big animals. So another man came up among the people, and they say
his name was Wakina Luta [Red Thunder]. I think he must have been the
second _wichasha wakon_, for one day when he was out hunting in the
woods all alone, he got lost. And when he had walked and walked and
could not find the way back, and was so tired he could hardly walk any
more, there came a great storm of wind and thunder. So he crawled in
under a rock. There was no rain--just wind and big thunders. And there
under the rock he went to sleep. All at once as he slept, there were
great voices calling, and they say it was the Thunder Beings that he
heard. Theirs is the power to make live and to destroy, for theirs are
the bow and the cup of water; and they live in the quarter where the
sun goes down. And the great voices said, ‘Arise, Wakina Luta, and come
with us. We are taking you to where there will be a great decision,
and by it the people shall live or they shall die. So in his dream Red
Thunder arose and followed the voices flying very fast, until he came
to a far place that was called The Island Hill; for it was a great hill
of many hills, standing high in the center of the hoop of the world.
Therein all animals lived with the birds, and the grass was green in
the valleys, and the trees on the slopes were many beyond counting, and
tall. Clear, cold streams were running and leaping and singing. All
flowers were living there of many colors, and among them happy deer
made fat and were not afraid. It was more beautiful than any land Red
Thunder ever saw before; and while he looked at it from above where he
was floating, the voices of the Thunder Beings came again, and they
said, ‘Here shall be the great decision; look about you.’ And when Red
Thunder looked, he saw the hoop of the world all about him, and at the
center was the Island Hill. And he saw that all the four-leggeds of the
earth were gathered on one side, and on the other all the wings of the
air, who are two-leggeds like us. They were all waiting for something.
Then the thunder voices spoke again and said, ‘These that you see shall
race around the hoop of the world. If the four-leggeds win, they will
eat you and the wings of the air. If the two-leggeds win, your people
shall live; the children of your children’s children’s children shall
possess this land; and the four-leggeds shall feed you.’
“Then the race began. The magpie, who knows everything, had a plan;
so he flew down and sat on the ear of a bison bull and there he rode
and waited. It was a long race, for the hoop of the world is great.
Sometimes a big wind came, so that the wings of the air could hardly
fly, and the four-leggeds were far ahead. Sometimes there would be a
very hot day, and the four-leggeds could hardly run, so that the wings
would be winning. A great rainstorm came roaring and many wings of the
air were killed. But still the race went on, and all the while the
magpie sat on the running bison’s ear and waited for something. Nobody
knows how long they raced, but it was long. Then one day they were
getting near the end. The four-leggeds were ahead, and they began to
cheer. All the kinds of four-leggeds were making the noises that they
knew, howling and roaring and screaming and barking, and growling and
neighing, so that the whole sky was filled with the fearful sound, and
the wide earth was afraid.
“But just before the end, the magpie, who was not tired at all, ’rose
high’ into the air and came swooping down upon the goal ahead of all
the others. Then the voices of the four-leggeds died away, and the
wide air was full of happy wings that soared and darted, swooped and
floated; and the geese cried high, and the crane; the eagles screamed,
and every bird that knows a song was singing.
“Then Wakina Luta heard the voice of thunder speaking once again, and
it said to him, ‘Your two-legged relatives, the wings of the air,
have won the race for your people. Your people shall live and possess
this land and the Island Hill after many snows and grasses, and the
four-leggeds shall keep and feed them.’ Then to the magpie the voice
of thunder spoke, ‘By thinking, you have won the race for all your
relatives, the two-leggeds. Hereafter you shall wear the rainbow in
your tail, and it shall be a sign of victory.’ And what was said is
true, for you can see it yet on every magpie. Also, it was true, as the
voice said, that the people should be like the birds, their relatives;
for it is like birds of prey that we fought, circling and swooping,
and in the beauty of the birds we dressed ourselves for battle and for
death.
“For a while the world was still, until the voice of thunder filled it
once again, and to Wakina Luta in his vision it was speaking: ‘Your
people still are weaker and slower than the big four-leggeds, so I
give you this that you may be stronger than they, and their fleetness
shall be slow.’ And when Wakina Luta looked, it was the great bow of
the Thunder Beings with a pointed arrow that was tailed for guiding
as the birds are tailed for guiding to a mark. And as he looked hard
to see how it was made, the bow twanged, and the arrow rose high with
the whisper of wings, and swooped like a hawk or an eagle; and yonder
far away a great bison bull went down with feathers sprouting from his
chest.
