The winter successes of the Crook-Mackenzie and Miles campaigns
foreshadowed the end of the Sioux War. In April one thousand Sioux
hostiles led by Touch the Clouds surrendered at Spotted Tail Agency and
Dull Knife brought his Cheyenne in to Camp Robinson. The final total of
hostiles who surrendered at Camps Robinson and Sheridan reached almost
4,500 people.[21]
Emissaries to the hostile camps brought back word that Crazy Horse was
on the way in and on May 6, 1877 he and his followers, 889 men, women
and children, surrendered at Camp Robinson. They gave up some 2,000
ponies, and the 217 men turned in 117 guns and pistols. The impressive
surrender march of Crazy Horse’s band was described by the officer who
met the hostiles:
When the Sioux Chief Crazy Horse came in and surrendered in 1877, he
formed all of his warriors in line, in advance of the women and
children; then, in front of this line, also mounted, he had some ten
of his headmen; and then in front of these he rode alone. I had been
sent with Indian scouts to meet him. He sent me word requesting a
similar formation on our part, and asked that I should ride on in
advance alone. Then we were to dismount and first shake hands, while
seated on the ground, that the peace might be solid. After all this
had been done his headmen came up, the peacepipe was produced, and we
solemnly smoked. One of his headmen put a scalp-jacket and war-bonnet
on me, and presented me the pipe with which peace had been made.[22]
What to do with the surrendering hostiles was a problem. Crazy Horse and
some of the other warriors were enrolled as scouts, and a grand review
was held for General Crook. Nevertheless, in General Sheridan’s opinion
these hostiles should be given the same treatment as troublesome Kiowa
and Cheyenne warriors who had been imprisoned at Fort Marion, near St.
Augustine, Florida, following previous campaigns.
Too, Crazy Horse acted in a manner which aroused suspicion on the part
of the military authorities at Camp Robinson. The soldiers described his
attitude as sullen and restless despite his expressed desire to live
peacefully. Some chiefs of the agency bands also found his increasing
popularity among their followers a threat to their positions.
Indian opposition to Crazy Horse was intensified after a council with
seventy leaders was held at Red Cloud Agency on July 27, 1877. General
Crook sent word that the Indians were free to go on the forty day
buffalo hunt he had promised them, and they in turn were to give their
word to return to the agency after the hunt. A delegation to Washington,
D. C. was also discussed. A feast was a usual part of such an important
meeting, and when Young Man Afraid of His Horses suggested that the
feast be held at the camp of Crazy Horse and Little Big Man no one
objected, but Red Cloud and his followers left the council room. Later
that night the Red Cloud faction voiced their objections to feasting at
Crazy Horse’s camp to Agent Irwin. They said Crazy Horse was
unreconstructed, tricky, unfaithful and waiting for his chance to escape
from the agency. Because the possibility that the hostiles would flee,
rejoin Sitting Bull in Canada, and begin the war anew was not a pleasant
prospect, the buffalo hunt was cancelled as a precautionary measure.
Crazy Horse had continued to speak in favor of the new northern agency
for his people once promised by General Crook. This was contrary to the
1877 government plan to move the agencies to the Missouri River where
supplies could be more economically delivered by river boat, an
arrangement favored by army officers.
Crazy Horse further alienated the Army, now involved in a new Indian
campaign, this time the outbreak of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
tribe. Efforts were made to obtain Indian scouts for the new campaign
from among the former hostiles at Red Cloud Agency. At first Crazy Horse
opposed their enlistment on the grounds that they would be used to fight
Sitting Bull and their Sioux friends rather than Chief Joseph’s people.
Finally Crazy Horse consented to fight the Nez Perce but Frank Grouard,
acting as interpreter, made an error in translation and reported that
Crazy Horse said he would fight until not a white man was left. Whether
this error was an honest mistake or a deliberate one,[23] the
mistranslation reinforced the rumors that Crazy Horse planned to murder
Crook and other officers and that he planned to go on the warpath again.
