us, put their circle just northeast of the present Garryowen station.
The other four circles were placed here and there between us and the
Uncpapas.
Our trail during all of our movements throughout that summer could
have been followed by a blind person. It was from a quarter to half
a mile wide at all places where the form of the land allowed that
width. Indians regularly made a broad trail when traveling in bands
using travois. People behind often kept in the tracks of people in
front, but when the party of travelers was a large one there were
many of such tracks side by side.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Prairie Dog creek? Finerty writes that the soldiers were camped
there June 8th.--T. B. M.
[20] Wooden Leg, Big Beaver and Limpy, each on a separate occasion,
went with me and pointed out the exact locations of the 1876 Indian
campings on the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn.--T. B. M.
[21] General Crook’s soldiers, June 17th, 1876. Historians have
copied each other in repetitions that the hostiles here were “Crazy
Horse and his Ogallalas,” and that they were from the “Crazy Horse
village” supposed to have been only a short distance down the
Rosebud.--T. B. M.
[22] The Crow aspect of this same story was told to me by Along the
Hillside, an old Crow man who was a scout with Crook. He was one of
the pursuers who jerked the warbonnet from the amateur Sioux.--T. B.
M.
[23] Finerty writes that Crook had 1,000 pack mules, and that the
Crows and Shoshones joined him on June 14th, at the Goose Creek
camp.--T. B. M.
[24] At the Northern Cheyenne fair at Lame Deer in 1927 I estimated
the encampment at about 1,100. Wooden Leg and some other old men
were asked to compare this camp with the one on the Little Bighorn.
After a consultation, it was generally agreed that there must have
been 1,600 or more Cheyennes in their camp when the Custer soldiers
came.--T. B. M.
VIII
_On the Little Bighorn._
Every one of the six separate camp circles had its open and
unoccupied side toward the east. Every lodge in each of these camps
was set up so that the entrance opening was at its east side. This
was the arrangement at all of our campings in this entire summer of
combined movement. This was the regular Indian way of putting up a
lodge or arranging a camp.
Some old Cheyennes talk of seven camp circles, and a few of them
mention eight. But there were only six important ones. The extra one
or two were not of tribal bands governing themselves as such. These
additional Indians in considerable number were the Burned Thighs,
Assiniboines and Waist and Skirt people. These kept themselves
mainly in their own separated groups, but the groups would be placed
close to some main camp circle and considered as belonging to it.
At this particular camping place the Waist and Skirt Sioux were
right beside the great Uncpapa circle, the Burned Thighs were partly
with the Blackfeet Sioux and partly with the Ogallalas. Beginning
with the Cheyennes at the north side and following up the river,
four camp circles succeeded each other: Cheyennes, Arrows All Gone,
Minneconjoux, Uncpapas. Away from the river and southwest of the
Cheyennes and Arrows All Gone was the Ogallala camp. Between the
Ogallalas and the Uncpapas, but nearer to the Uncpapas, was the
Blackfeet Sioux camp, this also back a short distance from the river.
A small and irregular camp of Burned Thigh Sioux was located by the
river between the Cheyennes and the Arrows All Gone, or just east of
the Ogallalas. All of the camps were east of the present railroad and
highway.
One big lodge of Southern Cheyennes was in our circle. In it were
eight men, six women and some children. Lame White Man, the Southern
Cheyenne chief, had his own family lodge. He and his family had been
with our northern branch of the tribe so long that they were looked
upon as belonging to us. The six Arapaho men were attached to the
lodge of Two Moons, one of the little chiefs of the Fox warrior
society. One of his two wives was an Arapaho woman. There was not any
white person nor any mixed-breed person with us. I never heard of
there being any such person there with any of the Sioux tribes.
Our tribal medicine tepee, containing our sacred Buffalo Head and
other revered objects, was in its place at the western part of the
open space enclosed by our camp circle. The medicine arrows, which
belong to the Southern Cheyennes, were not here. Ours was the only
tribal medicine lodge in the whole camp. The Sioux tribes did not
maintain this kind of institution. They had tribal medicine pipes,
but no special lodges for them.
