The noted Sioux warrior, Rain-in-the-Face, whose name once carried
terror to every part of the frontier, died at his home on the Standing
Rock reserve in North Dakota on September 14, 1905. About two months
before his death I went to see him for the last time, where he lay upon
the bed of sickness from which he never rose again, and drew from him
his life-history.
It had been my experience that you cannot induce an Indian to tell a
story, or even his own name, by asking him directly.
“Friend,” I said, “even if a man is on a hot trail, he stops for a
smoke! In the good old days, before the charge there was a smoke. At
home, by the fireside, when the old men were asked to tell their brave
deeds, again the pipe was passed. So come, let us smoke now to the
memory of the old days!”
He took of my tobacco and filled his long pipe, and we smoked. Then I
told an old mirthful story to get him in the humor of relating his own
history.
The old man lay upon an iron bedstead, covered by a red blanket, in a
corner of the little log cabin. He was all alone that day; only an old
dog lay silent and watchful at his master’s feet.
Finally he looked up and said with a pleasant smile:
“True, friend; it is the old custom to retrace one’s trail before
leaving it forever! I know that I am at the door of the spirit home.
“I was born near the forks of the Cheyenne River, about seventy years
ago. My father was not a chief; my grandfather was not a chief, but
a good hunter and a feast-maker. On my mother’s side I had some noted
ancestors, but they left me no chieftainship. I had to work for my
reputation.
“When I was a boy, I loved to fight,” he continued. “In all our boyish
games I had the name of being hard to handle, and I took much pride in
the fact.
“I was about ten years old when we encountered a band of Cheyennes.
They were on friendly terms with us, but we boys always indulged in sham
fights on such occasions, and this time I got in an honest fight with a
Cheyenne boy older than I. I got the best of the boy, but he hit me hard
in the face several times, and my face was all spattered with blood and
streaked where the paint had been washed away. The Sioux boys whooped
and yelled:
“‘His enemy is down, and his face is spattered as if with rain!
Rain-in-the-Face! His name shall be Rain-in-the-Face!’
“Afterwards, when I was a young man, we went on a warpath against the
Gros Ventres. We stole some of their horses, but were overtaken and had
to abandon the horses and fight for our lives. I had wished my face to
represent the sun when partly covered with darkness, so I painted it
half black, half red. We fought all day in the rain, and my face was
partly washed and streaked with red and black: so again I was christened
Rain-in-the-Face. We considered it an honorable name.
“I had been on many warpaths, but was not especially successful until
about the time the Sioux began to fight with the white man. One of the
most daring attacks that we ever made was at Fort Totten, North Dakota,
in the summer of 1866.
“Hohay, the Assiniboine captive of Sitting Bull, was the leader in this
raid. Wapaypay, the Fearless Bear, who was afterward hanged at Yankton,
was the bravest man among us. He dared Hohay to make the charge. Hohay
accepted the challenge, and in turn dared the other to ride with him
through the agency and right under the walls of the fort, which was well
garrisoned and strong.
“Wapaypay and I in those days called each other ‘brother-friend.’ It was
a life-and-death vow. What one does the other must do; and that meant
that I must be in the forefront of the charge, and if he is killed, I
must fight until I die also!
“I prepared for death. I painted as usual like an eclipse of the sun,
half black and half red.”
His eyes gleamed and his face lighted up remarkably as he talked,
pushing his black hair back from his forehead with a nervous gesture.
“Now the signal for the charge was given! I started even with Wapaypay,
but his horse was faster than mine, so he left me a little behind as we
neared the fort. This was bad for me, for by that time the soldiers had
somewhat recovered from the surprise and were aiming better.
“Their big gun talked very loud, but my Wapaypay was leading on, leaning
forward on his fleet pony like a flying squirrel on a smooth log! He
held his rawhide shield on the right side, a little to the front, and
so did I. Our warwhoop was like the coyotes singing in the evening, when
they smell blood!
“The soldiers’ guns talked fast, but few were hurt. Their big gun was
like a toothless old dog, who only makes himself hotter the more noise
he makes,” he remarked with some humor.
“How much harm we did I do not know, but we made things lively for a
time; and the white men acted as people do when a swarm of angry bees
get into camp. We made a successful retreat, but some of the reservation
Indians followed us yelling, until Hohay told them that he did not wish
to fight with the captives of the white man, for there would be no honor
in that. There was blood running down my leg, and I found that both my
horse and I were slightly wounded.
“Some two years later we attacked a fort west of the Black Hills [Fort
Phil Kearny, Wyoming]. It was there we killed one hundred soldiers.”
[The military reports say eighty men, under the command of Captain
Fetterman--not one left alive to tell the tale!] “Nearly every band of
the Sioux nation was represented in that fight--Red Cloud, Spotted
Tail, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Big Foot, and all our great chiefs were
there. Of course such men as I were then comparatively unknown. However,
there were many noted young warriors, among them Sword, the younger
Young-Man-Afraid, American Horse [afterward chief], Crow King, and
others.
