had not gone well. Crook
had relied on Colonel Jo-
seph J. Reynolds to locate
and attack a village on the
Powder River in Montana
Territory. Locate it he did,
but the action did not un-

N
o, the words above are not
from one of the officers who
rode toward the Little Big-
horn with Lt. Col. George
Armstrong Custer in June 1876 but man-
aged to survive what will forever be the
most famous battle of the Indian wars.
Historians sometimes lavish attention
on one monumental battle, while virtu-
ally ignoring others of genuine signifi-
cance. Such is the case with the Battle of
the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25 and
26, 1876, and the Battle of the Rosebud,
fought eight days earlier and just 30
miles away. The scene above, written by
Brig. Gen. George Crook’s aide-de-camp
fold as planned, and the
chance for a critical vic-
tory evaporated due to
mistakes (including not
guarding the ponies taken
from the Indians, thus al-
lowing the warriors to steal
them back). Heads rolled
because of that failure,
and Reynolds’ superiors
laid the blame squarely at
his feet, court-martialing
him and forcing him to
resign. Crook was deter-
mined not to let such a In Andy Thomas’ 2009 oil-on-canvas
thing happen again. Battle of the Rosebud, Sioux and
WWW.ANDYTHOMAS.COM

Captain Azor H. Nickerson, describes Cheyenne warriors “in all the splendor

the opening moments of the unsung
June 17 clash.
The Battle of the Rosebud pitted the
vaunted warrior Crazy Horse and his
allied Lakota Sioux and Northern Chey-
enne bands against the greatest Indian
fighter the U.S. Army had at the time—
that is, Crook not Custer. Celebrated
chiefs of the friendly tribes, swaggering
scouts, brave men and women of the
hostile bands, packers, miners, news-
paper reporters in the thick of the ac-
tion and one special correspondent
known as “Z” who was also an officer
—all were elements of this legendary
Montana Territory fight that was soon
and forevermore overshadowed by what
followed in the same territory.
C
rook personal-
ly led his force
to the vicinity
of present-day
Sheridan, Wyo., reaching it on June 11
and establishing Camp Cloud Peak. Sev-
eral days earlier the general had dis-
patched scouts Frank Grouard, Louis
Richaud and Baptiste “Big Bat” Pourier
to locate and bring into camp friendly
warriors under Old Crow and other Crow
chiefs, as well as Shoshone (aka Snake)
warriors under Chief Washakie. Both
Lakota-loathing bands had indicated
they would cooperate in this campaign,
and Crook considered their aid indis-
pensable because of their knowledge
of Sioux territory.
of war paint and feathers” swarm down
on some not-so-admiring bluecoats.
Crook arrayed his forces in fine mili-
tary order to welcome and presumably
impress the Indian allies—180 Crows
and 86 Shoshones—on June 14. The
soldiers and Indians exchanged kind
gestures and greetings, with the help of
scout interpreters. That night everyone
had a grand council at a great bonfire.
Chief Old Crow spoke out against his
tribe’s principal enemy:
These are our lands by inheritance. The
Great Spirit gave them to our fathers,
but the Sioux stole them from us. They

52 WILD WEST AUGUST 2013

 Overshadowed by that other June 1876 battle, this clash might
not have Sitting Bull and Custer, but it does have Crazy Horse
and Crook—and a mystery man known only as ‘Z’
By John Flood

hunt upon our mountains. They fish
in our streams. They have stolen our
horses. They have murdered our squaws,
our children. What white man has done
these things to us? The face of the Sioux
is red, but his heart is black. But the
heart of the paleface has ever been red
to the Crows. The scalp of no white man
hangs in our lodges. They are thick as
grass in the wigwams of the Sioux.
The great white chief [Crook] will lead
us against no other tribe of red men.
Our war is with the Sioux and only them.
We want back our lands. We want their
women for our slaves, to work for us as
our women have had to work for them.
We want their horses for our young
men, and their mules for our squaws.
The Sioux have trampled upon our
hearts. We shall spit upon their scalps.
The great white chief sees that my young
men have come to fight. No Sioux shall
see their backs. Where the white warrior
goes, there shall we be also. It is good.
Is my brother content?
The gathered warriors shouted their
approval. After Crook and Old Crow
shook hands, the newly acquired al-
lies commenced a war dance and cele-
bration that continued until morning.
Lieutenant John Bourke recorded the
following in his diary:
A long series of monstrous howls,
shrieks, groans and nasal yells, em-
phasized by a perfectly ear-piercing
succession of thumps upon drums
improvised from parfleche (buffalo
skin) attracted nearly all our soldiers.…
Peeping into the different tepees was
much like peeping through a keyhole

AUGUST 2013 WILD WEST 53

 to Hell.…The ceremony partook of the
nature of an abominable incantation
and, as far as I could judge, had a semi-
religious character.
With Crook now possessing the final
element of his strike force, he and his
men moved out from camp. His infor-
mation on the whereabouts of the hos-
tiles, which was sketchy at best, told
him they might be camped
as far as 80 miles north on
the Tongue River.
Crook led a colorful cast of
characters. His disciplined
soldiers were under such dis-
tinguished officers as Lieu-
tenant Bourke, Lt. Col. Wil-
liam Royall, Captain Anson
Mills and Captain Guy Henry.
Along with the Crow and Sho-
shone auxiliaries were the
multilingual guides, a few
surgeons, 20 civilian packers
led by Tom Moore, 65 armed
Montana Territory miners
and five news correspon-
dents (compared to just one
who would accompany Cus-
ter to the Little Bighorn).
Crook’s press corps included
John Finerty, representing
The Chicago Times; Reuben
Davenport, The New York
Herald; Robert Strahorn,
Hours before daybreak on the 17th amid the hills to the north. Before long
Crook rousted his men, and by 6 a.m.the general and his men heard distant
they were heading down Rosebud Creek.
gunfire. At first most assumed it was the
The stream coursed through rough ter-
scouts shooting at buffalo, as they had
rain before entering a valley, where it
done the previous day, but they soon
flowed east for nearly three miles. By
learned otherwise. Old Crow and his
about 8 a.m. Crook and the head of the
scouts raced back to the Rosebud yell-
column had reached a pleasant area ing, “Heap Sioux! Heap Sioux!” Instead
where the Rosebud neatly divided theof wild game, they had found the wildly
bottomland. To the south prominent painted warriors of Crazy Horse, fully
prepared for an epic fight.
“They [the Crow scouts] lost
no time in conveying the
news to us,” recalled 2nd Lt.
Daniel Pearson, Company A,
2nd Cavalry. “The news was
electrifying in the extreme.
The whole a tmosphere …
became charged with in-
tense excitement. The scouts
stripped. They frescoed their
bodies. They vaulted onto
their ponies. With rifle in one
hand and coiled end of lari-
at in the other, they steered
their ponies at a mad gallop,
now in straight lines, now
in circles, all the time utter-
ing deafening, fiendish, con-
fusing cries.”
Caught off guard, Crook and
his men scrambled to saddle
their mounts and ready them-
selves for action. As Captain
Nickerson noted, every hill
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Rocky Mountain News, Chi- seemed to be swarming with

cago Tribune, Omaha Repub- the enemy. The Crows and
lican, The Cheyenne Sun and Shoshones first engaged the
The New York Times; Joseph attacking Lakotas and Chey-
Wasson, Alta California (San Brigadier General George Crook rode to the Rosebud in the ennes, buying Crook and his
Francisco), New-York Tri- company of Crow and Shoshone auxiliaries and five reporters. officers precious time to de-
bune and The Press (Phila- ploy their forces.
delphia); and Thomas MacMillan, Inter bluffs rose quickly above the valley. Hills Crook sent Captain Frederick Van Vliet
Ocean (Chicago). rose on the north side of the creek as and two troops of the 3rd Cavalry to
well, though these inclined more grad- occupy the bluffs to the south and es-

A
s his force moved north ually and were intermittently dissected sentially seal off what would become
toward the enemy, Crook by ravines. As Crook waited for the re- the rear of the evolving battlefield. It
sometimes had his hands mainder of the lengthy column to arrive, turned out to be a good move. The La-
full. When thousands of he ordered that horses and mules be al- kotas had their eyes on the same prize,
buffalo appeared on June 16, Crows and lowed to graze. Troops unsaddled, made and Van Vliet, with the help of 1st Lt.
Shoshones launched a full assault on coffee and relaxed. Crook and some of Emmet Crawford, narrowly beat them
the herd to provide dinner for the group. his officers broke out a deck of cards and to the punch.
Crook was infuriated with this reckless began to play. Crook and the companies with him
display, as it risked losing the element of About this time Crow scouts who had ascended the hills to the north and soon
surprise in Lakota country. The general seen signs of Lakotas in the area rode off arrived on a broad plateau. From what
was eager to resume the march. northward. Crook also threw out pickets became known as Crook’s Hill the gen-

