Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

by Dee Brown

of dust and blade of grass within their territory.

  On September 20, 1875, the commission assembled under the

  shade of a large tarpaulin which had been strung beside a lone

  cottonwood on the rolling plain. The commissioners seated themselves on chairs facing the thousands of Indians who were moving restlessly about in the distance. A troop of 120

  cavalrymen

  on white horses filed in from Fort Robinson and drew up in a line behind the canvas shelter. Spotted Tail arrived in a wagon

  from his agency, but Red Cloud had announced that he would

  not be there. A few other chiefs drifted in, and then suddenly

  a cloud of dust boiled up from the crest of a distant rise. A band

  of Indians eame galloping down upon the council shelter.

  The

  warriors were dressed for battle, and as they came nearer they

  swerved to encirele the commissioners, fired their rifles skyward,

  and gave out a few whoops before trotting off to form a line immediately in the rear of the cavalrymen. By this time a second band of Indians was approaching, and thus tribe by tribe

  the Sioux warriors came in, making their demonstrations of power, until a great circle of several thousand Indians enelosed

  the council. Now the chiefs came forward, well satisfied that

  they had given the commissioners something strong to think

  about. They sat in a semicircle facing the nervous white men,

  eager to hear what they would have to say about the Black Hills.

  During the few days that the commissioners had been at Fort

  Robinson observing the mood of the Indians, they recognized

  the futility of trying to buy the hills and had decided instead

  to negotiate for the mineral rights. "We have now to ask you PHOTO PAGE 281

  Bury My Heart atWounded Knee

  if you are willing to give our people the right to mine in the Black Hills," Senator Allison began, "as long as gold or other valuable minerals are found, for a fair and just sum. If you are

  so willing, we will make a bargain with you for this right.

  When

  the gold or other valuable mineralg are taken away, the country will again be yours to dispose of in any manner you may

  wish."

  Spotted Tail took this proposal as a ludicrous joke. Was the commissioner asking the Indians to lend the Black Hills to the

  white men for a while? His rejoinder was to ask Senator Allison

  if he would lend him a team of mules on such terms.

  "It will be hard for our goverr-)ment to keep the whites out of the hills," Allison continued. "To try to do so will give you and our government great trouble, because the whites that may

  wish to go there are very numerous." The seuator's ignorance

  of the Plains Indians' feeling for the Powder River country was

  displayed in his next proposal: "There is another country lying

  far toward the setting sun, over which you roam and hunt, and

  which territory is yet unceded, extending to the summit of the

  Bighorn Mountains. . . . It does not seem to be of very great value or use to you, and our people think they would like to have the portion of it I have described." a While Senator Allison's incredible demands were being trans-Iated, Red Dog rode up or) a polly aud announced that he had

  a message from Red Cloud. The absent Oglala chief, probably

  anticipating the greed of the commissioners, requested a week's

  recess to give the tribes time to hold councils of their own in

  which to consider all proposals concerning their lands. The commissioners considered the matter and agreed to give the Indians

  three days for holding tribal councils. On September 23

  they

  would expect definite replies from the chiefs.

  The idea of giving up their last great hunting ground was so preposterous that none of the chiefs even discussed it during

  their councils. They did debate very earnestly the question of

  the Black Hills. Some reasoned that if the United States government had no intention of enforcing the treaty and keeping

  the white miners out, then perhaps the Indians should demand

  payment-a great deal of money-for the yellow metal taken from the hills. Others were determined not to sell at any price.

  'Ihe Black Hills belonged to the Indians, they argued; if the Bluecoat soldiers would not drive out the miners, then the warriors must.

  On September 23 the commissioners, riding in Army ambulances from Fort Robinson and escorted by a somewhat enlarged

  cavalry troop, again arrived at the council shelter. Red Cloud

  was there early, and he protested vigorously about the large number of soldiers. Just as he was preparing to give his preliminary speech to the commissioners, a sudden commotion

  broke out among the warriors far in the distance" About three

  hundred Oglalas who had come in from the Powder River eoun-try trotted their ponies down a slope, occasionally firing ofi rifles. Some were chanting a song in Sioux: The Black Hills is rny land and I love it

  And whoever interferes

  Will hear this gun.5

  An Indian mounted on a gray horse forced his way through the ranks of warriors gathered around the canvas shelter.

  He

  was Crazy Horse's envoy, Little Big Man, stripped for battle and wearing two revolvers belted to his waist. "I will kill the first chief who speaks for selling the Black Hills!" he shouted.

  He danced his horse across the open space between the commissioners and the chiefs.6

  Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and a group of unofficial Sioux policemen immediately swarmed around Little Big Man

  and moved him away. The chiefs and the commissioners, however, must have guessed that Little Big Man voiced the feelings

  of most of the warriors present. General Terry suggested to his

  fellow commissioners that they board the Army ambulances

  and return to the safety of Fort Robinson.

  After giving the Indians a few days to calm down, the commissioners quietly arranged a meeting with twenty chiefs in the

  headquarters building of the Red Cloud agency. During three

  days of speech making, the chiefs made it quite clear to the Great Father's representatives that the Black Hiils could not be bought cheaply, if at any price. Spotted TaiI finally grew impatient with the commissioners and asked them to submit

  a definite proposal in writing.

  The offer was four hundred thousand dollars a year for the mineral rights; or if the Sioux wished to sell the hills outright

  the.price would be six million dollars payable in fifteen annual

  installments. (This was a markdown price indeed, considering

  that one Black Hills mine alone yielded more than five hundred

  million dollars in gold.)

  Red Cloud did not even appear for the final meeting, letting Spotted Tail speak for all the Sioux. Spotted TaiI rejected both

  offers, firmly. The Black Hills were not for lease or for sale.