“This was the plan decided upon after many councils. The main war party
lay in ambush, and a few of the bravest young men were appointed to
attack the woodchoppers who were cutting logs to complete the building
of the fort. We were told not to kill these men, but to chase them into
the fort and retreat slowly, defying the white men; and if the soldiers
should follow, we were to lead them into the ambush. They took our bait
exactly as we had hoped! It was a matter of a very few minutes, for
every soldier lay dead in a shorter time than it takes to annihilate a
small herd of buffalo.
“This attack was hastened because most of the Sioux on the Missouri
River and eastward had begun to talk of suing for peace. But even this
did not stop the peace movement. The very next year a treaty was signed
at Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, by nearly all the Sioux chiefs, in which
it was agreed on the part of the Great Father in Washington that all the
country north of the Republican River in Nebraska, including the Black
Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, was to be always Sioux country, and no
white man should intrude upon it without our permission. Even with this
agreement Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were not satisfied, and they
would not sign.
“Up to this time I had fought in some important battles, but had
achieved no great deed. I was ambitious to make a name for myself.
I joined war parties against the Crows, Mandans, Gros Ventres, and
Pawnees, and gained some little distinction.
“It was when the white men found the yellow metal in our country, and
came in great numbers, driving away our game, that we took up arms
against them for the last time. I must say here that the chiefs who were
loudest for war were among the first to submit and accept reservation
life. Spotted Tail was a great warrior, yet he was one of the first to
yield, because he was promised by the Chief Soldiers that they would
make him chief of all the Sioux. Ugh! he would have stayed with Sitting
Bull to the last had it not been for his ambition.
“About this time we young warriors began to watch the trails of the
white men into the Black Hills, and when we saw a wagon coming we would
hide at the crossing and kill them all without much trouble. We did
this to discourage the whites from coming into our country without our
permission. It was the duty of our Great Father at Washington, by the
agreement of 1868, to keep his white children away.
“During the troublesome time after this treaty, which no one seemed to
respect, either white or Indian [but the whites broke it first], I was
like many other young men--much on the warpath, but with little honor.
I had not yet become noted for any great deed. Finally, Wapaypay and I
waylaid and killed a white soldier on his way from the fort to his home
in the east.
“There were a few Indians who were liars, and never on the warpath,
playing ‘good Indian’ with the Indian agents and the war chiefs at the
forts. Some of this faithless set betrayed me, and told more than I
ever did. I was seized and taken to the fort near Bismarck, North Dakota
[Fort Abraham Lincoln], by a brother [Tom Custer] of the Long-Haired War
Chief, and imprisoned there. These same lying Indians, who were selling
their services as scouts to the white man, told me that I was to be shot
to death, or else hanged upon a tree. I answered that I was not afraid
to die.
“However, there was an old soldier who used to bring my food and stand
guard over me--he was a white man, it is true, but he had an Indian
heart! He came to me one day and unfastened the iron chain and ball with
which they had locked my leg, saying by signs and what little Sioux he
could muster:
“‘Go, friend! take the chain and ball with you. I shall shoot, but the
voice of the gun will lie.’
“When he had made me understand, you may guess that I ran my best! I was
almost over the bank when he fired his piece at me several times, but
I had already gained cover and was safe. I have never told this before,
and would not, lest it should do him an injury, but he was an old man
then, and I am sure he must be dead long since. That old soldier
taught me that some of the white people have hearts,” he added, quite
seriously.
“I went back to Standing Rock in the night, and I had to hide for
several days in the woods, where food was brought to me by my relatives.
The Indian police were ordered to retake me, and they pretended to hunt
for me, but really they did not, for if they had found me I would have
died with one or two of them, and they knew it! In a few days I departed
with several others, and we rejoined the hostile camp on the Powder
River and made some trouble for the men who were building the great iron
track north of us [Northern Pacific].
“In the spring the hostile Sioux got together again upon the Tongue
River. It was one of the greatest camps of the Sioux that I ever saw.
There were some Northern Cheyennes with us, under Two Moon, and a few
Santee Sioux, renegades from Canada, under Inkpaduta, who had killed
white people in Iowa long before. We had decided to fight the white
soldiers until no warrior should be left.”
At this point Rain-in-the-Face took up his tobacco pouch and began again
to fill his pipe.
“Of course the younger warriors were delighted with the prospect of
a great fight! Our scouts had discovered piles of oats for horses and
other supplies near the Missouri River. They had been brought by the
white man’s fire-boats. Presently they reported a great army about a
day’s travel to the south, with Shoshone and Crow scouts.
“There was excitement among the people, and a great council was held.
Many spoke. I was asked the condition of those Indians who had gone upon
the reservation, and I told them truly that they were nothing more than
prisoners. It was decided to go out and meet Three Stars [General Crook]
at a safe distance from our camp.
“We met him on the Little Rosebud. I believe that if we had waited
and allowed him to make the attack, he would have fared no better than
Custer. He was too strongly fortified where he was, and I think, too,
that he was saved partly by his Indian allies, for the scouts discovered
us first and fought us first, thus giving him time to make his
preparations. I think he was more wise than brave! After we had left
that neighborhood he might have pushed on and connected with the
Long-Haired Chief. That would have saved Custer and perhaps won the day.