“The thunder voice rose again, ‘Behold!’ And Wakina Luta in his vision
saw a strange four-legged that might have been a dog, but was not, for
no dog could grow so tall. It was a _shonka wakon_ [sacred dog, horse],
and as he looked and wondered, it raised its head and sent forth a high
shrill voice that ran far and was like a victor singing. And the voice
said, ‘You shall know him after many grasses in this land, and he shall
be your friend and give you fleetness.’
“Then Red Thunder awoke under his rock and the world was still. So,
with the vision living in him, he found his way back to the people; and
all that he had seen, he told. Also he made a bow like that he saw and
a feathered arrow; and he showed the young men how to make and use it.
“After that, the old men say, another man came up among the people,
and Slow Buffalo is what they called him. I think he was the third
_wichasha wakon_, for what he did a vision must have taught him. One
day he called all the people together, and from among them he chose the
oldest and wisest to sit with him. To these he gave a name, calling
them a council. And to these he told what I think a vision must have
shown him, while all the people listened. He said the people had grown
to be too many for that place, and now with fire and the bow they could
wander and go anywhere. For the first time he gave a name to each of
the quarters of the world: Where the Sun Goes Down [west], Where the
White Giant Lives [north], Where the Sun Comes Up [east], and Where
You Are Always Facing [south]. Towards the last place the people could
not go, for there the great water was near, and from thence a race of
strangers would come. The people should be divided into three, and each
should become a nation. One would go towards Where the Sun Comes Up,
one to Where the Sun Goes Down, and the last towards Where the White
Giant Lives. Each as it went must name all things, and these names
would be a tongue.
“Then Slow Buffalo told them about fathers and mothers, sisters and
brothers, grandfathers and grandmothers. These he named for the first
time. They should live together with one fire, and the fire would
be holy. The old would guide the young; the young would give their
strength to the old; and all together would give one strength to the
nation, that it might be strong and live. The nation, he said, was
itself a being with a grandfather, a grandmother, a father, and a
mother. The Great Mysterious One is the grandfather, the Earth is the
grandmother, the Sky is the father, and the mother is where the growing
things come out of the ground and nurse with all that live. When Slow
Buffalo had done this, he got together with the council and they chose
leaders for the nations and called them chiefs. Each nation he divided
into seven bands. Then the people started, each band with its central
fire, which was holy, and its chiefs and council.
“I think the Lakotas came from those who wandered towards the Great
White Giant; and it was while they were going that a vision was sent to
them. I will tell you how the old men told it. Two young men were out
hunting together when they saw something coming; and when it was nearer
they knew it was a young woman, very good to see, dressed in fine white
buckskin, and all about her was a shining white mist. And when one of
the young men saw her, he had bad thoughts of her, and this she knew.
So she said to the first young hunter, ‘Come, then, and do as you wish
with me.’ But when he came near to her, the shining mist enclosed him
and became a dark cloud with lightning in it. And when the cloud was
gone and the shining white mist came back, the young man’s bones were
scattered on the prairie. Then the young woman said to the second young
hunter, ‘Your thoughts are good, and to you I give this sacred thing
for all the people. Behold!’ It was a pipe; and while she held it out,
she told the meanings that it had. The eagle feather, hanging from
the bowl, meant the grandfather of all, the father of fathers, Wakon
Tonka. Also it meant that the thoughts of those who smoked should rise
high as the eagles do. The bison-hide upon the mouthpiece was for the
grandmother of all, the mother of mothers; and he who touched it with
his lips would know that he nursed with all living things. The four
thongs hanging from the stem were colored like the quarters of the
world--blue, white, red, yellow. The pipe and the morning star would
stand for the power of the quarter where the sun comes up. Yonder the
morning star brings light and wisdom and understanding. The pipe gives
peace that comes from understanding. With the morning star and the pipe
we should love each other and live together as brothers.
“I think the people forgot these things. Maybe they multiplied so fast
that they got to quarreling and split up into many new bands that grew
to be strangers with different names for things, different tongues. And
maybe one of these bands grew big and became our people, the Lakotas.
Even then, the old men say, there was not yet any war. But once the
Lakotas found one of their hunters killed and scalped by a band of
these strangers. So our people were angry; and when they came upon the
band that had done this thing, they cut off all the strangers’ heads,
so that there could be no war again. Maybe that is why the strangers
used to call us cut-throats. But I think all the heads must have grown
back on, for we have been fighting ever since. And after that, whatever
people did not speak our tongue, we knew them for our enemies. But
within the sacred hoop of our own people the ancient teaching lived and
the power of the pipe was mighty.
