by Dee Brown
Crazy Horse died that night, September 5, 1877, at the age of thirty-five. At dawn the next day the soldiers presented the dead chief to his father and mother. They put the body of Crazy Horse into a wooden box, fastened it to a pony-drawn travois. and carried it to Spotted Tail agency, where they mounted it on a scaffold. All through the Drying Grass Moon, mourners watched beside the burial place. And then
in the Moon of falling Leaves came the heartbreaking news: the reservation Sioux must leave Nebraska and go to a new reservation on the Missouri River.
Through the crisp dry autumn of 1877, long lines of exiled Indians driven by soldiers marched northeastward toward
the barren land. Along the way, several bands slipped away from the column and turned northwestward, determined to escape to Canada and join Sitting Bull. With them went the father and mother of Crazy Horse, carrying the heart and bones of their son. At a place known only to them they buried Crazy Horse somewhere near Chankpe Opi Wakpala, the creek called Wounded Knee.
-|.-<>C<(>-.+-
The War for the Black Hills
1875-May ./, indictments brought against 23g members of
.whiskey
Ring; charged with rrefrauding Treasury of-rnternar Revenue
taxes; high government officials involved. December A, EEti Congress convenes; Democrats contr.ol House of Representatives for first time since lg5g.
1876-February 7, president Grant,s private secretary, Orville Babcock, acquitted for complicity in Whiskey nl.rg iruuar, but Grant dismisses him from office. March +l U.S."C"rg..r.
resolves to impeach Secretary of War Belknap for complicity in Indian Ring frauds. May 10, Centennial Exhibition opens in philadelphia. June 1t, Republicans nominate Rutherford B. Hayes for president . iune 27, Democrats nominate Samuei J. Tilden for president. july g, massacre of Negro militiamen in Hamburg, South Curoiiru.
August 1, Colorado admitted to Union as thirty_eighth state.
September, Thomas Edison establishes laboratory uf U.rrio
--
Park, New Jersey. september 12, race war breaks out in south
Carolina. November 2,.-both political parties ctaim victory-in
presidential election; Tilden is winner in popular vote.
December 6, Electoral College meets andgives Hayes 1g5
electoral votes, Tilden 1g4.
No white person or persons shail be permitted, to settle u:pon or occup1
any portion of the territorg, or without the consent of the Indians ti
pass through the same' _Tnpery or rg6g
We want no white men here. The Black Hills belong to me.
Il the
whites try to take them, I will fight.
_TareNrl ymerre (SrrrrNc Buu)
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.
*Tasrruxxe Wrrro (Cnezy Ilonso)
The white man is in the Blaclc Hitls just like maggots, and I want Aou
to get them out just as quich as Aou, can. The chief of all thieues
lGenerat Custer! made a road 'into the Blacla Hills last summer, and
i want the Great Father to pay the ilamages lor what Custer has done.
-Besrrstp Goou
The land known as the Blaclc Hilts is considered by the Indians as
the center ol their land,. The ten nations ol siour are loolcing toward
that as the center oJ their land.
-Tetorr: INveN ro (RuN Nrrc Axrr:r'opu)
The Great Father's Aoung nxen are going to carry gold away from the
hilts. I erpect theg u)ilt filL a number of houses with it. In consideration
oJ this I want my people to be prouided f or as long as they shall liue'
-Mem Nour'.r (Two Br.rns)
The Great Father told, the comm'issioners that all the Indians had
rights in the Btack Hills, and that whateaer conclusion the lndians
themselues should conxe to would be respected. . I am an Indian
and am loolted. on by the whites as a f oolish rnan; but it must be
becatue I lollow the aduice ol the white -or.*rr,r**^ w,r, (Foor Doc)
Our Great Father h,as a big safe, and, so h.aue we. I'he hill is our safe'
. . .llre want seuenty rttillion dollars lor the Black Hills' Put the
,tuoneA awaA sonle place at interest so ue can buy liuestock' That is
the way the u,hite peoPle do.
-NI.rro Glusr'r (SromBo Bu'rtr)
You haue put atl our heads together and couered them with a blanket.
That hitl there is our wealth, but you haue been asking it lrom us'
. . You white people, you haue al| come 'in our reseruation and
helped, yourselues to our property, and aou are not satisfied, you went
beyond to take the whole of ou,r safe.
-Dueo EYns
I neuer want to leaue this countra; alt mE relatiues are LEing here in
the grounil, and, uhen I Jatl to pieces I am going to lall to pieces here.
-SnuN x.lxe NepIN (Wor,r Npcrr'ecr:)
274
We haue sat and watched them pass here to get gotd out and, haue
said nothing. . . . My friends, when I went to Washington I went
into your ntoney-house and I had some Aoung men with me, but none
of them took any moneA out ol that house while I was with them. At
the sam,e time, when your Great Father,s people come into my
country, they go into my money-house lthe Black Hiltsl and tatce
money out.