General Crook directed that the famed warrior be apprehended and “sent
out of harms way.”[24]
A cavalry battalion from Camp Robinson and a large party of Indians
(including Crazy Horse’s personal enemy, No Water, with whom he had had
a squabble over a woman) rode to Crazy Horse’s camp nearby to arrest
him. They succeeded in capturing many of his band, but Crazy Horse
escaped and fled to Spotted Tail Agency, seeking refuge in the camp of
his friend Touch the Clouds. His arrival caused considerable excitement
in that camp, but loyal Brules interceded and restored order. Touch the
Clouds and about 300 warriors then escorted Crazy Horse towards Camp
Sheridan. Halfway there they were met by Lt. J. M. Lee, acting agent at
Spotted Tail Agency, two other officials, and an interpreter. Just as
this group reached the post parade ground Chief Spotted Tail arrived
with an equally large number of his Brule warriors. This support for the
small Camp Sheridan garrison turned the balance in their favor. With
Spotted Tail backing the Americans, Crazy Horse apparently realized his
position was not a strong one.
The crowd finally was dispersed and Lee and a few others had a
conference with Crazy Horse who explained his desire to transfer to the
Spotted Tail Agency. An attempt was made by interpreter Louis Bordeaux
to correct Grouard’s mistranslation of Crazy Horse’s statement about
fighting the Nez Perce. Lieutenant Lee and Major Burke assured Crazy
Horse that he would not be harmed. In response to Lee’s persuasion Crazy
Horse agreed to return to Camp Robinson the next day on condition that
he be allowed to explain how he had been misunderstood and
misinterpreted and that he wanted peace, not trouble. By this time,
however, most officers, particularly those at Camp Robinson, completely
distrusted him.
On their arrival at Camp Robinson, the post commander, Colonel Bradley,
refused to hold a council with Crazy Horse despite Lee’s efforts to
arrange one. Bradley’s orders gave him no alternative except to imprison
Crazy Horse, and an effort was made to put him in the guardhouse. When
he saw the cells inside Crazy Horse drew a knife and attempted to free
himself but he was bayoneted by one of the guards during the struggle.
Little Big Man was injured while trying to restrain Crazy Horse. Both
friendly and hostile Indians were in the excited crowd of witnesses, and
the friendly Indians prevented Crazy Horse’s friends from firing at the
guard. When another attempt to put the mortally wounded warrior into the
guardhouse was made, the Indians seemed so close to an outbreak that
Colonel Bradley reluctantly agreed to Surgeon McGillycuddy’s suggested
compromise and Crazy Horse was taken next door to the adjutant’s office
where he died shortly before midnight on September 5, 1877.[25]
Great excitement developed among the Indians around Camp Robinson as a
result of the killing of Crazy Horse and serious trouble was threatened,
but the efforts of Indian leaders prevented a violent outbreak. In a
report of the incident Lt. W. P. Clarke listed the Arapaho, Black Coal
and Sharp Nose, and the Sioux leaders Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid of His
Horses, American Horse, Yellow Bear, Little Big Man, Big Road, No Water,
Three Bears, and No Flesh as the men who prevented an outbreak by
controlling their people. That so important a man as Crazy Horse could
be killed in such a way without any more serious consequences than a few
days uproar was an indication that the war with the Sioux was about
over.
After Crazy Horse was killed the plan to relocate Red Cloud Agency on
the Missouri River went ahead rapidly. On October 25, 1877 the move was
begun, with troops from Camp Robinson escorting the Red Cloud Indians
and those from Camp Sheridan escorting the Spotted Tail Indians and the
hostiles of the late Crazy Horse’s camp. Although seemingly subdued, the
hostiles still managed to embarrass the soldiers. Before the two columns
had proceeded very far the northern Indians broke away from the Spotted
Tail column and joined the Red Cloud group. Then they broke away from
that column, and, carrying Crazy Horse’s bones, fled north to join
Sitting Bull in Canada, pausing on the way to raid in the Black Hills
and along the Bismarck stage line. The first report was that some 1,700
Indians had escaped, but a recheck cut the figure to 800.
The soldiers from Camp Robinson who escorted the Indians built and
formed the garrison of a military post at New Red Cloud Agency,[26] but
the new location was used for only a short time. The Oglala refused to
go to the new agency site and set up their camp seventy-five miles away.
In 1878 the government gave up the Missouri River plan and the agency
was moved west again to become the present Pine Ridge Agency about fifty
miles northeast of Fort Robinson in South Dakota.