54 WILD WEST AUGUST 2013

eral established headquarters, as he had ly “with the troops on the left.” In his Andrews, after detaching his subaltern,
a good view of the field and could di- official report of the fight Colonel Royall Lieutenant Foster, with the 2nd Platoon,
rect his troops. names these officers under his charge: to charge a body of the enemy further
Captain Avery Cain, with men of the Captain Henry, Captain Andrews, Cap- [sic] to the left, dashed on under a strong
4th Infantry and help from members of tain Peter Vroom, 2nd Lt. Henry Lemly, fire with the remainder of I Troop, 3rd
the 9th Infantry, repelled the Lakotas’ 2nd Lt. Charles Morton, 2nd Lt. Bain- Cavalry, and carried the point [later
initial attack and secured the center of bridge Reynolds and 2nd Lt. James E.H. dubbed Andrews’ Point]. With an abid-
the field. Similarly, the forces of 3rd Foster. Captain Meinhold also had been ing faith in his men and horses, Foster
Cavalry Captain Anson Mills and 2nd with Royall in the early part of the fight- again advanced…following the retreat-
Cavalry Captain Henry Noyes executed ing on the left. And so the Daily Graphic ing enemy along the crest of the ridge,
significant actions on the right, securing
ridges and driving off the enemy.
As the battle continued, the brunt of
the conflict shifted decidedly to the left,
where the hottest fighting of the day
would take place. Colonel Royall, sec-
ond in command to Crook, realized that
numerous Indians were massing on that
side in an attempt to flank the infantry,
so he moved his forces south and west
across the ridges and ravines. Royall,
with Captains Guy Henry, William An-
drews, Charles Meinhold and Peter
Vroom, began clearing ridges and prom-
ontories held by the encroaching La-
kotas. These soldiers crossed the ravine
of Kollmar Creek and took possession
of the high ground to the southwest,
later dubbed Royall’s Ridge.
During the fight the reporters, scat-
tered throughout the ranks, dutifully
documented the maneuvers and other
events of the day. More interesting,
WEIDER HISTORY GROUP ARCHIVE

though, was the presence of another

“correspondent” who submitted rivet-
ing firsthand battle accounts to a lead-
ing newspaper. J.W. Vaughn explains
in his 1956 chronicle With Crook at
the Rosebud:
Frank Grouard (1850–1905), above in an 1891 photo, lived with the Sioux for about
The most comprehensive description seven years before becoming General Crook’s favorite scout and a Rosebud participant.
of the fighting on the left is given by
an unknown officer writing in the July correspondent Z must have been one of both pursuers and pursued firing rapidly
13, 1876, issue of the New York Daily these eight men. as the movement was executed.
Graphic. The article, signed by “Z,” is As the action continued and grew
entitled, “A thrilling Description of Gen- hotter on the left side of the battlefield, The advantage of these mini-victories,
eral Crook’s brave fight by an Officer Lakotas and Cheyennes appeared seem- though, was debatable. Andrews and
of the Command—Wonderful Bravery ingly everywhere. Captain Henry and Foster in particular had each advanced
of the Troops, dated June 20, at Camp his men performed admirably, clearing quite a distance beyond Royall, who
on Goose Creek.” ridges and driving back the hostiles. himself was dangerously far from Crook
Venturing out even farther to engage and the main command. Sensing his

I
t has been 137 years since the the enemy was Captain Andrews, with platoon was exposed, Foster began to
Battle of the Rosebud, but the pre- Lieutenant Foster. pull back, prompting an immediate
cise identity of Z has remained Z reported on that part of the action, charge by Crazy Horse’s warriors.
shrouded. This “Officer of the referencing points on a battle map he As that action was unfolding, Crook
Command” was, as Vaughn writes, clear- included with his article: ordered Royall to fall back and recon-

AUGUST 2013 WILD WEST 55


Top: Crook’s men and allies water their horses the day before the June 17 (not 18) fight.
Above: Warriors charge the forces of Lt. Col. William Royall, Crook’s second in command.
nect his right to the general’s left (some
accounts indicate that a half-mile or
more separated the two primary forces).
Royall’s welfare wasn’t Crook’s only mo-
tive in ordering this action. He sought
to consolidate his forces while he sent
a detachment down the Rosebud to
the supposed location of the Indian
village to strike a blow and secure a
resounding victory.
This was a pivotal juncture in the fight.
Indeed, Crook sent a 400-man force,
including Captain Mills, Captain Noyes
and his favorite scout Grouard, down
the Rosebud. But Royall only partially
complied with Crook’s order at first,
sending just Meinhold’s company to
56 WILD WEST AUGUST 2013
Although a couple of his men were
wounded, Foster did get back to Royall
to bolster what would become known
as Royall’s first position. Under fire from
multiple directions, the lieutenant’s men,
according to Z, faltered briefly but ulti-
mately held their ground.
Royall, attempting to comply with
Crook’s orders while at the same time
seeing his situation deteriorate rapidly,
fell back to a second position on what
became known as Royall’s Ridge. “This
retrograde movement was made on
foot, and the enemy, occupying the po-
sition just abandoned, fired steadily and
heavily on our retreating line,” Z re-
corded. “Occupying the second line,
the enemy not only pressing us in front
but getting on our flanks, Royall refused
the left of his line and held on stoutly
against from 500 to 700 Indians.”
Despite putting up a heroic fight, Roy-
all and his men were forced to retire
farther down the ridge to the southeast
—the only possible escape from the
noose being tightened by Crazy Horse
and his warriors.
“The retreat was then continued to
the last position, which was destined
to be the scene of the fiercest encoun-
IMAGES: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
ter that has ever taken place between
Indians and United States troops,” Z
wrote. “The officers, with the four com-
panies under the immediate command
of Colonel Royall—Henry, Andrews,
Vroom, Reynolds and Foster—remained
mounted and, although a conspicuous
mark for the enemy’s rifles, were on the
line with their men, who were fighting
rejoin the main body. Crazy Horse, not on foot during the whole engagement.”
one to miss an opportunity, sensed Of the eight mentioned Z candidates,
Royall’s vulnerability and pounced on we can reduce the options to the five
his command. officers listed in the previous quote.
Meanwhile, as Foster’s men were in Lemly, Meinhold and Morton fell back
danger of being cut off, Royall ordered at various times to Crook’s position and
him back. Foster would have to cross were not close to all the action. At this
one of the ravines to get to Royall. Z de- point in his report Z makes special men-
scribed the action: tion of the bravery of 1st Sgt. John Henry
of I Troop and then continues:
The platoon had gotten halfway to the
bottom when the advance of the pur- By this time the four companies that
suing Indians reached the crest just had averaged about 40 men each at the
abandoned and poured a scattering opening of the fight were so depleted by
volley into the party. … The order was casualties and details necessary to carry
given to take the charging gait and the wounded to the hospital, as well as
make for our own lines. losing the services of every fourth man
 who had been detailed in the morning
to hold the led horses, did not number
in all more than 60 or 70 men, whilst
in their front, if the estimate of expe-
rienced officers who could see the
whole field from higher ground further
[sic] back is to be considered, there were
upwards of 700 Sioux warriors.
With a 10-to-1 advantage, the Lakotas
and Cheyennes in this area were poised
to move in for the kill. The troops on
Royall’s Ridge were under siege from
every direction. Z’s narrative of the crisis
reads as only one who was in the thick
of it could have written:
The firing was now terrific, the repeat-
ing rifles used by the Indians enabling
them to make it one continuous volley.
Officers who were through the [Civil]
war and were there say that they never
in their experience saw anything hotter.
Again the Sioux advanced. With their
‘Yip! Hip! Hi-yah! Hi-yah!’ urging their
ponies to their utmost speed, they came
JOAN PENNINGTON
As Anson Mills’ force moved down Rosebud Creek, Royall’s command suffered and ended up with 80 percent of the casualties.
in myriads from the ravine on the right.
…Men brave and true, were falling every
moment.…The line…growing thinner
and thinner, seemed to be dwindling
so constantly that annihilation was ap-
parently but a question of time. ‘Better
die right here than back in the ravine,’
said one officer to another. ‘It’s only
a question of cartridges,’ said a sol-
dier to his comrade, who stood by him
in the line.
With the Indians converging on Roy-
all’s Ridge, Z described the terrifying
scene as “Royall’s last stand”—a chilling-
ly prophetic phrase in light of what
would happen to Custer at the Little
Bighorn eight days later. No soldier, of
course, lived to tell us what happened
on Custer Hill, but Z puts us right be-
side him on Royall’s Ridge during those
do-or-die moments:
At last the supreme moment arrived.
The Sioux, massing in all their strength,
charged with a yell on the right flank
AUGUST 2013
and on the front. For an instant it looked
as though Royall and his little band were
doomed. The Indians never flinched
under our fire, but pressed on, and
the worn-out, harassed little battalion
gave way. The officers, with one accord,
dashed forward. Sergeant Henry’s clear,
ringing voice was heard high above the
tumult, shouting, ‘Face them, men! __ __
them, face them!’ whilst some officers,
calling out, ‘Great God, men! Don’t go
back on the old 3rd!’ raised a cheer,
and the line faced about, fired into the
enemy at such short range as to almost
burn the noses of their ponies, and
drove them back almost 200 yards over
the slope on their front, the officers rid-
ing with and ahead of the charging line.
During this momentous clash Cap-
tain Henry was severely wounded in the
face, the bullet entering one cheek-
bone and exiting the other. There are
discrepancies in the various accounts,
but Henry said the brave actions of
Chief Washakie himself saved him from
WILD WEST 57
 Two Shoshone allies dismount
to protect the fallen Captain Guy
Henry (lying on ground with a
hand on his bloody face), in George
Capps’ work Saving Captain Henry.
certain mutilation at the hands of the
formidable enemy.
This valiant stand on Royall’s Ridge,
with aid from the Crow and Shoshone
allies and long-range firepower from
Crook’s Hill, allowed Royall and his men
to escape across Kollmar Creek and re-
join the main command. Not all of the
troopers made it, of course. According
to reporter Reuben Davenport, a hand-
ful of stragglers were killed on the spot,
one surrendering his carbine and being
rewarded with a tomahawk to the head.
Despite the losses, Royall’s and Crook’s
forces finally regrouped. Due to Royall’s
58 WILD WEST AUGUST 2013
predicament, though, Crook was com-
pelled to order Mills to abandon his
village-seeking mission. Mills returned
to the field on the flanks and in the rear
of the hostiles who, after a hard day’s
fight, decided to withdraw. The Battle
of the Rosebud was over.
rook reported nine soldiers
killed and 23 wounded, one
Indian scout killed and sev-
en wounded; scout Grou-
ard, though, said Crook’s casualties
were 28 dead and 56 wounded. Crazy
Horse later acknowledged that 36 La-
kotas and Cheyennes died and 63 were
wounded. Crook claimed victory, as
he had possession of the battlefield,
but it can be very well viewed as an
Army defeat, seeing as Crook withdrew
from the larger three-pronged cam-
paign against the Lakotas, in turn open-
ing the door for Custer’s defeat on the
Little Bighorn.
In the final lines of Z’s Daily Graphic
chronicle he expresses the sorrow that
swept over the men at the loss of some
of their comrades. He then doles out
praise for the brave actions of soldiers
like Private Michael McMahon of I Troop,
 ground commanded by the rifles of
the enemy, thus running the gauntlet of
their fire at the imminent risk of his life.
lthough barely mentioned in
some accounts of the Great
Sioux War of 1876, the Battle
of the Rosebud was far more
than just a prelude or footnote to the
Battle of the Little Bighorn. It featured
plenty of colorful characters (though
no Colonel Custer), some of the most
intense fighting of the Indian wars,
incredible bravery on both sides (notably
the Crows and Shoshones on General
Crook’s side) and important military
consequences (knocking Crook out of
the summer campaign so that he would
be of no use to Custer or anyone else
in the 7th Cavalry eight days later at
the Little Bighorn).
What about the identity of the elusive,
mysterious Z? There were eight officers
in proximity to Royall during the fight,
and Royall mentions seven of them in
his official report. In Z’s vivid newspaper
depiction of the crucible of fire on Roy-
all’s ridge he mentions five officers—
Henry, Andrews, Vroom, Reynolds and
Foster. Henry was wounded and inca-
pacitated. That leaves him out. So which
of the four remaining officers is it?
There are some big clues. Z suddenly
slips into usage of first-person pronouns
WWW.CAPPSPRINTS.COM
the first man to reach one of the ridges
taken from the enemy in the early part
of the fighting. Two other I Troop sol-
diers also receive special recognition:
William W. Allen, of I Troop, 3rd, died as
a soldier might be expected to.…Nobly
the brave fellow fought, standing all
the while and firing coolly with his
carbine, until the Sioux, coming in on
either side, shot him down.…Private
Herbert W. Weaver, of I Troop, displayed
JOHN FLOOD
high courage in carrying the order for
Lieutenant Foster to withdraw, as in
doing so he had to pass over open A perspective from Royall’s Ridge, looking westward to an area where “Z” took a stand.
AUGUST 2013
at key points—for example, “The order
was given to take the charging gait and
make for our own lines.” This scene was
describing the action of one specific
group of men under one specific officer.
And at the close of the Daily Graphic
article, Z, in three consecutive remarks,
heaps praise on the men of I Troop.
These were the soldiers he must have
closely witnessed in action, his close
comrades in his own company, I Troop,
3rd Cavalry. Thus the “Officer of the
Command,” known heretofore only as
Z, can be none other than 2nd Lt. James
E.H. Foster.
John Flood of Winchester,Va., is the direc-
tor of Big Legends [www.big-legends.com],
a family history and genealogy research
firm that produces books and DVDs. His
great-great grandfather, Sergeant Patrick
Flood, served in the frontier Army for
30 years and was involved not only in
the Battle of the Rosebud but also the
1876 Battle of Slim Buttes and the 1879
Cheyenne outbreak from Fort Robin-
son, Neb. Suggested for further reading
are J.W.Vaughn’s With Crook at the Rose-
bud, John D. McDermott’s General George
Crook’s 1876 Campaigns: A Report Pre-
pared for the American Battlefield Pro-
tection Program and Marc H. Abrams’
Sioux War Dispatches: Reports From the
Field, 1876–1877.
WILD WEST 59
t r u e
Rosebud Gets No
22 w e st
 The “Desperate charge of Gen. Crook’s cavalry at
the Battle of the Rosebud” is crystal clear in this
1876 illustration, showing troops surrounded
by Northern Cheyenne and Lakota warriors.
Yet Americans seem to have forgotten this
significant battle.
– Illustrated by James e. taylor –