Our family dwelling had in it seven people. These were my father and
mother, my older brother Yellow Hair, my older sister Crooked Nose,
myself Wooden Leg, a younger sister and a small boy brother. All of
us together owned nine horses. I personally owned two of these. Other
tepees had more people in them, some not as many. A few unmarried
young men had little willow dome and robe shelters. Old couples
likewise had this sort of temporary housing. These would be abandoned
and built anew at each time of moving camp.
Three hundred lodges seems to me now as being about the size of our
Cheyenne camp. The Blackfeet Sioux had about the same number, or a
few less. The Arrows All Gone had more. The Minneconjoux and the
Ogallalas each had more than the Arrows All Gone. The Uncpapas had, I
believe, twice as many as had the Cheyennes.[25]
The principal chiefs of the various camp circles were:
Uncpapas: Sitting Bull. He also was recognized as the one old man
chief of the combined tribes. The Uncpapa medicine man chief was
named Buffalo Calf Pipe.
Ogallalas: Crazy Horse, old man chief.
Minneconjoux: Lame Deer, old man chief.
Arrows All Gone: Hump Nose, or Hump, important chief of some kind.
Blackfeet: I do not know name of any chief there. Also, I do not know
what chiefs may have been with the small irregular bands of other
Indians.
Cheyennes: Old Bear and Dirty Moccasins, old men chiefs. Next to
them, Crazy Head was considered the most important tribal big chief.
Lame White Man was regarded as the most capable warrior chief among
us, although Last Bull and Old Man Coyote also were held in special
high esteem.
Our Cheyenne warrior society chiefs were these:[26]
Elk warriors: Leading chief--Lame White Man. Nine little chiefs--Left
Handed Shooter, Pig, Goes After Other Buffalo, Plenty Bears, Wolf
Medicine, Broken Jaw, A Crow Cut His Nose, White Hawk and Tall White
Man.
Crazy Dog warriors: Leading chief--Old Man Coyote. Nine little
chiefs--Black Knife, Beaver Claws, Iron Shirt, Little Creek, Snow
Bird, Crazy Mule, Strong Left Arm, Red Owl and Crow Necklace.
Fox warriors: Leading chief--Last Bull. Nine little chiefs--Wrapped
Braids, Plenty of Buffalo Bull Meat, Little Horse, Sits Beside His
Medicine, Two Moons, Bears Walks on a Ridge, Mosquito, Rattlesnake
Nose and Weasel Bear.
The Fox warriors were on duty as camp policemen at this time. It was
their business, while remaining on duty, to watch for the approach of
enemies as well as to enforce the tribal laws. A few of the little
chiefs of the warrior societies, and various members of the different
ones, were not in the camp.
Our three leading warrior chiefs were allowed to talk in the tribal
councils, where the tribal big chiefs and old men adviser chiefs
assembled for the consideration of tribal affairs. The little warrior
chiefs were expected to attend these councils, but they were not
permitted to talk there. They were required to keep still and listen.
The place for them to talk was in the warrior society meetings, where
they were the instructors while the young warriors had to remain
quiet and listening. The Sioux and other tribes had this same kind of
system.
Guns were not plentiful among us. Most of our hunting had been with
bows and arrows. Of the Cheyennes, Two Moons and White Wolf each
had a repeating rifle. Some others had single-shot breech-loading
rifles. But there was not much ammunition for the good guns. The
muzzle-loaders usually were preferred, because for these we could
mold the bullets and put in whatever powder was desired, or according
to the quantity on hand. I believe the Sioux had, in proportion to
their numbers, about the same supply of firearm material that we had.
The Waist and Skirt people had few or no guns, were in every way very
poor. My muzzle-loading rifle had been lost with my other personal
effects when we had been driven out and had our lodges burned on
Powder river.
Six or eight guns, I suppose, had been taken from soldiers at the
Rosebud fight. I recall seeing only two, a rifle and a revolver,
among the Cheyennes. Both of them used cartridges. The ammunition
belt I saw taken there had a special piece of belting swung in a
curve from the main girdle. Around the main circle were loops for
forty rifle cartridges. The revolver cartridges were carried in
twelve or fifteen loops on the suspended curve. On the surface of a
revolver scabbard I saw were six other loops for its cartridges.
I never heard of the Indians getting from the Rosebud soldiers any
ammunition except what was in the belts captured.
