out. I suppose he was helping the women and children and old people,
where he belonged. He had a son in the fight. Any man having a son
serving as a warrior was expected to stay out of battles and give the
son his chance to get warrior honors. Lame White Man, the Southern
Cheyenne tribal chief who was killed, went into the fight because of
his having no son there. I suppose it was the same with Chief Crazy
Horse, of the Ogallalas, and Chief Hump Nose, of the Arrows All Gone.
I do not know of any other tribal chiefs or old men having mixed into
the battle. My father stayed in the camps, but his staying there was
not on account of personal fear.
I am not ashamed to tell that I was a follower of Sitting Bull. I
have no ears for hearing anybody say he was not a brave man. He had a
big brain and a good one, a strong heart and a generous one. In the
old times I never heard of any Indian having spoken otherwise of him.
If any of them changed their talk in later days, the change must have
been brought about by lies of agents and soldier chiefs who schemed
to make themselves appear as good men by making him appear as a bad
man.
It is comfortable to live in peace on the reservation. It is pleasant
to be situated where I can sleep soundly every night, without fear
that my horses may be stolen or that myself or my friends may be
crept upon and killed. But I like to think about the old times, when
every man had to be brave. I wish I could live again through some
of the past days when it was the first thought of every prospering
Indian to send out the call:
“Hoh-oh-oh-oh, friends: Come. Come. Come. I have plenty of buffalo
meat. I have coffee. I have sugar. I have tobacco. Come, friends,
feast and smoke with me.”
FOOTNOTES:
[61] This mistake of the old Cheyennes arose from their having found
Miles in command of the soldiers at Fort Keogh when they surrendered
there in 1877. They supposed, and kept right on supposing, that he
had been the leader of the Yellowstone river soldiers who came up the
Bighorn and the Little Bighorn in June, 1876.--T. B. M.
[62] Many Custer rifle shells have been found scattered along this
high far-out ridge, by J. A. Blummer and other residents.--T. B. M.
THE END
Legend for opposite map: A.--Near the present-day Crow Agency,
Montana.
1. Uncpapa camp circle.
2. Blackfeet Sioux camp circle.
3. Minneconjoux camp circle.
4. Arrows All Gone camp circle.
5. Ogallala camp circle.
6. Cheyenne camp circle.
Arrows ➝ ➝ show Reno troops’ advance and
retreat.
7. Reno battle line, for a few minutes.
8. Present Garryowen railroad station.
9. Reno entrenchment hill, after retreat across the river.
10. Present Custer monument, in field enclosed by fence.
11. Broad coulee of Medicine Tail creek just across east from
Cheyenne camp circle.
The long links, ⬭ ⬭ show approach of Custer troops,
moving northwestward, along a high ridge.
Scattered crossmarks, x x x, show where irregular second camps
of Indians were placed.
Little Bighorn river flowing northwestward.
Indians forded river at Medicine Tail coulee and also went
along hills from Reno hill, 9, to intercept Custer soldiers.
[Illustration: CAMP SITES AND OTHER SALIENT POINTS IN VICINITY OF
CUSTER BATTLEFIELD, MONTANA.]
Legend for opposite map: A.--Present-day Miles City, Montana.
B.--Present-day Hardin, Montana. C.--Near the present-day
Sheridan, Wyoming.
1. Cheyenne camp whipped out and burned, on Powder river, just
above mouth of Little Powder river, March 17, 1876.
2. Where Cheyennes joined the Ogallala band.
3. Where Ogallalas and Cheyennes together joined Sitting Bull’s
Uncpapas. Minneconjoux Sioux also came here, making four separate
camp circles.
4. Arrows All Gone Sioux joined here, making five camp circles.
5. Powder river. Blackfeet Sioux made here the sixth camp circle.
Other small bands had come, but not enough for tribal camp
circles.
6. Camp at Tongue river.
7. Upper Wood creek, where they stayed five or six days, for a
great buffalo hunt.
8. The six camp circles on the Rosebud river, about May 19th.
9. Where the Uncpapas had their sun dance, in early June.
10. Reno creek camp, from which the Indians went out at night to
fight Crook’s soldiers, on the upper Rosebud.
11. Site of the Crook fight, on the upper Rosebud, June 17th.
12. Custer battle, June 25th.
All moved away together, in the same six tribal camp circles,
until they arrived back at 3, east of Powder river. Here the
great combined camp was broken up, and the tribes separated,
about July 15th.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF HOSTILE INDIANS’ COURSE OF TRAVEL IN
MONTANA, 1876.]
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
silently corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences
within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens
in words have been silently removed and some silently added when
a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except
for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text and
inconsistent usage have been retained.
Table of Contents: “Roving after the Victory” replaced by
“Rovings after the Victory”.
Page 146: “They sa. bubbles” replaced by “They saw bubbles”.
Page 180: “in the Ogallalla” replaced by “in the Ogallala”.
Page 334: “wheneven we had” replaced by “whenever we had”.
Page 371: “few years age” replaced by “few years ago”.
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
public domain.