“When we crossed from Tongue River to the Little Big Horn, on account
of the scarcity of game, we did not anticipate any more trouble. Our
runners had discovered that Crook had retraced his trail to Goose
Creek, and we did not suppose that the white men would care to follow us
farther into the rough country.
“Suddenly the Long-Haired Chief appeared with his men! It was a
surprise.”
“What part of the camp were you in when the soldiers attacked the lower
end?” I asked.
“I had been invited to a feast at one of the young men’s lodges [a sort
of club]. There was a certain warrior who was making preparations to go
against the Crows, and I had decided to go also,” he said.
“While I was eating my meat we heard the war cry! We all rushed out,
and saw a warrior riding at top speed from the lower camp, giving the
warning as he came. Then we heard the reports of the soldiers’ guns,
which sounded differently from the guns fired by our people in battle.
“I ran to my teepee and seized my gun, a bow, and a quiver full of
arrows. I already had my stone war club, for you know we usually carry
those by way of ornament. Just as I was about to set out to meet Reno, a
body of soldiers appeared nearly opposite us, at the edge of a long line
of cliffs across the river.
“All of us who were mounted and ready immediately started down the
stream toward the ford. There were Ogallalas, Minneconjous, Cheyennes,
and some Unkpapas, and those around me seemed to be nearly all very
young men.
“‘Behold, there is among us a young woman!’ I shouted. ‘Let no young man
hide behind her garment!’ I knew that would make those young men brave.
“The woman was Tashenamani, or Moving Robe, whose brother had just been
killed in the fight with Three Stars. Holding her brother’s war staff
over her head, and leaning forward upon her charger, she looked as
pretty as a bird. Always when there is a woman in the charge, it causes
the warriors to vie with one another in displaying their valor,” he
added.
“The foremost warriors had almost surrounded the white men, and more
were continually crossing the stream. The soldiers had dismounted, and
were firing into the camp from the top of the cliff.”
“My friend, was Sitting Bull in this fight?” I inquired.
“I did not see him there, but I learned afterward that he was among
those who met Reno, and that was three or four of the white man’s miles
from Custer’s position. Later he joined the attack upon Custer, but was
not among the foremost.
“When the troops were surrounded on two sides, with the river on the
third, the order came to charge! There were many very young men, some of
whom had only a war staff or a stone war club in hand, who plunged into
the column, knocking the men over and stampeding their horses.
“The soldiers had mounted and started back, but when the onset came they
dismounted again and separated into several divisions, facing different
ways. They fired as fast as they could load their guns, while we used
chiefly arrows and war clubs. There seemed to be two distinct movements
among the Indians. One body moved continually in a circle, while the
other rode directly into and through the troops.
“Presently some of the soldiers remounted and fled along the ridge
toward Reno’s position; but they were followed by our warriors, like
hundreds of blackbirds after a hawk. A larger body remained together at
the upper end of a little ravine, and fought bravely until they were cut
to pieces. I had always thought that white men were cowards, but I had a
great respect for them after this day.
“It is generally said that a young man with nothing but a war staff in
his hand broke through the column and knocked down the leader very early
in the fight. We supposed him to be the leader, because he stood up in
full view, swinging his big knife [sword] over his head, and talking
loud. Some one unknown afterwards shot the chief, and he was probably
killed also; for if not, he would have told of the deed, and called
others to witness it. So it is that no one knows who killed the
Long-Haired Chief [General Custer].
“After the first rush was over, coups were counted as usual on the
bodies of the slain. You know four coups [or blows] can be counted on
the body of an enemy, and whoever counts the first one [touches it for
the first time] is entitled to the ‘first feather.’
“There was an Indian here called Appearing Elk, who died a short time
ago. He was slightly wounded in the charge. He had some of the weapons
of the Long-Haired Chief, and the Indians used to say jokingly after we
came upon the reservation that Appearing Elk must have killed the Chief,
because he had his sword! However, the scramble for plunder did not
begin until all were dead. I do not think he killed Custer, and if he
had, the time to claim the honor was immediately after the fight.
“Many lies have been told of me. Some say that I killed the Chief, and
others that I cut out the heart of his brother [Tom Custer], because he
had caused me to be imprisoned. Why, in that fight the excitement was
so great that we scarcely recognized our nearest friends! Everything was
done like lightning. After the battle we young men were chasing horses
all over the prairie, while the old men and women plundered the bodies;
and if any mutilating was done, it was by the old men.
“I have lived peaceably ever since we came upon the reservation. No one
can say that Rain-in-the-Face has broken the rules of the Great Father.
I fought for my people and my country. When we were conquered I remained
silent, as a warrior should. Rain-in-the-Face was killed when he put
down his weapons before the Great Father. His spirit was gone then; only
his poor body lived on, but now it is almost ready to lie down for the
last time. Ho, hechetu! [It is well.]”