My cap-and-ball six shooter was my warring weapon. I had plenty
of caps, powder and lead for it. I had a bullet mold to make its
bullets from the lead. I kept the bullets and the caps in two small
tin boxes. The powder I carried in a horn swung by a thong from my
shoulder. For the gun I had a good scabbard. This was fastened to my
leather belt.
The Cheyenne horses were put out to graze on the valley below our
camp. Horses belonging to other tribes were placed at other feeding
areas on the valley and on the bench hills just west of the combined
Indian camps. The tribal herds were kept separate from each other.
Boys from each tribe guarded their horse bands. An occasional riding
horse was picketed near to or within each camp circle. It could get
better feed with the herd, and probably it felt better satisfied
there, but always there was somebody here or there, particularly
among the policemen, who picketed a horse for ready use.
I had no thought then of any fighting to be done in the near future.
We had driven away the soldiers, on the upper Rosebud, seven days
ago. It seemed likely it would be a long time before they would
trouble us again. My mind was occupied mostly by such thoughts as
regularly are uppermost in the minds of young men. I was eighteen
years old, and I liked girls.
That night we had a dance. It was entirely a social affair for young
people, not a ceremonial or war dance. In the midst of the open area
within our camp circle the women and girls cleared off and leveled
a broad surface of ground. The young men brought a tall pole and
set it up at the center of the dancing ground. Charcoal Bear, the
medicine chief, brought the buffalo skin that regularly hung from
the top of the sacred tepee. He tied it to the top end of our long
pole before we raised it. We built a big bonfire. The drums and the
Cheyenne dance songs enlivened the assemblage. It seemed that peace
and happiness was prevailing all over the world, that nowhere was any
man planning to lift his hand against his fellow man.
The same kind of amusement was going on in the Sioux camps. An
occasional group from them came to our party. An occasional group of
Cheyennes went visiting among them. I was enjoying myself in our own
gathering. Finally, though, a young man friend of mine proposed:
“Let’s go and dance a while with the Sioux girls.”
Four of us went to the neighboring camp, that of the Arrows All Gone
Sioux. Pretty soon the girls were asking us to dance.[27] The Sioux
women gave us plenty of food. We were treated well, so we did not
go elsewhere nor back to our own people. We stayed there and danced
throughout the remainder of that night.
At the first sign of dawn the dance ended. I walked wearily across
to the Cheyenne camp. I did not go into our family lodge. Instead, I
dropped down upon the ground behind it. I do not remember anything
that might have happened during the two or three hours that followed.
When I awoke I went into the family lodge. My mother prepared me a
breakfast. Then she said: “You must go for a bath in the river.”
My brother Yellow Hair and I went together. Other Indians, of all
ages and both sexes, were splashing in the waters of the river. The
sun was high, the weather was hot. The cool water felt good to my
skin. When my brother and I had dabbled there a few minutes we came
out and sought the shelter of some shade trees. We sat there a little
while, talking of the good times each of us had enjoyed during the
previous night. We sprawled out to lie down and talk. Before we knew
it, both of us were sound asleep.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] Estimating the Cheyennes at 1,600, it appears the entire camp
numbered about 12,000.--T. B. M.
[26] List made up in various conferences wherein Wooden Leg was
assisted by Sun Bear, White Wolf, Big Crow, Two Feathers and Big
Beaver, all warriors at the battle.--T. B. M.
[27] The customary Indian way is for the women to choose partners at
the social dances.--T. B. M.
IX
_The Coming of Custer._
In my sleep I dreamed that a great crowd of people were making lots
of noise. Something in the noise startled me. I found myself wide
awake, sitting up and listening. My brother too awakened, and we both
jumped to our feet. A great commotion was going on among the camps.
We heard shooting. We hurried out from the trees so we might see as
well as hear. The shooting was somewhere at the upper part of the
camp circles. It looked as if all of the Indians there were running
away toward the hills to the westward or down toward our end of the
village. Women were screaming and men were letting out war cries.
Through it all we could hear old men calling:
“Soldiers are here! Young men, go out and fight them.”
We ran to our camp and to our home lodge. Everybody there was
excited. Women were hurriedly making up little packs for flight.
Some were going off northward or across the river without any packs.