A nearly forgotten
battle is overshadowed
by its more glorified
successor.

n June 1876, two battles were fought

in Montana Territory between the
U.S. Army and a coalition of Northern
Cheyenne and Lakota warriors.
Although separated by only eight days
and 50 miles, the outcomes could not
have been more dissimilar.
The first battle, on June 17,
lasted most of the day, as the opponents
were equally matched in number. The
generalship on one side was novel and
superb. Although one army claimed
a tactical victory, it suffered a strategic
defeat, one which indirectly influenced the
outcome of the second conflict.
The crux of the latter fight, on June 25-26,
lasted only an hour or so. It was a lopsided
affair, during which 4,000 combatants on
one side annihilated 200 on the other. The
name of the losing commander became a
byword for gross military incompetence.
This final encounter is a national shrine.
Each year, more than 300,000 people visit the
Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument outside
Crow Agency in Montana. Gravestones of
the fallen, both the American Indians and
the 7th Cavalry, dot the field, including the
one for Lt. Col. George A. Custer (the boy

Respect
general’s body, though, is buried in the
cemetery at West Point).
By contrast, the Rosebud Battlefield State
Park is off the nearly deserted Route 314.
The site offers no memorials, buildings or
even a Port-O-San. Only a trio of bronze
plaques, oxidized by the sunlight, stand
forlornly next to a tiny kiosk containing
plainly printed brochures. Nobody is around
to count whoever might show up so visitation
By Daniel a. Brown is unknown. The Battle of the Rosebud

t r u e
23 w e st
has become a mere their breakfasts by
footnote to the more Cheyenne and Lakota
glorious spectacle that warriors who attacked
occurred up the road. them after a 50-mile
night ride from their
encampment on Ash
A Furious see- Creek along the Little
sAw AFFAir Big Horn River.
While most of
The Rosebud battle the “battles” of the
landscape is quite Plains Indian Wars
attractive, with a were, in fact, sneak
series of grassy ridges, attacks, ambushes and
ravines and pine for- massacres, Rosebud
ests. Birds chirrup and was a rarity; this was a
a gusty wind prevails pitched mêlée between
as the distant chug of a two armed mounted
tractor floats through forces, not much
the air. Most of the different than a clash
battlefield, which cov- of medieval knights
– Courtesy Sioux War DiSpatcheS:
ers 10 square miles, is reportS from the fielD, 1876- in armor. The furious
1877 by MarC H. abraMs –
on private farmland seesaw affair lasted
and, therefore, off lim- six hours as each side
its to visitors. You won’t find the sweeping to encircle and trap Sitting Bull and Crazy used the terrain in an attempt to cut
vistas associated with the Upper Plains. Horse’s lengthy village of Lakota Sioux who off and encircle the other. Since nobody
Because of the ridgelines, the ability to see had refused confinement on a reservation. could see who was in proximity until they
more than a few hundred yards in any direc- On the morning of June 17, 1876, galloped over the ridgeline, the Rosebud
tion is difficult. Such truncated topography Crook’s troopers were shocked out of fight became a series of short-range
explains how the day unfold-
ed nearly 150 years ago.
On the Rosebud battle-
field, Gen. George “Three
Stars” Crook advanced north
to link up with Custer and
Gen. John Gibbon as part of
a three-pronged master plan

General George Crook

(right) led an offensive
charge in a fight recorded
in U.S. history as the “Battle
of the Rosebud.” But the
Cheyenne know the mêlée
as the “Fight Where the Girl
Saved Her Brother,” due to a
heroic rescue by Buffalo Calf
Road Woman (far right).
– all pHotos true West arCHives unless
otHerWise noted –