. -MerverlNr HeNsre (LoNc Mewoex)
LIy frientls, lor many Aea?'s ue haue been in this country; we neuer go
to the Great Father's country q,nd bother him about anything. It is
his people who come to our country and bother us, d,o many bail
things and teach our people to be bad. . Before gou people euer
crossed the ocean to come to this country, and lrom that time to this,
Eou haue ?teuer proposed to buy a country that was equal to this in
riches. My friends, this country that gou haue come to buy is the best
country that we haue . . . this country is mine, I was raised, in it;
mg lorelathers liued and died in it; and I wish to remain ,in, it.
-Kercr Wryere (Cnow Fpetnrn)
Y:u haue driuen awaa our gatne and our nleans oJ
liuetihood out ol
the countrg, until now ue haue nothing lelt that is ualuable ercept
the hills that you as/r; zs to giue 1tp. . . The earth is futt ol minirals
of all hinds, and on the earth the grountl .is couercd with lorests ol
heauy pine, ond u.lLett, u,e giue these up to the Great Father we know
th,at ue giue u,p the last thing that is ualtmble either to *s or the tL'lite
Tteople.
-lVexrcr Sr.r (Wrrmu Cluosr,)
When the prairie is on fire Aou see animals surroundeil by the fi.re;
Aou see them run and try to hide themselues so that they wiil not
burn. That is the wag we are here.
-Ne.rrlryeNupr (SunnouNooo )
I{* LoNG after Red Cloud and Spotted TaiI and their Teton peoples settled down on their reservations in northwestern
Nebraska, rumors began to fly among the white settlements that
immense amounts of gold were hidden in the Bl"ack Hills.
Paha
Sapa,the Black Hills, was the center of the world, the place of
gods and holy mountains, where warriors went to speak with
the Great spirit and await visions. In 1868 the Great Father considered the hills worthless and gave them to the Indians forever by treaty. Four years later white miners were violating
the treaty. They invaded Paha Sapo, searching the rocky passes
and clear-running streams for the yellow metal which drove
white men ctazy. When Indians found these crazy white men in
th
eir sacred hills, they kiiled them or chased them out' By 1874
there was such a mad clamor from gold-hungry Americans that
the Army was ordered to make a recotrnaissance into the Black
Hills. The United states government did not bother to obtain consent from the Indians before starting on this armed invasion, although the treaty of 1868 prohibited entry of white men
without the Indians' permission.
During the Nloon of Red Cherries, more than a thousand pony
soldiers marched across the Plains from Fort Abraham Lincoln
to the Black Hills, They were the Seventh cavalry, and at their
head rode General George Armstrong Custer, the same Star Chief who in 1868 had slaughtered Black Kettle's Southern Cheyennes on the Washita. The Sioux called him Pahuska, the
Long Hair, and because they had no warning of his coming, they
could only watch from afar as the long columns of blue-uni-
formed cavalrymen and canvas-covered supply wagolls invaded
their sacred country.
When Red Cloud heard about the Loug Hair's expedition, he
protested: , I do not like General Custer and all his soldiers going into the Black Hills, as that is the country of the Oglala
Sior*." It was also the country of the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and other sioux tribes. The anger of the Indians was strong enough that the Great Father, Ulysses Grant, announced his determination "to prevent alI invasion of this country by in-276
truders so long as by law and treaty it is secured to the Indians." 1
But when Custer reported that the hills were filled with gold
"from the grass roots down," parties of white men began forming like summer locusts, uazy to begin panning and digging.
The trail that Custer's supply wagons had cut into the heart of
Palta Sapa soon became the Thieves' Road.
Red Cloud was having trouble that summer with his reservation agent, J. J. Saville, over the poor quality of rations and supplies being issued to the Oglalas. Preoccupied as he was, Red
Cloud failed to assess the full impact upon the Sioux of Custer's
intrusion into the Black Hills, especially upon those who left
the reservations every spiing to hunt and camp near the hills.
Like many other aging leaders, Red Cloud was too much involved with petty details, and he was losing touch with the younger tribesmen.
In the autumn followiug Custer's expedition, the Sioux who had been hunting in the north began returning to the Red Cloud
agency. They were angry as hornets over the invasion of.
Paha
Sapa, and some talked of forming a war party to go back after
the miners who were pouring into the hills. Red Cloud listened
to the talk, but advised the young men to be patient; he was sure the Great Father would keep his promise and send soldiers
to drive out the miners. In the Moon of Falling Leaves, however, something happened that made Red Cloud realize just how angry his young men were at the Long Hair's soldiers.
On
October 22 agent Saville sent some of his white workmen to cut a tall pine and bring the trunk back to the stockade.
When
the Indians saw the pine pole lying on the ground they asked
Saville what it was to be used for. A flagpole, the agent told them; he was going to fly a flag over the stockade. The Indians
protested. Long Hair Custer had flown flags in his eamps across
the Black Hills; they wanted no flags or anything else in their
agency to remind them of soldiers.