Children were hunting for their mothers. Mothers were anxiously
trying to find their children. I got my lariat and my six shooter. I
hastened on down toward where had been our horse herd. I came across
three of our herder boys. One of them was catching grasshoppers. The
other two were cooking fish in the blaze of a little fire. I told
them what was going on and asked them where were the horses. They
jumped on their picketed ponies and dashed for the camp, without
answering me. Just then I heard Bald Eagle calling out to hurry with
the horses. Two other boys were driving them toward the camp circle.
I was utterly winded from the running. I never was much for running.
I could walk all day, but I could not run fast nor far. I walked on
back to the home lodge.
My father had caught my favorite horse from the herd brought in by
the boys and Bald Eagle. I quickly emptied out my war bag and set
myself at getting ready to go into battle. I jerked off my ordinary
clothing. I jerked on a pair of new breeches that had been given
to me by an Uncpapa Sioux. I had a good cloth shirt, and I put it
on. My old moccasins were kicked off and a pair of beaded moccasins
substituted for them. My father strapped a blanket upon my horse and
arranged the rawhide lariat into a bridle. He stood holding my mount.
“Hurry,” he urged me.
I was hurrying, but I was not yet ready. I got my paints and my
little mirror. The blue-black circle soon appeared around my face.
The red and yellow colorings were applied on all of the skin inside
the circle. I combed my hair. It properly should have been oiled and
braided neatly, but my father again was saying, “Hurry,” so I just
looped a buckskin thong about it and tied it close up against the
back of my head, to float loose from there. My bullets, caps and
powder horn put me into full readiness. In a moment afterward I was
on my horse and was going as fast as it could run toward where all of
the rest of the young men were going. My brother already had gone.
He got his horse before I got mine, and his dressing was only a long
buckskin shirt fringed with Crow Indian hair. The hair had been taken
from a Crow at a past battle with them.
The air was so full of dust I could not see where to go. But it
was not needful that I see that far. I kept my horse headed in the
direction of movement by the crowd of Indians on horseback. I was
led out around and far beyond the Uncpapa camp circle. Many hundreds
of Indians on horseback were dashing to and fro in front of a body
of soldiers. The soldiers were on the level valley ground and were
shooting with rifles. Not many bullets were being sent back at them,
but thousands of arrows were falling among them. I went on with a
throng of Sioux until we got beyond and behind the white men. By
this time, though, they had mounted their horses and were hiding
themselves in the timber. A band of Indians were with the soldiers.
It appeared they were Crows or Shoshones. Most of these Indians had
fled back up the valley. Some were across east of the river and were
riding away over the hills beyond.
Our Indians crowded down toward the timber where were the soldiers.
More and more of our people kept coming. Almost all of them were
Sioux. There were only a few Cheyennes. Arrows were showered into the
timber. Bullets whistled out toward the Sioux and Cheyennes. But we
stayed far back while we extended our curved line farther and farther
around the big grove of trees. Some dead soldiers had been left among
the grass and sagebrush where first they had fought us. It seemed to
me the remainder of them would not live many hours longer. Sioux were
creeping forward to set fire to the timber.
Suddenly the hidden soldiers came tearing out on horseback, from
the woods. I was around on that side where they came out. I whirled
my horse and lashed it into a dash to escape from them. All others
of my companions did the same. But soon we discovered they were not
following us. They were running away from us. They were going as
fast their tired horses could carry them across an open valley
space and toward the river. We stopped, looked a moment, and then we
whipped our ponies into swift pursuit. A great throng of Sioux also
were coming after them. My distant position put me among the leaders
in the chase. The soldier horses moved slowly, as if they were very
tired. Ours were lively. We gained rapidly on them.
[Illustration: WOODEN LEG MAKING CUSTER BATTLE DRAWINGS FOR THE
AUTHOR]
I fired four shots with my six shooter. I do not know whether or not
any of my bullets did harm. I saw a Sioux put an arrow into the back
of a soldier’s head. Another arrow went into his shoulder. He tumbled
from his horse to the ground. Others fell dead either from arrows or
from stabbings or jabbings or from blows by the stone war clubs of
the Sioux. Horses limped or staggered or sprawled out dead or dying.
Our war cries and war songs were mingled with many jeering calls,
such as:
“You are only boys. You ought not to be fighting. We whipped you on
the Rosebud. You should have brought more Crows or Shoshones with you
to do your fighting.”
