“In the treaty the Government made with me at Fort Laramie, they were to
feed me fifty-five years, and they have not fulfilled it. You must be a
man of influence, as you sent for us from all parts of the country, and I
wish you would help us as much as you can. In the Fort Rice treaty the
Government promised to give us good horses and good wagons.”
“After the 1868 treaty that we had at Fort Rice we sold all the country
east of the Missouri River and soon sold the Black Hills to the
Government, and in that treaty the Government promised us that the Sioux
Indians would be taken care of as long as there was a child living of the
Sioux tribe; and that has not been fulfilled. It was not long after that
when we had a treaty with General Crook. In that treaty we were promised
a great many things the Government did not seem to care to do. Now our
funds are almost exhausted, and a lot of us are poor and not able to take
care of ourselves, and I wish that when you go back you would say what you
can. These are Government promises, and they have never fulfilled them.”
“The story I am going to tell you I am not afraid to have published
anywhere, or to have it come right back to my own agency, or let other
warriors see and hear it. In my lifetime I have made about seventy raids
against the different tribes. Out of these raids there must have been
forty-five or fifty battles. Let me tell you a story concerning one of
these battles in which I was engaged: I was a young man, I cannot remember
just what age. The Sioux camped at the mouth of the Rosebud River. We
got up a war party which numbered about two hundred. The two bands who
were in this party were the Two-Cattle and the Mnik-Ok-Ju tribes. It was
in the middle of the winter when the snow was deep. We started across the
country not very far from this camp, and followed the Yellowstone River
down, and then we turned off toward the north, and went toward the Upper
Rockies. We were then in the enemy’s country. There were four of us
chosen out of the two bands to go ahead and scout for the enemy; we did
not see any one, and returned. There was one man from our party out
shooting deer, and he was right behind us. We got home without seeing
anything, but he brought word there were enemies in sight. The enemies he
saw were two in number, and we got on our horses and went to where he saw
these two men. They were well armed and did all they could to defend
themselves, and our party did not come very close to them. I spurred up
my horse and made a straight charge at the two men. They were on foot,
and lined up and pointed their guns at me as I went at them. I struck one
of them with the spear that I had. I knocked him down; he fired at me,
but missed me. The other man also fired at me, but missed. I could not
strike him, as I dodged after I struck the first man. As I passed on by
them they fired at me again. This gave my warriors a chance to come up on
them before they could reload their guns, and they killed them. I was the
first one who struck one and very nearly hit the other. My warriors were
slow to come up, and I was the first one to charge them. After we killed
these two men we went home with their scalps. We were on our way home
across the Powder River and following the river up until we got to the
junction of the Powder and Rosebud rivers. When we got there one of our
party went on home ahead of us. He came rushing toward us with his horse
almost played out, with the report that the camp had been attacked by the
enemy while we were away, and they had stolen our horses, and were now
coming down the road on which we were travelling. We hid waiting for
them, but somehow they became aware of our presence, and went around, and
before we knew it they had escaped. Although they were a great ways off
our band made a charge on these horsemen. Most of our horses gave out
before we overtook the enemy, but thirteen of us rode on, overtaking them,
three in number we found, who had charge of the stolen horses. Our
thirteen horses that we were riding were nearly exhausted, but we found
that the enemy whom we were pursuing were also riding exhausted horses. I
rushed on ahead as fast as my horse could go. One of the enemy was riding
a horse that was so thoroughly given out that he stood still. The enemy
got off his horse, turned round, pulled his bow and arrow, and shot at me;
I was going to strike him, but I did not have time. The arrow was so near
my face that it made me dizzy. He fired at me and the arrow went right
through my hair, which was tied in a knot on top of my head. I jumped off
my horse and pulled my bow and arrow, and we were firing at each other as
we came closer. We jumped round like jack-rabbits trying to dodge the
arrows. One of the arrows struck me right across the ribs, but the wound
was not very deep. Just as we came together he fired his last arrow at
me; it passed through my arm, but it was only a skin wound. At that time
I struck him with my arrow through the wrist and that made him lame. As I
struck him he moved backward and I shot him twice through the breast, with
two arrows; then I threw away the arrows and struck him on the head with
my bow, knocking him senseless. After I knocked him down I took his bow
and threw it a long ways off so he could not get it. He was crawling on
his hands and knees and I took my war club and struck him until I killed
him. After I had killed this man, I gathered up my bow and arrows, and
went on after the other two. At this time they had got off their horses
and were defending themselves as best they could. I shot one of them
through the wrist with my arrow; he made a scream as I hit him and dodged
and went down the coulee, running as hard as he could go. He had a
revolver in one hand, and I followed him, shooting with my arrows, he
shooting back at me with his revolver. This kept up until he got to the
end of the coulee, where there was a deep precipice. I looked over the
precipice and saw this man, who had jumped over, rolling down the side
like a rock. When he got down there he was knocked senseless. I looked
at him from over the hill, but could not get down to him. I walked back
and forth; as I looked down I saw a Sioux Indian trying to crawl up and
get the scalp of the Indian who had fallen down the precipice. I had a
war club in my teeth, and grabbed my bow and arrows, and tried to climb
down the hill slope in order that I might get near him. As I went down I
slid, and as I was going down the Crow regained consciousness and I saw
him pointing his gun at me as I was looking down. I then thought that
would be my last day. As I got there the Sioux got there just in time to
grab the revolver away from him, and as he pulled the revolver away I fell
right under the enemy. He pulled a knife out of my belt, for I was under
him, pushed up against a rock, and I could not move either way. He made a
strike at me and cut my clothing right across the abdomen, but did not cut
my stomach. The second strike he made, I got hold of the knife, and
wrested it from him. When I had taken the knife, the other Sioux pulled
him off, and I got up and took my club and finished him. I killed these
two Crows a little ways from the mouth of the Little Big Horn that flows
through the camp where we are now. This is one of the daring events of my
life. These two events occurred in one war party.”
[The War Party]