t r u e
24 w e st

confrontations, with gains and losses
constantly shifting.
Many Old West historians have noted
that Rosebud was the premier showcase
of Crazy Horse’s leadership qualities. He
had learned that charging off in a quest
for glory and scalps would not defeat the
white soldiers who were more interested in
killing, than honor. Crazy Horse instructed
his warriors to fight as a united force,
so they could drive the invaders out of
their homeland. Like any great strategist,
Crazy Horse massed his forces where the
soldiers were the weakest and adopted
tactics that corresponded to fluid
battlefield conditions. His presence
that day coalesced the fighting spirit of
his men...and women.
COWARDICE AND COURAGE
In the middle of the surging fight,
Cheyenne Chief Comes-In-Sight had
his horse shot out from under him,
which left him defenseless. His sister,
Buffalo Calf Road Woman, thundered
in and scooped him up on her horse,
thereby saving his life. A week later,
she would fight alongside her husband,
Black Coyote, at the Battle of the
Little Big Horn. Her act of courage at
Rosebud impressed the Cheyenne to
grace the battle with a more lyrical
title. For them, it will always be known
as the “Fight Where the Girl Saved Her
Brother.”
The news of the Lakota Sioux charging Lt. Col.
William Royall’s cavalry detachment on June 17
reached the public in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Newspaper on August 12, 1876. Royall’s
command suffered most of the U.S. casualties
during the Battle of the Rosebud. Crook’s official
report stated 10 were killed and 21 wounded,
but the truth is probably closer to scout Frank
Grouard’s estimate of 26 killed and 56 wounded.
– ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES ST. GEORGE STANLEY –
The location of her act of heroism
is marked on a crudely drawn map in
the state park brochure, directing visitors
north to a west-facing hillock. Her rescue
must have been a startling vision for the
fighters of both armies. Amid the chaos
and adrenaline, the deafening cacophony
of eagle-bone whistles and gunshots, the
whizzing of bullets and arrows, the roar
of the wind through the trees came this
brave deed from such an unlikely source
that the Indians must have felt their blood
pumping, while the cavalry troopers
sensed their blood pressure soaring.
Her courageous act stood in contrast
to a cowardly act committed by Jack Red
Cloud, the teenaged son of the renowned
Lakota chief of the same name. The youth,
as yet untested in war, had prepared
COWARD: JACK RED CLOUD
for battle by donning a war bonnet, a
serious breach of warrior etiquette, since
he had not yet earned the right to
wear one. This violation was known to
Indian friend and foe alike. During the
fray, several of Crook’s Crow scouts
surrounded the boy, grabbed away his
war bonnet, whipped him with their
quirts and hooted that a child had no
right to be on a battlefield with men.
Almost immediately, the nation
rushed to protect the Custer
battle site, with the Secretary of
War preserving the 7th Cavalry
troopers’ graves as a U.S. National
Cemetery in 1879. Curly, a Crow
scout who was the first to report
the defeat of Custer and his men,
was photographed at the battle
site (left) sometime before his
death in 1923 and before the site
was re-designated a national
monument in 1946.
T R U E
25 W E ST
 The pleading, weeping boy was rescued,
some say by Crazy Horse, but slunk away
afterwards in shame.
terrible to behold
From the solitary soldier’s perspective,
the battle must have been a desperate affair.
Overpowered by the stench of horse sweat,
cordite and fear, the weather miserably
hot, the troops were run down by “hideous”
Indians, as 3rd Cavalry Capt. Anson Mills
described: “These Indians, most hideous,
everyone being painted in the most hideous
colors and designs, stark naked except
for moccasins and breech cloths. Their
shouting and personal appearance…so
hideous that it terrified our horses more
than the men.”
To the embattled troopers, Crazy
Horse must have been terrible to behold,
with his long hair flying and his body
painted in a manner alien to them. His
chest and arms were covered with white
t r u e
26 w e st
hailstone totems, while a yellow-painted
lightning bolt divided his face in two.
This hideous demon stormed defiantly
into their midst, fearless in his medicine
that no bullet could harm him.
Crazy Horse’s assault was decisive
enough to send “Three Stars” Crook on
a reverse course back to Goose Creek,
near the future site of Sheridan, Wyoming
Territory. Despite the length and ferocity
of the Rosebud fight, during which more
than 25,000 rounds of ammunition were
expended, the fatalities were fairly light.
Only a total of about 40 were killed on
both sides out of the 2,500 who fought
there, testimony to how hard it is to hit a
moving target on a galloping horse.
The ratio would be different eight days
later.
Crook Versus Custer
Had Crook not been surprised at the
Rosebud or had he continued on to link up
with Custer, the outcome of the Little Big
Horn fight might have been different. The
7th Cavalry would have been augmented
by 1,000 more troops, and the overall
command would have passed on to Crook,
a more level-headed commander.
Not that the defeat ultimately mattered.
Within a year or so, on September 5,
1877, Crazy Horse would be murdered,
paving the path to extinguish all Indian
resistance to white encroachment on the
Northern Plains.
The bronze plaque at Rosebud notes
that, in 2008, the National Park Service
designated the battlefield a National
Historic Landmark. Both the U.S. and the
Cheyenne names for the fight are used. Yet
no other visitors are on the field. Not one.
So why then does the Little Big Horn
battle get all the attention? Like the Titanic
disaster of 1912, the so-called “Custer’s Last
Stand” was a spectacular example of hubris
and arrogance. The unsinkable luxury liner.
The unsinkable boy general. Both served
as icons of the indestructible for
their respective eras. Both lost
within a few unspeakable hours.
The account of the Custer calamity
hit the newsstands within days of
July 4, 1876, America’s Centennial.
Not surprisingly, the news spoiled
the party.
The Little Big Horn battle would
be diminished without the colorful
personality exhibited by Custer,
a “flamboyant, outrageous figure”
who personified the time period, as
historian Evan S. Connell describes
Custer. After all, few Americans
know or care about the similar
Fetterman Massacre of 1866.
Custer’s stature and untimely
demise has left the Rosebud fight
to forever remain in the popular
imagination as just another battle.
Daniel A. Brown is a published magazine and
essay writer, based in Taos, New Mexico, who has
traveled extensively throughout the axis of the
Plains Indian Wars.
When the U.S. government
announced that all Indians in
the Yellowstone River Valley
should report to the reservation
by January 31, 1876, or be
considered hostiles, Lakota
leader Sitting Bull (left) ignored
the demand and stayed with
his people to fight for their
homeland. Sitting Bull and
his followers held out until
surrendering on July 19, 1881.
One year before John C.H.
Grabill took the below photo
of a Lakota camp, Sitting Bull
was killed, on December 15,
1890, by Indian Agency police
on the Standing Rock Indian
Reservation.
– GRABILL PHOTO COURTESY LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS –
T R U E
27 W E ST
Lieutenant Charles Varnum,
fourth from left, listens to
an Arikara soldier under his
command, in John Fawcett’s
painting The Arikara Scouts. JOHN FAWCETT
The Arikaras
CUSTER’S 13TH COMPANY
Though referred to as ‘scouts,’ even by Lt. Col. George A. Custer, these Indians
enlisted as soldiers—and some fought well at the Little Bighorn By John Koster
All photographs courtesy of Glenwood J. Swanson
O
n June 25–26, 1876, Lakota hired later in the campaign. A July 28, imity along the Missouri River. To endure
Sioux and Northern Cheyenne 1866, congressional act, amended in the brutal northern Plains winters, they
warriors on the Little Bighorn 1873, had authorized the president to lived in earth lodges thickly insulated
River annihilated the five 7th enlist and employ up to 1,000 Indians with logs, soil and sod. The women raised
U.S. Cavalry companies under the direct as U.S. soldiers, though department corn and beans during the growing sea-
command of Lieutenant Colonel George commanders were granted the discre- son, while the men organized sporadic
Armstrong Custer and decimated seven tion to release them from service. As buffalo hunts, camping out in small te-
other companies that barely survived to soldiers the Arikaras received govern- pees transported by dogs. Author and
tell the tale of the Army’s biggest defeat ment uniforms and weapons and were illustrator Thomas E. Mails estimated
in the Western Indian wars. That much subject to military orders. They earned that by 1800 the farming tribes had at-
is familiar even to those otherwise un- $13 a month, the same as other en- rophied to about 3,800 Arikaras, 3,600
schooled in 19th-century battles. Far listed men, though white and half-blood Mandans and 2,500 Hidatsas, while
less known is the presence—and fate— scouts often received higher wages. the Lakotas—full-time buffalo hunters
of a 13th company at that Montana Terri- Even Custer himself referred to the Arik- who cackled at the “corn eaters”—had
tory fight. Instead of white soldiers, this aras as “scouts,” perhaps to boost cama- swollen to some 27,000 members.
company comprised Arikara Indians, raderie among his Indian forces. Legally, In 1823 fur trappers clashed with the
mortal enemies of the Lakotas, whom however, they were soldiers and subject Arikaras, sparking a brief war in which
Custer had signed up as U.S. soldiers to whatever discipline he might impose the tribe faced a force of 230 U.S. sol-
at the last moment. diers, 50 trappers and 750
The Arikaras themselves Sioux (yes, allies of the whites
had mixed feelings that spring at the time). The Arikaras
when they learned about the escaped extinction mostly
Custer expedition of 1876. through U.S. clemency, and
The Sioux were a formidable by allowing the tribe a mea-
enemy, and previous wars sure of independence, the
and two smallpox epidem- Americans won the Arikaras’
ics had not been kind to the cautious loyalty. A decade
Arikaras. Many joined up for later the smallpox epidemic
the money. Young Hawk, an of 1837 all but exterminated
Arikara who had soldiered for the neighboring Mandans
Custer before, chose to sit out and severely reduced the
this campaign. His father felt Arikaras and Hidatsas. At that
otherwise and stated, “I will low point, mostly out of des-
go, and my son too.” Young peration, they became U.S.
Hawk obeyed, as Arikaras had allies against their principal
great respect for their elders. enemy, the Sioux. John James
Frederic F. Gerard, a fur Audubon visited the survivors
trader who served as civilian The Arikara Bob-tailed Bull (second from left), who enlisted at in 1843 and described them
age 45, died during Major Marcus Reno’s attack in the valley.
interpreter for Custer’s Arik- as lanky and squalid—per-
aras, took the 40 Arikara vol- haps because the smallpox
unteers, including the dubious Young in a fluid tactical situation. To under- had invalided so many Arikaras. Another
Hawk, to the Army encampment near stand the role of the Arikara soldiers is white visitor in 1858 derided them as
their village by the Missouri River for to better comprehend what happened sullen, insolent and disease-ridden. By
the enlistment ceremony. Captain Tom at the Little Bighorn. The Arikaras were 1876 the Arikaras, badly outnumbered
Custer was on duty, and Gerard told the combatants but also somewhat de- and targeted as white allies, had more
Indians to raise their hands for the oath tached observers—and some became reason than ever to side with soldiers
of allegiance (for more on Gerard see decidedly more detached as things grew trying to contain the powerful Sioux.
Pioneers and Settlers, P. 18; also see the worse for the 7th Cavalry. The nominal commander of the new
related story and photo of Younk Hawk 13th company was Lieutenant Charles

T
in Indian Life, P. 24). George Custer then he Arikaras—who called them- Varnum, a 26-year-old West Point grad-
strode in and, through Gerard, told the selves the Sahnish (“original uate. Custer, however, understood
Arikaras the expedition was imminent, people”) and were informally enough about Indians, the Arikaras in
and they were to remain at Fort Abraham known as the Rees—were the particular, to know they would be leery
Lincoln and not return to their village. largest of three farming tribes (along of leadership by such a young man.
The Arikaras were officially American with the Mandans and Hidatsas) that Indeed, the Arikaras seem to have re-
soldiers, unlike the Crow scouts Custer since the 18th century had lived in prox- garded their own chiefs as field com-

28 WILD WEST JUNE 2015

manders, seldom mentioning Varnum
in their reminiscences.
After the May 7 enlistment ceremony
Custer met in his tent with two veteran
Arikara warriors, Bob-tailed Bull and
Soldier. The colonel, through interpreter
Gerard, first expressed his appreciation:

The man before me, Bob-tailed Bull, is

a man of good heart, of good character.
I am pleased to have him here. I am
glad he has enlisted. It will be a hard
expedition, but we will all share the
same hardships. I am very well pleased
to have him in my party, and I told it
in Washington. We are to live and fight
together, children of one father and
one mother. The great-grandfather has
a plan. The Sioux camps have united,
and you and I must work together for
the Great Father and help each other.
The Great Father is well pleased that it
took few words to coax Son-of-the-Star
[the principal Arikara chief] to furnish
me scouts for this work we have to do,
and he is pleased, too, at his behavior in
helping on the plan of the Great Father.
I, for one, am willing to help in this all
I can, and you must help too. It is this
way, my brothers. If I should happen to The 7th Cavalry employed Bloody Knife, a favorite of George Custer, as a guide and
lose any of the men Son-of-the-Star has interpreter on the march to the Little Bighorn. He was half Arikara and half Lakota.
furnished, their reward will not be for-
gotten by the government. Their rela- see there is some gain even though I lose Sioux scouts assigned to them, the
tions will be saddened by their death, my life.” Custer said further words were Arikaras formed up to leave Fort Abra-
but there will be some comfort in the unnecessary and stated, “Bob-tailed Bull ham Lincoln. Theirs was the first com-
pay that the United States will provide. is to be the leader, and Soldier second pany to parade on the fort grounds but
in command of the scouts.” the last to leave, marching at the rear
Bob-tailed Bull thanked Custer and of the column that first day. The Arik-

shared his readiness to die in battle.
“It is a good thing you say, my brother,
my children and other relatives will
receive my pay and other rewards,” he
answered. “I am glad you say this, for I
“S
couts” they may have been
in Custer’s view, but the
Arikaras comprised their
own company, and on May
17, accompanied by four mercenary
aras spoke their own tongue, a subset of
the Caddoan language family, and used
sign language to converse with their
attached Sioux scouts and the six Crow
scouts Custer plucked from Colonel John

After the May 7 enlistment ceremony

Custer met in his tent with two veteran
Arikara warriors—Bob-tailed Bull, whom
he made the leader, and Soldier (at left),
whom Custer made second in command

JUNE 2015 WILD WEST 29

 In one of the Sioux sweat lodges, according
to Young Hawk, ‘Red Bear [at left], Red Star
and Soldier saw figures drawn, indicating
by hoofprints Custer’s men on one side
and the Dakota [Sioux] on the other’
Gibbons’ Montana column on June 21.
The Crow scout Curley claimed Custer
paid Gibbon $600 to “rent” the Crows.
Custer’s favorite Indian scout, Bloody
Knife, who had a Hunkpapa Sioux father
and Arikara mother, also conversed with
the Arikaras in sign language. As the
column headed up the Yellowstone
River, Bloody Knife encouraged the
Arikaras to stick with the command
no matter what happened. “There are
numerous enemies in the country,” he
told them. “If we attack their camp [and]
are beaten, we must retreat in small
groups. You scouts must not run away
[or] go back to your homes.”
Around June 22 the Arikaras arrived
at an abandoned Lakota camp, where
they found the skeletal remains of a
soldier. “All about him were clubs and
sticks, as though he had been beaten
to death,” Young Hawk recalled. “Only
the bones were left. Custer stood still
for some time and looked down at the
remains.” The detachment also found
a dead Sioux warrior on a scaffold.
On Custer’s orders they dismantled the
scaffold and stripped the corpse, find-
ing a partially healed gunshot wound
in the dead man’s back. They threw the
body in the river.
On June 23 the Arikaras looked on as
the steamboat Far West ferried “cannon”
(referring to Gatling guns) back across
the river, as Custer thought the gun
carriages would only slow down the
column; the Indians thought this was
a mistake. Officers also detailed three
Arikaras to carry mail back to Fort
Lincoln. The other Arikaras received
five mules to carry their supplies as
the command, shifting to attack mode,
moved out ahead of its supply train.
30 WILD WEST JUNE 2015
“Here Gerard told us he wanted us to
sing our death songs,” Young Hawk
said. “Custer then ordered two groups
of scouts to go ahead, one on each side
of the river.”
The next day, June 24, the Arikaras
and scouts found an abandoned Lakota
camp set up around a circular clear-
ing for a sun dance. “The Dakota [Sioux]
scouts in Custer’s army said that this
meant the enemy knew the Army was
coming,” Young Hawk recalled. “In one
of the sweat lodges was a long heap or
ridge of sand. On this one Red Bear,
Red Star and Soldier saw figures drawn,
indicating by hoofprints Custer’s men
on one side and the Dakota on the other.
Between them dead men were drawn
lying with their heads toward the Dako-
tas. The Arikara scouts understood this
to mean that the Dakota medicine was
too strong for them, and that they would
be defeated by the Dakotas.”
Inside another sweat lodge Young
Hawk found three stones, each painted
red. “This meant in Dakota sign lan-
guage that the Great Spirit had given
them victory, and that if the whites
did not come, they would seek them,”
Young Hawk explained. They saw other
signs, too, that shook their confidence.
That may explain why later that day the
Arikaras and their Crow scouts “missed”
the obvious travois trail that ultimately
led to the Little Bighorn. Varnum, their
nominal commander, took the blame
for the oversight and in 1909 shared his
recollections with Walter Mason Camp,
the dean of Little Bighorn interviewers:
“Custer told me that [Lieutenant Edward
S.] Godfrey had reported that a trail of a
part of the Indians had gone up a branch
stream to our left about 10 miles back,
and Custer was rather angry that I had
let anything get away from me.”
Custer assigned Lieutenant Luther
Hare to “assist” Varnum and his Arik-
aras, and with Hare’s help and Custer’s
rebuke fresh on their minds, the Arikaras
had no trouble finding the travois trail.
They and their attached Crows followed
it about 10 miles that afternoon before
stopping to make camp.
T
hat night Custer summoned
Red Star and five other Arikaras
to his headquarters tent, around
which the officers had clus-
tered. Gerard gave them their instruc-
tions: “Long Hair wants to tell you that
tonight you shall go without sleep. You
are to go on ahead. You are to try to
locate the Sioux camp. You are to do
your best to find this camp. Travel all
night. When day comes, if you have not
found the Sioux camp, keep on going
until noon. If your search is useless by
this time, you are to come back to camp.
These Crow Indians [known to the Arik-
aras as Big Belly, Strikes Enemy, Comes
Leading and Curly Head] will be your
guides, for they know the country.”
White scout Charley Reynolds accom-
panied the Indians, as did Mitch Bouyer,
a half-blood French-Sioux with a Crow
wife who served as an interpreter. The
party headed out and soon reached an
overlook familiar to the Crows and later
dubbed the Crow’s Nest.
“I saw two of the Crow scouts climb-
ing up on the highest peak of the hill,”
Red Star recalled. “I heard the Crows call
like an owl, not loud but clear.” Return-
ing to the group, the Crows warned the
Arikaras not to sing a traditional song
that meant an enemy was in sight. “Then
all the scouts climbed up the peak to look
for signs of the Dakotas,” Red Star con-
tinued. Crooked Horn, an older Arikara
warrior, told Red Star, “Look sharp, my
boy, you have better eyes than I.” Red
Star saw a dark object and light smoke
rising from what he assumed was the
Lakota village. Reynolds scanned the
horizon with his field glasses, scrawled
out a note and gave it to Crooked Horn.
He in turn handed the note to Red Star
and sent him and another Arikara back
to the soldiers’ main camp, marked by
rising smoke in the opposite direction.
When Red Star reached Custer’s en-
campment, a fellow Arikara named
Stabbed greeted him: “My son, this is no
small thing you have done.” The Custer
brothers, Bloody Knife and Gerard clus-
tered around as George read Reynolds’
note. Custer then mounted up and head-
ed for the overlook to see for himself.
When the party reached the hill, Cus-
ter at first claimed he couldn’t see the
village. Reynolds then handed the colo-
nel his field glasses, and a moment later
Custer nodded. The Arikaras and Crows
told Custer that while Red Star was re-
laying the message, they had seen six
Sioux scouts, who seemed well aware
of the soldiers’ presence. Custer brushed
off the suggestion. “These Sioux we
have seen at the foot of the hill, two
going one way and four the other, are
good scouts,” Big Belly, one of the Crow
scouts, insisted. “They have seen the
smoke of our camp.”
“I say again we have not been seen!”
Custer snapped back. “That camp has
not seen us. I am going ahead to carry
out what I think. I want to wait until it is
dark, and then we will march. We will
place our army around the Sioux camp.”
