We had been brought to the Little Rosebud down the Yellowstone by steamer.
After we had landed we were told to get dinner, dress ourselves, paint up,
and get ready to scout. Then we heard that General Custer wanted to use
us. We mounted and rode over to General Custer’s camp. He had a big
tent. We got off at the door. I was the first to shake his hand. I had
a dollar in my hand, and I pressed that into his hand. Each scout shook
hands with him. When I saw Custer sitting there, tall and slim, with
broad shoulders and kind eyes, I said to myself: “There is a kind, brave,
and thinking man.” The first words that Custer uttered were: “I have seen
all the tribes but the Crows, and now I see them for the first time, and I
think they are good and brave scouts. I have some scouts here, but they
are worthless. I have heard that the Crows are good scouts, and I have
sent for you to come to my command. I have given General Terry six
hundred dollars for the use of you Crow Indians as scouts. I have called
you Indians here not to fight but to trace the enemy and tell me where
they are; I do not want you to fight. You find the Indians and I will do
the fighting. With all these dollars I have given you I want you to go
into the steamboat and buy some shirts and paint. We will leave here in
two days. We will follow the Little Rosebud up.” That evening the Mandans
danced with us, and they gave us some money. Then Custer said: “I think
you are good Indians. I will have the cook prepare our dinner, and you
can eat alongside of me. I will have a tent put up here and you can camp
near me.” Within two days we started on our journey. We got on our
horses and started with Custer up the Little Rosebud. The whole command
were with us. He asked us where we saw the last Sioux camp while we were
scouting for Terry. We told him we would not be near there until
to-morrow. The next morning we were at the place where we saw the last
camp of the Sioux. Then we followed the Sioux trail. We found the trail,
and saw that it forked on the Little Rosebud River. Custer gave orders
for Goes-Ahead to follow one trail, and for me to follow the other to see
which was the largest camp. We found that the trails came together after
a while and that the Sioux were all in one camp. When we got to the camp,
we saw that a battle had been fought, for we found the scalps and the
beards of white men. We went back that night and reported to Custer. It
was pretty late, but Custer’s cook was up and had a light in his tent.
Then Custer told the cook to give the boys their meal. After we got
through our supper we went to his tent as Custer wanted to see us. We
took with us some of the scalps and white men’s beards, and showed them to
Custer. Then Custer asked us if the camp separated or came together, and
we told him it came together. Then Custer said: “This is the main
point—these Sioux have been killing white people, and I have been sent
here by the Great Father to conquer them and bring them back to their
reservation. I am a great chief, but I do not know whether I will get
through this summer alive or dead. There will be nothing more good for
the Sioux—if they massacre me, they will still suffer, and if they do not
kill me, they will still suffer for they have disobeyed orders. I do not
know whether I will pass through this battle or not, but if I live, I will
recommend you boys and you will be leaders of the Crows. Tomorrow I want
five of my Crow boys to go on the trail.” We started just before
daybreak. When we started we saw some of the Mandans running round on the
top of the hill, and Goes-Ahead told me to go back and tell the command
that they must not have these Mandans running round over the hills, but to
keep them down in the valley, as we might be near the Sioux camp and would
be discovered before we knew it. Then they ordered these Mandans to come
down from the hills and stay down. When I started back I heard a howl
like a coyote. White Swan, Hairy Moccasin, Goes-Ahead, and
White-Man-Runs-Him were coming in to report. The Sioux had broken camp
the day before and had camped above where their old camp was on the Little
Rosebud. Custer told us to go on ahead and see which way they went, and
we came to where they had broken camp. We followed the trail until we saw
that they had camped on the Little Horn, and then we noticed that the
Sioux had gone toward the Little Horn and we waited at the head of Tallec
Creek for the command to come up. The command did not come up, for they
had camped on the Little Rosebud; and we went back to the camp. Then the
scouts had an argument, and I went by myself and asked Custer what we
should do. Custer asked me what I came back for. I told him that the
trail of the Sioux had gone to the west, toward the Little Horn, and that
I had come back for further orders. Then Custer told me to get my supper,
and take a lunch for the other scouts, and take with me two soldiers and
go on and camp on the hill in sight of the enemy. I was lying down at
daybreak, half asleep—the boys said they saw the camp where the Sioux were
located. I got up and saw them through the smoke. The command came
halfway toward us and then stopped and this officer who was with us wrote
a message for General Custer, and sent a Mandan scout back with it.
Custer did not wait. As soon as he got the message his men moved on
rapidly toward the Custer Field. Then Custer said: “We will charge upon
them now—that settles their journey.” Custer then gave the order to
inspect their guns. Soon they started on down the ridge. Custer told us
to go on ahead. We followed the creek all the way down. There was half a
battalion behind us. We found a tepee like the one in which we are now
sitting, as we went along, and found two dead Sioux inside. Then the main
command came up to us. We all stopped at the fork of the Little Reno
Creek. Custer split up his command at this point, and told Reno to follow
the creek down, which is now called Reno Creek. Then we crossed over the
ridge. I came down with Custer as far as the creek; then he gave me a
message to take to Reno. I did not know the import of the messsage. I
brought the answer back from Reno to Custer. While I was delivering the
last message, Reno was fighting his battle, but it was not very fierce,
and when I got to Custer with the message he was fighting at the mouth of
the creek. Then Custer told me to go and save my life. I made a circle
around, and I found that my ammunition was getting low. I found a dead
Sioux. I took his ammunition and gun and horse, and got out. I stayed
near where the dead Sioux was until the fight was pretty fierce. I went
up on a high butte to the east of the battlefield where I could see the
fight. When I got on the high hill I looked back, and saw that Custer was
the last man to stand. After that I rushed over the hill and hid in the
brush. The next morning about five or six o’clock I was at General
Terry’s camp and reported. General Terry called his officers about him.
I could not speak English and there were no interpreters there, so I took
the grass and piled it all up in a heap, then I took my fingers and
scattered it wide apart, and attempted in this way to show General Terry
that the soldiers were all killed. Then General Terry gave me a dispatch.
I was very tired and did not want to go, but I had to take this dispatch
from General Terry, to Reno at the packtrain. Reno gave me a dispatch to
take back to Terry, while they were burying the dead soldiers. Then
another dispatch was given me to take to the head command at the
steamboat. I felt sorry and depressed that I should never again see
Custer.
[The Reno Battlefield]