Curly, a Reno Crow, was born on the Little Rosebud, Montana, and is
fifty-seven years of age. He has the bearing, grace and dignity of an
orator. His name will also go down in history as one of the leading
scouts who trailed for General Custer the Indian camp, and as the last of
his scouts on the fated field where Custer and his command were slain. At
times he is taciturn and solemn, and then bubbles over with mirthfulness.
At the council held on the Crow Reservation, in October, 1907, with
reference to the opening of unoccupied lands, Curly uttered this eloquent
speech:
“I was a friend of General Custer. I was one of his scouts, and will say
a few words. The Great Father in Washington sent you here about this
land. The soil you see is not ordinary soil—it is the dust of the blood,
the flesh, and bones of our ancestors. We fought and bled and died to
keep other Indians from taking it, and we fought and bled and died helping
the whites. You will have to dig down through the surface before you can
find nature’s earth, as the upper portion is Crow. The land, as it is, is
my blood and my dead; it is consecrated, and I do not want to give up any
portion of it.”
Accompanied by a group of Indians, Curly came to my tepee when we were
camped on the Little Big Horn. The whole company were greatly agitated
because an Indian possessed with the spirit of self-importance had gone to
Washington to make war against other Indians in the tribe who were
industrious and loyal home builders. They all made speeches around the
campfire, asking my interposition at Washington. In his argument Curly
said: “Which man would you believe, the man who is trying to raise wheat
for the people to get flour and bread from, oats to feed his horses, who
builds a house for the shelter and preservation of his family, builds a
stable in which to shelter his horses, tills the soil to get the product,
trying to raise vegetables so that his people may have something to eat in
summer and winter, or the man who would come along and run over this man
who was working and trying to do something for his family, and would not
work himself, but just run around and make a renegade of himself,
quarrelling with his mother and brothers—which man would you believe? A
man who quarrels with his mother is not fit for any duty.” Gems like
these would grace any brightest page of literature, but they are the
everyday eloquence of the Indian.
Curly said regarding his early life: “When I was a boy I did not do much.
I was not crazy, but I did not run into mischief. My father and mother
always advised me not to get into mischief. My first remembrance of the
white man was when I took the skins of buffalo calves into the trading
stores and traded with the white man. I thought that was a great thing to
do. I had been many times on the trail of the buffalo and had sought
opportunity to go on the warpath. When I was about eighteen years old the
Crow chiefs made the announcement that there were some United States
officers in camp who wanted some Crow scouts. I quickly volunteered. My
brother approached us after we started and took myself and Hairy Moccasin
and White Swan and told us that we had a secret mission in another
district. My brother was then on the warpath. We went as far with my
brother as Tongue River and did not see what we were searching for and we
came back home. Then the Crow scouts left the agency and camped at
Clark’s Ford, and Bonnie Bravo and Little Face, Indian scouts and
interpreters, met us there. These scouts took us over to General Terry’s
camp again. The scouts who were with Terry had no horses, for the Sioux
had captured them. We had with us eight horses. Then we marched down as
far as the Little Rosebud. There one of Terry’s officers told us we were
to go out and scout for the Sioux camp. We went as far as Tongue River,
and Bonnie Bravo was the first one to discover the Sioux camp. Then we
came back to the command and reported. General Terry moved his cavalry
forward and attempted to ford the Yellowstone River. The water was so
high that many of the men and horses were drowned, and the rest came back.
Then Terry asked the scouts to go forward again, and see if the camp was
still there. We found that the camp had moved from Tongue River up on the
Little Rosebud. After that we reported, and General Terry did not say
very much. General Terry then sent Bonnie Bravo and the two scouts back
to the camp to procure horses. They sent two other scouts and the army
wagons to Crow Agency for provisions. The soldiers did not leave the camp
very far for fear of attack by the Sioux, for they kept close watch on
them constantly, firing at any soldiers they saw. Then General Terry sent
me toward Crow Agency to meet the wagons and the men who were with the
horses. After we had met the wagons we stayed there all night and then
went on to camp. General Terry then moved his camp, following the
Yellowstone down. We were taken clear down to the mouth of the Powder
River. White-Man-Runs-Him and another scout did not have any horses, so
they got into the boat and went down the river, bringing a dispatch to
Terry. The dispatch told us to go back and follow the Yellowstone up
again. We went back and camped within ten or twelve miles of the mouth of
the Big Horn, near where we had camped before. We stayed there three or
four days, and then a steamboat arrived bringing Bouyer, the scout. He
told us all to break camp. There were six of us who did the most of the
scouting, and out of the six Terry told three of us to go and find the
enemy’s camp. General Terry and the commander of the infantry were in the
ambulance, and Bouyer was there talking with them. Terry sent for Yellow
Shield, then Yellow Shield sent for me. Bouyer then asked me who among
the Crow scouts did the most scouting. I said White Swan, Hairy Moccasin,
and myself. These scouts then camp up and joined me. Yellow Shield then
told us that he wanted six men in all. Then we had a conference. We
thought of White-Man-Runs-Him, but he had no horse. Then Yellow Shield
said he would call White-Man-Runs-Him and Goes-Ahead to join us. After
they had called these men they put us on the steamboat and sent us down
the river, sending the other Crows home. We were taken down to the mouth
of the Little Rosebud by the Yellowstone. We were told after we had had
our dinner that we must dress ourselves up and paint up and get ready to
scout.”
Curly at this point reaches the camp of General Custer, and the remainder
of the fascinating story of this warrior, orator, and scout, who followed
with unfailing fidelity the fortunes of the United States soldiers, will
be told in the chapter on “The Indians’ Story of the Custer Fight.”
[Goes Ahead—Custer Scout]