Red Star (at left) saw a dark object and
light smoking rising from what he assumed
was the Lakota village. Scout Charley
Reynolds scanned the horizon with his field
glasses and scrawled out a note for Custer
“That plan is bad,” Big Belly replied
bluntly. “It should not be carried out.”
“I have said what I propose to do,” the
colonel said curtly. “I want to wait until
it is dark and then go ahead with my
plan.” Custer then rode back down to
rejoin his command.
Circumstances soon forced him to re-
consider. In his absence Sergeant Wil-
liam Curtis had turned back along the
trail to recover a box of hardtack in-
advertently left behind and had encoun-
tered several Sioux. After exchanging
shots, the Sioux rode off. Ironically, the
warriors Curtis saw wouldn’t make it
back to the Indian village until after
the battle. But Custer decided to strike
first. He instructed the Arikaras, through
Gerard: “Boys, I want you to take the
horses away from the Sioux camp.
Make up your minds to go straight to
their camp and capture their horses.
Boys, you are going to have a hard day.
You must keep up your courage. You
will get experience today.”
T
he company of Arikaras, by
then at the head of the column,
joined in the general charge
toward the village and its horse
herd. Encountering a lone burial tepee,
they rode around it, slapping its sides
with their quirts and slashing it open:
Even a coup on a dead Lakota was worth
something. Custer and Gerard soon
caught up, and through Gerard the angry
colonel said: “I told you to dash on and
stop for nothing. You have disobeyed
me. Move to one side and let the sol-
diers pass you in the charge. If any man
of you is not brave, I will take away his
weapons and make a woman of him.”
Red Bear recalled what a fellow Arikara
JUNE 2015
shouted back to Gerard: “Tell him if he
does the same to all his white soldiers
who are not so brave as we are, it will
take him a very long time indeed.” The
Arikaras laughed at the gibe and rushed
into the brewing fight. Six or eight of
them split off to rush the Sioux pony
herd from two different directions.
After cutting out a group of horses, they
fired wildly on the Lakota village and
then spent much of the day eluding
angry Sioux warriors.
About half of the Arikaras stuck with
Bob-tailed Bull, their war chief, and
Bloody Knife, who had accompanied
Major Marcus Reno and three compa-
nies of white soldiers. Young Hawk was
with the Arikara company, as were two
Crow scouts, on the left flank of Reno’s
companies as they advanced on the
village. Bob-tailed Bull was nearest to
the opposing Sioux when they moved
to flank Reno’s left, defending their
village in overwhelming numbers.
“All at once over the middle of the ridge
came riding a dense swarm of Dakotas
in one mass straight toward Bob-tailed
Bull,” Young Hawk recalled. At that mo-
ment a white soldier beside Young Hawk
turned and shouted, “John, you go!”
apparently advising the young Arikara
to run for it. The attacking Sioux bore
down on the Arikaras, and men started
to flee back across the river. The Arik-
aras claimed the other soldiers were
the first to run. In the midst of the melee
Bloody Knife had taken a Sioux bullet to
the head, and his brains and blood splat-
tered Reno’s face, adding to the major’s
dismay over a very bad situation.
As they crossed the river, several Arik-
aras got separated from the command
and sought cover in a grove of trees.
WILD WEST 31
Among them was Young Hawk, who
resolved to die fighting after his cousin
Goose was severely wounded and lost
his horse to Sioux bullets. After propping
up Goose against a tree, Young Hawk
helped Crow scout Half-Yellow-Face
drag Strikes the Enemy, a wounded fel-
low Crow, into the shelter of the grove.
“The sight of the wounded men gave
me queer feelings,” Young Hawk re-
membered. “I did not want to see them
mutilated, so I decided to get killed
myself at the edge of the timber. Before
going out, I put my arms about my
horse’s neck, saying, ‘I love you.’ I then
crawled out and stood up and saw all
in front of me Sioux warriors kneeling
The Arikaras rode into trouble in the valley with Major Marcus Reno, and 13 later participated in the defensive stand atop Reno Hill.
ready to shoot. I fired at them and re-
ceived a volley but was not hit. I was
determined to try again and get killed.”
Just then he spotted Forked Horn,
an experienced Arikara warrior, who
was firing from behind a cluster of drift-
wood. “Don’t you do so again!” Forked
Horn scolded. “It is no way to act. This is
not the way to fight at all, to show your-
self as a mark.” Heeding the older man’s
advice, Young Hawk fought alongside
Forked Horn from behind cover. The
Sioux set fire to the grass, trying to
smoke out the Arikaras, but it was too
green. When a Sioux on a gray horse
rode into plain sight, Young Hawk fired,
32 WILD WEST JUNE 2015
missed, then reloaded and fired again,
killing the enemy warrior and shouting
in triumph. “Some little time after this
the Sioux came closer again,” he re-
called. “I saw one Sioux coming right
toward me, and I drew a fine bead on
him and dropped him. Then I jumped
up and gave the death call again.”
Young Hawk could hear Sioux women
crying out, urging their warriors to kill
the Arikaras, but the Sioux fire soon
slackened, and their attackers rode off
downstream. He and Half-Yellow-Face
thought Custer must have struck the vil-
lage from the other side, so they helped
Goose and Strikes the Enemy up on their
horses and prepared to leave. Spotting
an American flag in the command’s fall-
back position atop Reno Hill, they rode
that way under Sioux fire while Young
Hawk waved a white flag to avoid being
shot by fellow soldiers. Just outside the
skirmish line on Reno Hill a Sioux bullet
dropped the horse Young Hawk loved,
but the scouts made it into camp. Major
Reno told them in sign language that
Bob-tailed Bull was dead. Young Hawk,
Goose and the 11 other Arikaras who did
reach Reno Hill took position alongside
their fellow soldiers, firing at their attack-
ers from behind stacked supply boxes.
According to Young Hawk, an officer
detailed him, four other Arikaras and a
white sergeant to ride out at dusk with a
message “to the President of the United
States, in order that all might know what
happened.” But enemy fire kept them
pinned down all night.
The next morning, June 26, the firing
resumed on all sides and persisted into
the afternoon. Amid the din of battle
around midday Young Hawk heard a
Sioux singing a war song: “Come on,
white man, come on if you are brave,
we are ready for you.” All at once the
firing stopped, and soon, just visible in
the distance, the Sioux and Cheyennes
gathered in the village to dismantle
all of their tepees but five—the burial
tepees, as the soldiers later learned. The
JOAN PENNINGTON
men atop Reno Hill then watched as the
enemy warriors and their families set
off toward the Bighorn Mountains.
Late that afternoon the Arikaras saw
what they first thought was a party of
enemy hunters returning to the village.
In fact the approaching party was Brig.
Gen. Alfred Terry’s force, which had
arrived to relieve the trapped white and
Indian soldiers on Reno Hill. The Battle
of the Little Bighorn was over.
T
he Arikaras spent the next day
gathering troopers’ bodies for
burial and foraging for food.
Records show that of the 40-
man company of Arikara soldiers, nine
had remained at the Powder River camp
or at Fort Lincoln. Of the 31 Arikaras
in Custer’s command, 22 had followed
Reno across the river to attack the mas-
sive Sioux and Cheyenne village. Only
two were killed. Thirteen made it back
across the river to join the defenders atop
Reno Hill, while the others apparently
just kept riding when things turned dire.
Brought to battle as mercenaries to
fight a common enemy, and motivated
by the need to feed their families, some
Arikaras fought very well—to the death
in the case of Bob-tailed Bull and Little
Brave, and with suicidal courage in the
case of Young Hawk. An equal or larger
number lit out the minute the battle
turned sour. That the other half proved
plausible soldiers was overlooked when
the booty was distributed and glory
and honors bestowed. By June 28 the
Arikara company had reassembled at
Fort Lincoln. The Army quietly paid off
the survivors and mustered them out
of the service.
The Crows got to retain the site of the
battlefield within the boundaries of their
ample reservation. The Arikaras, though
they boasted far more defenders on the
firing line atop Reno Hill, resumed life
among the Three Affiliated Tribes along
the Missouri River, largely ignored by
history until the 1940s. The 1947–53
construction of the Garrison Dam—
despite vocal opposition by tribal resi-
dents of the Fort Berthold Reservation
—forced the relocation of 1,700 tribal
members and inundated virtually all
of their farmland and several burial
grounds. Though the Three Affiliated
Tribes remain along the Missouri in
North Dakota, many harbor bitter mem-
ories of this most recent battle. In the
end the Garrison Dam project did the
Arikaras far more harm than anything
they suffered fighting their traditional
enemies for Uncle Sam in 1876.