Savilie paid no attention to the protests, and next morning he put his men to work digging a hole for the flagpole. In a few
minutes a band of young warriors came with axes and began
chopping the pole to pieces. Saville ordered them to stop, but
they paid no attention to him, and the agent strode across to Red
Cloud's office and begged him to stop the warriors. Red Cloud
refused; he knew the warriors were only expressing their rancor
over the Long Hair's invasion of the Black Hills.
Infuriated, Saville now ordered one of his workmen to ride to the Soldiers' Town (Fort Robinson) and request a company
of cavalrymen to come to his aid. When the demonstrating warriors saw the man riding toward the fort, they guessed his mission. They rushed for their tepee camps, armed and painted themselves for battle, and went to intercept the cavalrymen.
There were only twenty-six Bluecoats led by a lieutenant; the
warriors encircled them, fired their guns into the air, and yelled
a few war cries. The lieutenant (Emmet Crawford) betrayed no
fear. Through the great cloud of dust thrown up by the milling
warriors, he kept his men moving steadily toward the agency.
Some of the younger warriors began riding in close, colliding
their ponies with the troopers' mounts, determined to precipitate a fight.
This time it was not another troop of cavalry which came galloping to Lieutenant Crawford's rescue, but a band of ageney
Sioux led by Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, son of OId-Man-
Afraid. The agency Indians broke through the ring of warriors,
formed a protective wall around the Bluecoats, and escorted
them on to the stockade. The belligerent warriors were still so
angry, however, that they tried to burn down the stockade, and
only the persuasive oratory of Red Dog and Old-Man-Afraid-
of-His-Horses stopped the demonstration.
Again Red Cloud refused to interfere. He was not surprised when many of the protesters packed up, dismantled their tepees,
and started back north to spend the winter off the reservation.
They had proved to him that there were still Sioux warriors who would never take lightly any invasion of. Paha Sapa, yet
apparently Red Cloud did not realize that he was losing these
young men forever. They had rejected his leadership for that
of Sitting BuIl and Crazy Horse, neither of whom had ever lived
on a reservation or taken the white man's handouts.
By the spring of 1875, tales of Black Hills gold had brought hundreds of miners up the Missouri River and out upon the Thieves' Road. The Army sent soldiers to stop the flow of prospectors. A few were removed from the hills, but no legal action
was taken against them, and they soon returned to prospect their claims. General Crook (the Plains Indians cailed him Three Stars instead of Gray Wolf) made a reconnaissance of the
Black Hills, and found more than a thousand miners in the area.
Three Stars politely informed them that they were violating the law and ordered them to leave, but he made no effort to enforce his orders.
Alarmed by the white men's gold craze and the Army's failure
to protect their territory, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail made strong protests to 'Washington officials. The Great Father's response was to send out a commission ('to treat with the Sioux
Indians for the relinquishment of the Black Hills." In other words, the time had come to take away one more piece of territory that had been assigned to the Indians in perpetuity. As usual, the commission was made up of politicians, missionaries,
traders, and military officers. Senator William B. Allison of Iowa was the chairman. Reverend Samuel D. Ilinman, who had
long endeavored to replace the Santees' religion and culture
with Christianity, was the principal missionary. General Alfred
Terry represented the military. John Collins, post trader at Fort
Laramie, represented the commercial interests.
To ensure representation of nonagency as well as agency Indians, runners were sent to invite Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other "wild" chiefs to the council. Half-breed Louis Richard
<
br /> took the government letter to Sitting BulI and read it to him.
"I want you to go and tell the Great Father," Sitting Bull responded, "that I do not want to sell any land to the government." He picked up a pinch of dust and added: "Not even as much as this." 2 Crazy Horse was also opposed to the selling
of Sioux land, espeeially the Black Hilis. He refused to attend
the eouncil, but Little Big Man would go as an observer for the
free Oglalas.
If the commissioners expected to meet quietly with a few compliant chiefs and arrange an inexpensive trade, they were in for
a rude surprise. When they arrived at the meeting place-on White River between the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies
-the Plains for miles around were covered with Sioux camps
and immense herds of grazing ponies. From the Missouri River
on the east to the Bighorn country on the west, all the nations
of the Sioux and many of their Cheyenne and Arapaho friends
had gathered there-more than twenty thousand Indians.
Few of them had ever seen a copy of the treaty of 1868, but a goodiy number knew the meaning of a certain elause in that
sacred document: "No treaty for the cession of any part of the
reservation herein described . . shall be of any validity or force unless exeeuted and signed by at least three-fourths of all the adult male Indians, occupying or interested in the same." 3 Even if the commissioners had been able to intimidate
or buy off every chief present, they could not have obtained more than a few dozen signatures from those thousands of angry,
well-armed warriors who were determined to keep every pinch