“After these things had happened, there were many snows and grasses; I
do not know how many. Then we came at last to the Island Hill that was
promised long ago, and it was a sacred place. Because the pines upon it
made it black a long way off, we called it Pa Sapa [black heads, the
Black Hills]; and all the land around it was ours.
“Farther on towards where the sun goes down, there was a people that
we called the Shyela [Cheyenne]. It was they who found the _shonka
wakon_ [horse] first. They were hunting from where they lived towards
where you are always facing, and in a valley by a spring there stood
this strange four-legged with long hair upon its neck and tail. It was
living wild, but it was tame. At first the hunters were afraid, but
after there was a council to talk about it some hunters were sent to
catch it, and this they did with lariats of hide. And after some moons,
this _shonka wakon_ had a young one. Then one day when it was making
a high shrill noise, another _shonka wakon_ came, and this one was a
stallion. So after that the Shyela had horses, and the Lakota traded
for them, giving bows and arrows and beaded moccasins and clothing. The
Arapahoes also found many horses and with them too the Lakota traded;
and these peoples and the Lakota were friends after that, although
their tongues were not the same. The old men said it was from the
Wasichus who were towards where you are always facing [Spaniards] that
the first horses ran away, and that is why they were so tame at first.
“So we had come at last to the Island Hill as the vision had foretold,
and the land around it was ours and it was holy. There we lived in the
sacred hoop with the sacred fire and the pipe; and the bow and the
_shonka wakon_ made us mighty.
“But when I was about seventeen winters old, a long dust of horseback
soldiers with their wagons came down upon Pa Sapa, and I heard their
chief was Long Hair. They came to look and went away; but they had seen
the yellow metal [gold] that makes Wasichus crazy; and I think the
whole Wasichu nation heard about it. So when the young grass came again
and died, big trouble started.”
XXIII
_Fighting the Gray Fox_
As the old man had foreseen, a melting wind had risen with the waning
of the softened day, and the night came roaring with no cloud. Next
morning, when again we sat together, the puffing wood-fire grumbled to
the gusts of false April, and the tepee canvas bellied, whipping the
poles.
“It was a wind like this,” said Eagle Voice; “a big wind, strong and
roaring, but it was full of snow and cold. I think I was eighteen
winters old that time, and it was in the Moon of Snowblinds [March].
We of the Oglala band had our winter village in the valley of the
Powder, not far from where the Little Powder comes in. I think there
were fifty or sixty lodges of us; and when our Cheyenne friends came
from Red Cloud’s agency to visit and trade with us, I think there were
a hundred smokes in our village. We had plenty of _papa_ and _wasna_
and buffalo robes, and the Cheyennes came with powder and guns and
canvas tepees they had got from the Wasichus. Also, they came with more
word of the big trouble about Pa Sapa. They were saying down yonder
that the Wasichus would drive us into those little islands that Wooden
Cup had seen long ago; and there we would have to turn ourselves into
Wasichus, so that our country could be taken from us. We knew that Gray
Fox [General Crook] was in the country and that he had many walking
soldiers and horsebacks waiting for the young grass. I was out on a
hunting party just before this happened that I am going to tell you,
and we saw some of the soldiers. But it was long before the grass, and
not yet the time for war, so we were not afraid.
“When our Cheyenne friends came to visit us, there was feasting, for we
had plenty, and I heard much talk around the fire at night about the
trouble, and about a big village the crazy Wasichus had built in Pa
Sapa. But there was talk about the old times, too, when everything was
better; and old men told stories that were good to hear, so that those
who told and we who heard did not sleep soon.
“It happened when the day had just come and the people were sleeping
yet. I thought I was dreaming of many horses galloping and guns
shooting and men yelling; but I was not dreaming. We all ran out of
our tepee, but I thought of my quirt and hung it around my neck, down
my back, as I ran with my gun. Out there all the people were running
towards the bluff--men and women and children mixed up and running,
screaming and shouting; horseback soldiers galloping and shooting all
over the village; women running with babies, old people hobbling,
horses rearing and knocking tepees over! It was day, but there was no
sun. The wind was strong and full of snow and horses’ heads--something
like the fight with the Shoshonis. It was very cold, and we had little
clothing, but I did not feel the wind’s teeth. I ran against a man, and
when I saw his face, it made me strong, for it was Crazy Horse. He was
carrying some little boy on his back, and he was yelling for the men
to gather about him behind the women and the old ones. Some near by
heard and others saw, and many gathered about him, and more and more.