John Koster is the author of Custer Sur-

vivor. Colonel W.A. Graham collected
key Arikara narratives in The Custer
Myth (1953). Also see the 1920 work The
Arikara Narrative of Custer’s Campaign
and the Battle of the Little Bighorn,
edited by Orin G. Libby. Young Hawk was ready to die after the Sioux wounded his cousin Goose (above).

JUNE 2015 WILD WEST 33


Sitting Bull’s
Dancing Horse
A MEETING MISSED BETWEEN THE LAKOTA
HOLY MAN AND WORLD-RENOWNED
SHOWMAN “BUFFALO BILL” CODY.
A strange and heartbreaking moment
transpired outside Sitting Bull’s
cabin in 1890, while he was
being assassinated during an
attempted arrest at Standing
Rock Reservation.
At the sound of gunfire, a horse tethered
to a railing started to “dance,” trained to do
so while he was in the Wild West, “Buffalo
Bill” Cody’s famous spectacle of which
Sitting Bull was a part for four months
during 1885. Cody had presented the horse
to the Lakota holy man when he left the
show to go home.
The image haunted me for a long time,
and I called Chief Arvol Looking-Horse,
19th-generation keeper of the sacred white
buffalo pipe for the Lakotas, to seek his
views on the matter. “It was the horse
taking the bullets,” he said. “That’s what
they did.”
On November 24, 1890, Cody had
received a telegram from Gen. Nelson
Miles asking him to proceed to Standing
Rock, where a tense situation was
unfolding. Miles authorized Cody “to
secure the person of Sitting Bull, and
deliver him to the nearest Commanding
Officer of US Troops.”
The general hoped Cody could convince
his friend to surrender—for the last time.
The holy man had made enemies as the
last roadblock in establishing the Great
Sioux Reservation. Even though Sitting
Bull never signed, the Dawes Act became
federal law.
On Thanksgiving, Cody arrived in
Mandan, North Dakota, with Lt. G.W.
Chadwick and two cast members, Dr.
TRUE
46 WEST
BY DEANNE STILLMAN
Frank “White Beaver” Powell
and former Pony Express rider
“Pony Bob” Haslam. They
planned to go to Standing Rock
the following day.
Then Cody received a
telegram. His ornate, three-
story house in North Platte,
Nebraska, was on fire. Friends
and neighbors were trying to
save it with a bucket brigade.
“Save Rosa Bonheur’s
painting,” he wrote back. “The
rest can go to blazes.”
The house was destroyed,
but not that famous portrait
of Cody that Bonheur had
painted when the Wild West
was in Paris, France. Even
as his wife and daughter
were trying to save his home,
Cody’s friendship with Sitting
Bull came first.
Yet when Cody reached
Fort Yates on the reservation,
he was drunk. Powell and
Haslam later learned that
Agent James McLaughlin’s officers had
plied the showman with liquor to prevent As he camped along Four Mile Creek,
him from heading to Sitting Bull’s cabin. Cody received the news that President
The fact that his beloved home on the Benjamin Harrison had rescinded the
Platte was aflame may have contributed to order for Cody to bring in Sitting Bull.
his urge to knock himself out. Cody left town.
The next morning, sobered up, Cody On December 15, at Bull Head’s home,
left to see Sitting Bull. Joseph Primeau, 28 Indian policemen gathered. “The
McLaughlin’s interpreter, told Cody’s moment was somber; some had fought
party that Sitting Bull was not home, but with Sitting Bull at Rosebud and the
headed to Fort Yates, on another trail. Little Big Horn. Others had starved with
Cody changed course. him in Canada,” Sitting Bull biographer
With Agent James McLaughlin standing in
the foreground, Sitting Bull addressed a
Sioux council concerning their reservation
lands at Standing Rock Agency (above),
published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Newspaper on January 7, 1888.
Two years later, McLaughlin would order
Sitting Bull’s arrest. He also intervened
when “Buffalo Bill” Cody traveled to the
reservation to convince his former Wild
West cast member to surrender himself.
The showman stands with the holy man in
an 1885 cast photo (opposite page).
– COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS –
Stanley Vestal reported. All were aware
that they stood on hallowed ground; Bull
Head’s home was nearly the exact site on
Grand River where Sitting Bull had been
born 59 winters before.
Sitting Bull was sleeping on his pallet with
the elder of his two wives and one of his
two small children when police arrived. As
he got dressed, he sang a farewell song to
his family. Then he walked out of his cabin.
A crowd erupted, shouting, “You shall
not take our chief.”
In the frenzy, Catch-the-Bear shouldered
a Winchester, aimed and fired. Bull Head’s
right side ripped open. As he fell, he
grabbed his revolver and shot Sitting Bull
in the chest. Red Tomahawk fired into the
back of the head, killing Sitting Bull.
During Sitting Bull’s assassination,
his horse arched his neck and pranced
in a circle. He bowed, then stood up
and pawed the ground, reared up and
leaped into the air. He cantered around
and around in a circle. He did all of this
while the battle raged around him, never
touched by a bullet. Or so goes the legend.
His famous costar dead and gone,
Cody bought the horse from Sitting Bull’s
widows. “Sitting Bull’s horse has been
shipped from Mandan to New York by
express,” reported the Aberdeen Daily
News on June 17, 1891.
In 1893, the horse appeared at the
Columbia Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
On the midway, Sitting Bull’s cabin was
on display, dismantled and shipped from
the Plains. Inside, two women said to
be Sitting Bull’s widows sold baskets
and moccasins. The exhibit netted the
exposition company a hefty sum of $2,575
(roughly $70,000 today). The frontier crime
scene had become a bonanza.
President Harrison would later tell
Cody he regretted rescinding the order.
He explained that philanthropists had
convinced him that a visit from Cody would
have caused Sitting Bull’s death. “So,” Cody
wrote, “it was to spare the life of this man
that I was stopped!”
All for a political donation. Sitting Bull
would not have been surprised.
Deanne Stillman is the author of this
edited excerpt of Blood Brothers:
The Story of the Strange Friendship
between Sitting Bull and Buffalo
Bill, published by Simon & Schuster,
in October 2017.
TRUE
47 WEST
WOUNDED KNEE 1890

MASSACRE
AT WOUNDED KNEE
he tragic events of 29 December 1890 are not a
scar on American history, but, as the name of the
small creek in South Dakota suggests, a gaping
wound. Julian Humphrys explores why
 aniel F Royer was a nervous
D
man. It was November 1890
and as the newly appointed
agent on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota,
he was the representative for
the US government’s dealings with the Lakota
Sioux living there. Royer had little experience
for the job and even less understanding of the
ways of the Sioux peoples. hey took to calling
him ‘Young Man Afraid of Indians’. Royer
had hoped to improve the lot of the Native
Americans by encouraging them to adopt the
ways of the White Man, going so far as to bring
his nephew in to teach them baseball. But an
increasing number of the Sioux favoured a very
different – and to Royer a very worrying – path
to salvation: the Ghost Dance.
hese were desperate times for the Lakota
Sioux. he relentless westward march of white
settlers had seen them driven from their
traditional hunting grounds onto reservations,
and the bison, vital to their way of life for the
hides and meat, had been hunted virtually to
extinction. he US government made them sign
treaties to limit their freedoms and then broke
them with impunity. In 1889, they engineered
the dismemberment of the Great Sioux
Reservation, which covered the western half of
South Dakota, in order to give approximately
half the land to whites. he Lakota were left
with just six smaller reservations. here was
little to hunt, the soil was poor for farming and
matters were made worse when the authorities
miscalculated the additional supplies needed to
survive the winter.
Men, women and children
of the Lakota Sioux litter
the ground of their own
GETTY
camp after the slaughter
MAY 2018 41
 The Lakota could not hunt
for themselves, so relied

“Many whites on meagre meat rations

feared the Ghost

Dance was a
precursor to a
major uprising”

500
The number of troops
Weakened by starvation and wracked Daniel Royer was Forsyth had at heading for the South
Wounded Knee;
by disease, many Sioux found solace one of them. On there were 350 Dakota reservations
in a new religion. Its origins lay in the 15 November, he sent Lakota under the overall command
teachings of Wovoka, a holy man from the Commissioner for of General Nelson Miles.
the Paiute people of Nevada. Having Indian Affairs the latest in A veteran of the American Civil
claimed to have had a vision during a series of increasingly panicky War (who would later be awarded the
an eclipse of the sun, he foretold the telegrams: “Indians are dancing Medal of Honor for his actions during it),
resurrection of the dead, the return in the snow and are wild and Miles was an experienced soldier. He
of the bison, the banishment of the crazy. I have fully informed you had campaigned against Sitting Bull and
White Man and the revival of the Native that employees and government Crazy Horse following their victory over
American way of life. roperty at this agency have Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
His followers were to help bring no protection and are in 1876 and subdued the Nez Perce tribe
this about by performing the Ghost at the mercy of these in the following year.
Dance, a silent shuffle to the slow dancers. Why delay by
beat of a single drum. Wovoka’s further investigation?... “HOSTILE ELEMENT”
message was a non-violent e leaders should be Despite his concerns that military
one, but as the Ghost Dance rrested and confined intervention would simply exacerbate
movement spread through the n some military an already tense situation, Miles ordered
reservations and attempts post until the the arrest of several Sioux leaders. He
by the authorities to ban matter is quieted, was under no illusions about the root
it were ignored, many General Nelson Miles and this should be cause of the problem, writing: “hey
whites feared that it was served in the army for done at once.” signed away a valuable portion of their
ALAMY X5

the precursor to a major 50 years, and, aged 77, Within days, 5,000 reservation, and it is now occupied
tried to sign up for WWI
Native American uprising. deral troops were by white people, for which they have

42
 Performing a Ghost
Dance was
meant to get rid of
the whites,
but it only angered
them WOUNDED KNEE 1890

THE INDIAN WARS

Native Americans gave their blood, sweat and tears to protect their lands
he encroachment of firstly
uropean and then American and
anadian settlers onto territory
ong inhabited by Native American
ibes would cause three centuries
f warfare in North America.
hanks to Hollywood, we tend to
ocus on the Plains Indian wars of
the later 19th century, but there was
considerable conflict elsewhere,
notably in the 18th century when
tribes would actually make the white
interlopers their ally against a rival.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830
allowed the US government to force
Native Americans living east of the
Mississippi to move to more sparsely
populated lands in the west. As white
settlers continued to migrate towards The forced r loc t ons
the Pacific – driven on by ‘Manifest Destiny’, the belief that of around 100,000
people, during which
Americans were destined by God to expand their dominion
15,000 died, was called
– the wars continued. Defeated peoples had to sell or exchange the ‘Trail of Tears’
territory and were confined to designated reservations. By 1900,
the Native American population had declined to under 250,000.

LAY OF THE LAND IN 1890

Clashes between natives and White Man had changed the landscape
US troops, like the 2nd
Infantry Regiment here,
were sent to reservations
in response to the Ghost
Blackfoot
Dance movement Sioux
Nez Bear Paw 1877
Mis iver

Columbia Perce
R

Crow
sou

River
Sioux
Little Bighorn
ROC

ri

received nothing. hey understood that White Bird 1876

Rosebud
Canyon 1877
ample provision would be made for their 1876
Modoc
GRE
KY

support; instead, their supplies have Sn Sioux Black

Rivake
been reduced, and much of the time er Hills Sioux
MO

Modoc War
AT

Cheyenne
they have been living on half and two- Wounded
M Riv

1872-73 Northern
iss e

Eastern
UN

Paiute Knee 1890

iss r

thirds rations. Fort Laramie

ip

Western Shoshoni
PL

pi

Shoshoni
TA

“he disaffection is widespread, Arapaho Platte

AI

River
especially among the Sioux, while the
IN

Ute
NS

Cheyennes have been on the verge of

S

starvation and were forced to commit do Beecher

ra
Southern lo er Island 1868
Co Riv
depredations to sustain life… unless Paiute Cheyenne
Medicine
Arapaho Lodge
the officers of the army can give some
Navajo
positive assurance that the government Hopi Jicarilla Cheyenne Cherokee
Apache Arapaho Greek Ar
intends to act in good faith with these Adobe Walls Seminole
ka
Riv nsa
er s
people, the loyal element will be Zuñi 1874
iver Washita River Chickasaw
Gila R
diminished and the hostile element 1868
Chiricahua Choctaw
increased,” Miles concluded. Apache Comanche
Mescalero
Before any acts of good faith, though, MAJOR BATTLES Apache Pass Apache
Re

1862
d

violence broke out on 15 December.

