“My first battle was on the Yellowstone River. I rode a roan horse. I
was scouting under General Miles. We found the trail of the Nez Perce
Indians. We fought a battle twenty miles north of where Billings is now
located. The Nez Perce chased the scouts back. Just at this time our
interpreter, Bethune, had quit riding, for his horse had played out and he
went on foot. Then many of the Nez Perce dismounted and began to surround
Bethune and open fire on him. I thought then his life would be lost and I
rode back as fast as I could ride into the midst of the fire, pulled him
on the back of my horse and rode away, saving his life.”
In his own words Goes-Ahead tells us how he became a scout in the United
States Army: “I was a single man and I loved to go on the warpath. The
chiefs announced to all the camp asking young men to go to the army
officers and enlist as scouts. As I wanted to scout I obeyed the command
of my chiefs. The army officers took the names of these young men. The
young men whose names were not taken were turned back, but they always
took my name, and that is how I came to be a scout.” Goes-Ahead tells for
us a most graphic story of his share in the Custer fight and his
impressions of General Custer in the chapter on “The Indians’ Story of the
Custer Fight.”
[In Battle Line]