We fought back of the running women and children, but we could not do
much. When we were crowded up along the side of the bluff, the canvas
tepees were burning down yonder, and the powder the Cheyennes had
brought was going off--_boom, boom, boom!_ Tepees and poles flying in
the snow wind.
“On the bluff I was not far from Crazy Horse and I heard him crying,
‘We are going back! Let us die today, brothers!’ Then we all
began singing the death-song and started back, charging down the
hill--Lakotas and Cheyennes, all mixed up and singing. The cowards and
baby-killers yonder did not wait long to fight us. I think they did not
want to die that day. They galloped away up the valley of the Powder;
and there was only the sharp wind blowing full of snow. A few tepees
were standing, and some were smoking yet. I saw dead children trampled
by the iron hoofs of the horses, and women with babies dead or wounded
in the snow.
“When the soldiers ran away, the women and children and old people came
swarming down from the bluff; and the mourning was louder than the wind
among the scattered homes.
“There were two bands of horseback soldiers, and only one attacked the
village. The others were driving our horses away--five or six hundred,
maybe more. So we made a war party to go after our herd. When we had
put on what clothes we could find we started after the soldiers, _maka
mani_; and Crazy Horse led us, Lakotas and Cheyennes. The soldiers
were in a hurry, and some of the horses got away from them. We had to
catch strays, and the horseback soldiers had a big start. They did not
stop all day. _Lela oosni!_ It was cold, very cold; and the wind was
strong. Sometimes we would have to run and lead the horses to keep from
freezing.
“When it was dark we were near where another creek we called Lodge
Pole comes in, and we began to be careful. The soldiers could not run
away all night, and we knew that was a good place to camp. So four
scouts went out on foot, and I was one. We ran into the herd. They were
huddled together with their heads down and rumps to the wind.
“They were like the bison we found in the snowstorm that time, and they
did not notice us. I think there were no guards. We did not find any.
At the mouth of the creek there were little fires that did not make
much light; and when we crept up through the brush to look, it was good
to see what we saw there. The Wasichu horses were standing with their
heads down and rumps to the wind, and some that I could see had their
saddles on. Maybe all of them had. The soldiers were humped up over
little brush fires that could not warm them. It looked as though the
baby-killers were going to freeze to death. That was good to see.
“When we told the others, Crazy Horse said it was not the time to
fight. There would be plenty of fighting when the grass was new. We
came for our horses, and we would not stop to kill soldiers. Let the
cold do it. So we began driving the herd. It was hard to start them
back into the wind, but we got them moving and pushed them hard down
the valley. The soldiers must have heard us, but they did not follow.
It was good to think maybe they were freezing to death back there.
“When the night was old, we drove the herd against a bluff that broke
the wind, and made good fires with some logs we found there. Crazy
Horse said we could sleep and he would watch. It was the second time
I heard him say that. The other was when I was on my first war party
beyond Mini Shoshay. He was only about thirty winters old, but he was
like a father to us who followed him. So we scraped the snow away about
the fires and slept with our bellies to the ground. I awoke right
away, and it was early morning without wind. The sky was clear and the
morning star looked big and sharp. It was very cold. The fires were
still burning, and he was sitting as I saw him before I slept. He was
_wakon_. Sometimes when I think about him now, I wonder and wonder. But
then I did not think so much, for I was young.
“When the sun was high, another band of Gray Fox’s horseback soldiers
attacked us, and we shot at each other, but it was not much of a
fight. The herd was strung out when the soldiers came, for the horses
were very tired and it was hard to keep them going, so we lost some
of them--maybe a hundred. Our band was not big enough to follow the
soldiers and drive the herd too, so we kept on down the Powder valley
with maybe four hundred. When we got back, the people were all ready to
move and they were waiting for the horses. So we moved down the valley
to Sitting Bull’s village not far from the river’s mouth. We were
poor and they took us in with them. There we lived in patched tepees,
waiting for the grass. And the anger of the people grew.
“The snow melted; warm winds came with rain; and when the new grass
was high enough to make horses strong, our relatives began coming in
to our village--sometimes a big band, sometimes a few _iglakas_; and
more and more they came and the village grew and grew. Then we all
moved over to the valley of the Rosebud, deeper into our own country.