Ri
ve

TREATY SITE
Ri

r
oG

Local agent James McLaughlin, wrongly

ra
nd

believing that the legendary Hunkpapa

e

RESERVATION IN 1890
Lakota chief Sitting Bull was a leader of
the Ghost Dance movement, sent Indian
agency police to arrest him at his home

MAY 2018 43
 WOUNDED KNEE 1890

Spotted Elk
always looked
to use the
peace pipe,
not the gun

Sitting Bull got

on the Standing Rock Reservation. When
Sitting Bull refused to go quietly, a crowd
gathered and shots were exchanged
between the chief’s loyal and loving
supporters and the police. By
the time the gunfire subsided,
15 men lay dead – among them
Sitting Bull himself. “Women and
Lost without their talismanic
leader and fearful of reprisals,
his supporters fled and headed
children
for the neighbouring Cheyenne
River Reservation to join the
attempted
Miniconjou Lakota Sioux chief
Spotted Elk. Although a man
to run, but
of peace, who always showed
a willingness to compromise there was
with the US authorities and
discouraged violence against
settlers, Spotted Elk (known
no escape”
by the whites as Big Foot) too
feared arrests or attacks on his people.
On 23 December, he and 350 of his
followers – many of whom were women
and children – set off southwards across
the prairies and Badlands of South
Dakota. heir goal was the Pine Ridge
Reservation, where they hoped to secure
the protection of the influential Oglaga
Lakota leader Red Cloud. Along the way,
Spotted Elk fell ill with pneumonia and
was forced to travel in a wagon.
Five days later, they were intercepted
ALAMY X2, GETTY X3
his name from
his courage; he
was like a bison
who would sit
rather than run
from a hunter James Forsyth,
seen during the
Civil War, called
Wounded Knee
a “hot fight” in
his report
immediately surrendered.
Whitside had been warned by
one of his half-Sioux scouts
not to attempt to disarm them
immediately as
it would almost
certainly lead
to violence, so
he ordered his
troopers to escort
Spotted Elk’s band
to a camping site at near y
Wounded Knee Creek. At this the soldiers searched individual Lakota.
stage, there was no hint of the
tragedy to come.
It was at this point that things went
suddenly wrong.
Whitside lent the Lakota
the regimental ambulance to
he scene grew increasingly tense
when a medicine man named Yellow
carry Spotted Elk to Wounded
Knee, supplied them with
extra tents and issued rations
Bird began the Ghost Dance. It stirred
up some of the young Lakota men,
who were unwilling to hand over
before everyone made camp their weapons, which were not only
for the night. Later that evening, Colonel expensive, but their best chance of
James Forsyth arrived with the rest of feeding their families. One man, Black
the 7th Cavalry and took over command. Coyote, held onto his rifle – possibly
To ensure none of Spotted Elk’s followers because he was deaf and hadn’t heard
could slip away, his hundreds of troopers or understood the order to surrender
ringed the encampment and covered the it – and as soldiers tried to wrestle the
position with four rapid-fire Hotchkiss weapon from his grasp, a shot rang out
mountain guns. and carnage followed.
Forsyth’s men immediately began
PANICKED BLOODLETTING shooting into the surrounded Lakota.
Following an uneasy night, Forsyth Caught in close-range crossfire, many
ordered Spotted Elk’s men to assemble of Spotted Elk’s men died there and

near a prominent landmark called
Porcupine Butte by a detachment of
the US 7th Cavalry under Major Samuel
Whitside. Hoisting a white flag of truce,
the Lakota offered no resistance and
and demanded the surrender of all
firearms. As he was unable to stand, the
ailing Spotted Elk had to be propped up
on the ground outside his tent. A search
of the camp yielded 38 rifles, and then
then, while a number of soldiers fell
after being hit by bullets fired by their
comrades. he surviving Lakota grabbed
what weapons they could find and
fought back, but, outnumbered and

44 HISTORYREVEALED.COM
 The 42mm Hotchkiss gun was
portable for the time, being able
to be moved by two mules
THE MEDAL
OF DISHONOR
he massacre of hundreds was rewarded
No fewer than 20 Medals of Honor, the highest
military decoration in the United States, were
subsequently awarded to troopers of the 7th
Cavalry present at Wounded Knee. A further 12 were
given to soldiers involved in other aspects of the
campaign. Although the Medal of Honor was a far
more common award in the 19th century than it is
today, it has been argued that the issue of so many
for Wounded Knee is evidence of the government’s
determination at the time to present the massacre
in as favourable a light as possible. Following a
review of the award in 1916, over 900 Medals of
Honor were rescinded for various reasons, and there
have been repeated calls for the Wounded Knee
medals to follow this example.

reports that a catholic mission on the

reservation had been burned down,

71
The number of days
they found themselves pinned down
in a valley by hostile Lakota and Brulé
Sioux and had to be rescued by the black
that Native American ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ of the 9th Cavalry.
protestors occupied
Wounded Knee
From then on, the soldiers remained at
outgunned, they stood in 1973 or wounded should come the Pine Ridge Agency until 3 January,
ittle chance in the confused forth and they would be concerned that further revenge attacks
melee. To add to the panic and safe. Little boys who were not may be mounted against them. hat
horror, Forsyth’s out-of-control men wounded came out of their places of day, a civilian burial party rode under
turned to the Hotchkiss guns, filling the refuge, and as soon as they came in sight military escort to Wounded Knee and
air with earth-shaking booms, smoke a number of soldiers surrounded them buried nearly 150 now-frozen bodies
and exploding shells that ripped through and butchered them there.” in a single mass grave. More dead
both Lakota and soldiers. In less than an hour, it was all over. were found and buried later.
he women and children, who had Spotted Elk lay dead, together with
been separated from their menfolk, hundreds of his followers. As many as
attempted to run for their wagons and 300 may have been slaughtered, dozens
horses or fled on foot, but, for most, of them women and children. he
there was no escape. Some were slain soldiers lost 25 dead and 39 wounded,
by rifle fire or the Hotchkiss guns, mostly as a result of their own fire.
while others were hunted down as Forsyth’s men gathered up their dead
anyone and everyone fell victim to the and wounded, and took around 50
indiscriminate bloodletting. surviving Lakota to the Agency on the
Pine Ridge Reservation. A severe blizzard
ON THE FROZEN GROUND was approaching, so no attempt was
Later, a Lakota chief named American made to bury the bodies of the dead
Horse reported: “A mother was shot Lakota. hey were left where they fell
down with her infant; the child not on the frozen ground.
knowing that its mother was dead was In fact, there was still more violence
still nursing, and that especially was a to come the very next day. When
very sad sight. he women as they were Forsyth’s 7th Cavalry rode to investigate
fleeing with their babes were killed
together, shot right through, and the
women who were very heavy with child
were also killed.
“All the Indians fled in these three
directions and after most all of
them had been killed, a cry
was made that all those
who were not killed

This haunting image shows

the body of Spotted Elk, the
moment of his death frozen by
being out in the snow for days
 WOUNDED KNEE 1890
“The massacre left
a still-open wound in
the American psyche”
General Nelson Miles, the man in
overall command, was appalled when
he heard about what had happened.
Writing to his wife, he described
Wounded Knee as “the most abominable
criminal military blunder and a horrible
massacre of women and children”.
He relieved Forsyth and demanded an
inquiry. His own report was so damning
that even his own secretary suggested he
tone it down, but the authorities would
have none of it. hey replaced Miles’s
report with their own, blaming the
Lakota and recasting the soldiers in the
roles of heroes. Forsyth was exonerated
and reinstated (eventually retiring as
a major-general in 1897. Miles spent
the rest of his life campaigning for
compensation payments to the survivors.
DEATH OF A DREAM
Some took a grim view of the massacre,
which was initially dubbed a battle. As
the burial party got to work, the editor
of South Dakota’s he Aberdeen Pioneer,
wrote: “he Pioneer has before declared
that our only safety depends upon the
total extermination of the Indians.
Having wronged them for centuries
we had better, in order to protect our
ALAMY X2, GETTY X1
civilization, follow it up by one more
wrong and wipe these untamed and
untameable creatures from the face of
the earth. In this lies future safety for our
settlers and the soldiers who are under
46 HISTORYREVEALED.COM
incompetent commands. Otherwise, we
may expect future years to be as full of
trouble with the redskins as those have
been in the past.” he writer was L Frank
Baum, who, 10 years later, penned one
of history’s best-loved children’s stories,
he Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
he site of the massacre (few now call
it a battle) is aptly named, as Wounded
Knee has left a still-open wound in the
American psyche. Its legacy is fear and
hatred, and it marked the effective end of
the Native American attempt to preserve
their way of life.
Speaking some 40 years later, a
survivor called Black Elk recalled:
“I did not know then how much was
ended. When I look back now from
this high hill of my old age, I can still
see the butchered women and children
lying heaped and scattered all along the
crooked gulch as plain as when I saw
them with eyes still young. And I can
see that something else died there in
the bloody mud, and was buried in the
blizzard. A people’s dream died there.” d
GET HOOKED
READ
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown is
still essential reading on the subject. First published
in 1970, the seminal and powerful work tells the
story of how Native Americans lost their land, lives
and liberty to white settlers pushing westward.
After the frozen
bodies of nearly
150 Lakota were
buried in a mass
grave, chiefs met
to negotiate a
peace with
General Miles
MAKING A STAND ON
WOUNDED KNEE
In 1973, gunfire rang out once again
Wounded Knee was once again propelled to the
forefront of national consciousness in February
1973, when the hamlet there was occupied by
200 Oglaga Lakota and the radical American Indian
Movement (AIM). The protestors, who chose
Wounded Knee for its symbolic value, demanded
the removal of Oglaga tribal leader Dick Wilson,
who they accused of corruption, and an inquiry into
the US government's failures to honour treaties
made with Native American tribes.
Wilson responded by laying siege to Wounded
Knee, with the backing of the government. During
the ten-week stand-of, law enforcement oicers
and AIM members regularly exchanged gunfire. Two
Native Americans were killed and a federal marshal
was permanently paralysed before the AIM leaders
finally surrendered on 8 May. Although failing to
bring about the demanded changes, the occupation
made headlines worldwide and drew attention to
the problems of modern Native Americans, which
inspired other groups and causes.
The armed occupiers took
11 hostages, some choosing
to stay after being released