Little Bird and I were after one certain soldier. Little Bird was
wearing a trailing warbonnet. He was at the right and I was at the
left of the fleeing man. We were lashing him and his horse with our
pony whips. It seemed not brave to shoot him. Besides, I did not
want to waste my bullets. He pointed back his revolver, though, and
sent a bullet into Little Bird’s thigh. Immediately I whacked the
white man fighter on his head with the heavy elkhorn handle of my
pony whip. The blow dazed him. I seized the rifle strapped on his
back. I wrenched it and dragged the looping strap over his head. As
I was getting possession of this weapon he fell to the ground. I did
not harm him further. I do not know what became of him. The jam of
oncoming Indians swept me on. But I had now a good soldier rifle.
Yet, I had not any cartridges for it.
Three soldiers on horses got separated from the others and started
away up the valley, in the direction from where they had come. Three
Cheyennes, Sun Bear, Eagle Tail Feather and Little Sun,[28] joined
some Sioux in pursuit of the three white men. The Cheyennes told
afterward about the outcome of this pursuit. One of the soldiers
turned his horse eastward toward the river and escaped in the timber.
The other two kept on southward. Of these two, one went off to the
right, up a small gulch to the top of the bench. There he was caught
and killed. The remaining one rode on toward the mouth of Reno creek.
As he neared that point he swerved to the right. He made a circle
out upon the valley and returned to the timber just across west from
the mouth of Reno creek. Here he dismounted from his exhausted horse
and got himself into the brush. The Sioux and Cheyennes surrounded
him and killed him. They told that he fought bravely to the last,
making use of his six shooter.
A warbonnet Indian belonging with the soldiers was chased by Crooked
Nose, a Cheyenne, and some Sioux. The chase was afoot, across a wet
slough and into some timber northward from where the soldiers had
been hidden for a few minutes. After many exchanges of shots, after
much dodging and shifting of position, the enemy Indian was killed
there.[29] I was told afterward about this killing. I did not see it.
I was following the fleeing soldiers to and across the river.
Indians mobbed the soldiers floundering afoot and on horseback in
crossing the river. I do not know how many of our enemies might have
been killed there. With my captured rifle as a club I knocked two of
them from their horses into the flood waters. Most of the pursuing
warriors stopped at the river, but many kept on after the men with
the blue clothing. I remained in the pursuit and crossed the river.
Whirlwind, a Cheyenne, charged after a warbonnet Indian belonging
with the whites. The enemy Indian bravely charged also toward
Whirlwind. The two men fired rifles at the same moment. Both of them
fell dead. This was on the flat land just east of the river where the
soldiers crossed.
Another enemy Indian was behind a little sagebrush knoll and shooting
at us. His shots were returned. I and some others went around and got
behind him. We dismounted and crept toward him. As we came close up
to him he fell. A bullet had hit him. He raised himself up, though,
and swung his rifle around toward us. We rushed upon him. I crashed
a blow of my rifle barrel upon his head. Others beat and stabbed
him to death. I got also his gun. It was the same as the one I had
taken from the soldier, but the Indian’s gun had a longer barrel.
A Sioux said: “You have two guns. Let me have one of them.” I gave
him the one I had taken from the Indian just killed. I liked better
the shorter barreled one, so I kept it. The Sioux already had the
Indian’s ammunition belt. He did not give me any of the cartridges.
There were only a few of them. One of the Sioux scalped the dead man.
Different ones took his clothing. I took nothing except the gun I had
given away.
I returned to the west side of the river. Lots of Indians were
hunting around there for dead soldiers or for wounded ones to kill.
I joined in this search. I got some tobacco from the pockets of one
dead man. I got also a belt having in it a few cartridges. All of
the weapons and clothing and all other possessions were being taken
from the bodies. The warriors were doing this. No old people nor
women were there. They all had run away to the hill benches to the
westward. I went to a dead horse, to see what might be found there.
Leather bags were on them, behind the saddles. I rummaged into one of
these bags. I found there two pasteboard boxes. I broke open one of
them.
“Oh, cartridges!”
There were twenty of them in each box, forty in all. Thirty of them
were used to fill up the vacant places in my belt. The remaining ten
I wrapped into a piece of cloth and dropped them down into my own
little kit bag. Now I need not be so careful in expending ammunition.
Now I felt very brave. I jumped upon my horse and went again to fight
whatever soldiers I might find on the east side of the river.