If Gray Fox wanted his soldiers killed, let him bring them to us there.
We would not hunt the soldiers, and we would not go into the little
islands the Wasichus made so that they could starve us and steal our
country. There on the Rosebud more and more of our relatives came; also
Cheyennes and Arapahoes. It was a long camp, and it grew and grew;
seven hoops of people; Cheyennes, Oglalas, Miniconjous, Sans Arcs,
Hunkpapas, some Santees, Yanktonais, Brûlés, Arapahoes; and horses,
horses, many horses. Some of the people came from Red Cloud’s agency;
but Red Cloud did not come. We said maybe his skin was getting white
and he was turning into a Wasichu. Spotted Tail also was eating Wasichu
food. Some came from along the Mini Shoshay with guns they got from
Wasichu traders. There were many, many guns in the camp. Many men
with big names were there, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, Big Road,
Black Moon, Crow King. The big names I always knew, but some of the
men I never saw before. We knew there were soldiers on both sides of
us, on the Yellowstone and on Goose Creek; but we waited there. If the
soldiers wanted to be killed, let them come to us. That was our country.
“When the cherry seeds hardened, there was a big sun dance. I danced
with the thong in my chest, and for a little I saw the other world; but
after the thong tore out of the flesh, I could see only with my eyes.
But I could feel a great power. Nobody noticed me that time, for many
with big names were dancing.
“Sitting Bull was the principal dancer, and the people watched him
most of all; for he was a great _wichasha wakon_, and he could see
things far away and things that were going to happen. For a long time
he danced and hung from the tree by the thong in his back. When it
tore out, he fell to the ground and lay like dead for a while. Then
he awoke; and when they carried him into the sacred lodge, he told a
vision that came to him in the world of spirit, and it spread among
the people so that everybody knew and talked about it.
“He was camped with all the people in a place that looked like the
valley of the Greasy Grass [Little Big Horn]; but it was not the same,
for it was glowing and made of spirit. He could see the happy people
feasting, each band in its hoop, and the children playing; and on the
glowing hills near by fat horses grazed and had their fill of grass
that was greener than the youngest grass of this world. Then he saw
that a whirling cloud of dust was coming fast from where the sun comes
up; and as it came nearer it filled the heavens, so that a darkness
fell upon the valley and the village. The cloud was full of shouting,
as of men in battle, and screaming as of frightened horses, and
thunder as of many guns shooting together. Then a strange rain began
to fall out of the dust cloud, a dry rain full of shouting. For it was
not water that fell, but soldiers, soldiers, soldiers; all dead and
tumbling upside down and over and over as they came falling, until they
were heaped and scattered in the twilight of the cloud.
“When the people heard about this vision, they said, ‘There will be a
great victory. Many soldiers will come, and they will die.’ So there
was a power among the people, and their hearts were strong.
“A little after this I was with a hunting party over on the Greasy
Grass, and High Horse and I were together again, for he had come back
with his people. Our breasts were very sore from the sun dance, but we
both said the pain made us feel stronger. The hunting was not good,
so we went back up the Greasy Grass to Ash Creek, and up the creek to
where the people had moved while we were gone. Some Cheyennes came
there and told about Gray Fox’s soldiers coming down the Rosebud. So
there was a council and it was decided that our warriors should go back
there and attack the Gray Fox by surprise.
“The sun was going down behind us when we started, and I think there
were more than a thousand of us, Sioux and Cheyenne. We rode in a long
column with _akichita_ in front and on both sides to watch for soldiers
and hold the warriors back until we could all attack together. Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse were with us; but I heard that Sitting Bull was
too sick and crippled from the sun dance to fight, and came along to
encourage the warriors.
“When the morning star was just coming up in front of us, we stopped to
rest the horses and let them eat; and while they grazed we ate what we
had with us. Daybreak came, and when the hills began to stare at us, we
started again, riding in a column four abreast with the _akichita_ out
ahead of us to watch for soldiers. We were coming close to the place
on the Rosebud where we had the sun dance, and the river ran through a
canyon there. If we could catch the soldiers in the canyon, maybe it
would be like Sitting Bull’s vision. High Horse and I talked about that
as we rode. Maybe it was not the Greasy Grass he saw; maybe it was the
Rosebud where there would be a rain of dead soldiers in the dust cloud.