  The commissioners packed up, returned to Washington, reported their failure to persuade the Sioux to relinquish the Black Hills, and recommended that Congress disregard the wishes of the Indians and appropriate a sum fixed "as a fair equivalent of the value of the hills." This forced purchase of the Black Hills should be "presented to the Indians as a finality,"

  they said.?

  Thus was set in motion a chain of actions which would bring

  the greatest defeat ever suffered by the United States Army in

  its wars with the Indians, and ultimately would destroy forever

  the freedom of the northern Plains Indians: Nouember 9, 1875: E. C. Watkins, special inspector for the Indian Bureau. reported to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs

  that Plains Indians living outside r
eservations were fed and well

  armed, were lofty and independent in their attitudes, and were

  therefore a threat to the reservation system. Inspector Watkins

  recommended that troops be sent against these uncivilized Indians "in the winter, the sooner the better, and whip them into

  subjection." 8

  Nouember 22,18?5: Secretary of War W. W. Belknap warned of trouble in the Black Hills "unless something is done to obtain possession of that section for the white miners who have

  been strongly attracted there by reports of rich deposits of the

  precious metal." e

  December S, 1875: Commissioner of Indian Affairs Edward P. Smith ordered Sioux and Cheyenne agents to notify all Indians off reservations to come in and report to their agencies by

  the cold went away. "It was very cold," a young Oglala remembered afterward, "and many of our people and ponies would

  have died in the snow. Also, we were in our own country and

  were doing no harm." "

  The January 31 ultimatum was little short of a declaration of war against the independent Indians, and many of them accepted it as that. But they did not expect the Bluecoats to strike

  so soon. In the Moon of the Snowblind, Three Stars Crook came

  marching north from Fort tr'etterman along the old Bozeman

  Road, where ten years before Red Cloud had begun his stubborn flght to keep the Powder River country inviolate'

  About this same time, a mixed band of Northern Cheyennes

  and Oglala Sioux left Red Cloud agency to go to the Powder River country, where they hoped to find a few bufialo and antelope. About the middle of March they joined some non&gency

  Indians camped a few miles from where the Little Powder runs

  into the Powder. Two Moon, Little WoIf, O1d Bear, Maple Tree,

  and White Bull were the Cheyenne leaders. Low Dog was the

  Oglala chief, and some of the warriors with him were from Crazy

  Horse's village farther north.

  Without warning, at dawn on March 17, Crook's advance column under Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds attacked this peaceful camp. tr'earing nothing in their own country, the Indians

  were asleep when Captain James Egan's white-horse troop, formed in a company front, dashed into the tepee village, firing

  pistols and carbines. At the same time, a second troop of cavalry

  came in on the left flank, and a third swept away the Indians'

  horse herd.

  The first reaction from the warriors was to get as many womell

  and children as possible out of the way of the soldiers, who were

  firing recklessly in all directions' "Old people tottered and hobbled away to get out of reach of the bullets singing among

  the lodges," Wooden Leg said afterward. "Braves seized whatever weapons they had and tried to meet the attack." As soon

  as the noncombatants were started up a rugged mountain slope,

  the warriors took positions on ledges or behind huge rocks'

  From these places they held the soldiers at bay until the women

  and children could escape across the Powder.

  "From a distance we saw the destruction of our village,"

  Wooden Leg said. "Our tepees were burned with everything in

  them. . . I had nothing left but the clothing I had on." The Bluecoats destroyed all the pemmican and saddles in the camp,

  and drove away almost every pony the Indians owned, "between twelve and fifteen hundred head." 13 As soon as darkness

  fell, the warriors went baek to where the Bluecoats were camped,

  determined to recover their stolen horses. Two Moon suecinctly

  desoibed what happened: "That night thd soldiers slept, leaving

  the horses to one side; so we crept up and stole them back again,

  and then we went away." ra

  Three Stars Crook was so angry at Colonel Reynolds for allowing the Indians to escape from their village and recover their horses that he ordered him court-martialed. The.Army reported this foray as "the attack on Crazy Horse's village,,, but Crazy Horse was camped miles away to the northeast. That was

  where Two Moon and the other chiefs led their homeless people

  in hopes of finding food and shelter. They were more than three

  days making the journey; the temperature was below zero at

  night; only a few had buffalo robes; and there was very little food.

  Crazy Horse received the fugitives hospitably, gave them food

  and robes, and found room for them in the Oglala tepees.

  ,,I,m

  glad you are come," he said to Two Moon after listening to accounts of the Blueeoats plundering the village. ,'We are going

  to fight the white man again."

  "All right," Two Moon replied. "f am ready to fight. I have fought already. My people have been killed, my horses stolen;

  I am satisfied to fight." 15

  In the Geese Laying Moon, when the grass was tall and the horses strong, Crazy Horse broke camp and led the Oglalas and

  Cheyennes north to the mouth of Tongue River, where Sitting

  Bull and the Hunkpapas had been living through the winter.

  Not long after that, Lame Deer arrived with a band of Minneconjous and asked permission to camp nearby. They had heard

  about all the Bluecoats marching through the Sioux hunting

  grounds and wanted to be near Sitting Bull's powerful band of

  Hunkpapas should there be any trouble.

  As the weather warmed, the tribes began moving northward

  in search of wild game and fresh grass. Along the way they were

  joined by bands of Brul6s, Saus Arcs, Blackfoot Sioux, and additional Cheyennes. Most of these Indians had left their reservations in accordance with their treaty rights as hunters, and those who had heard of the January 31 ultimatum either considered it as only another idle threat of the Great Father's agents or did not believe it applied to peaceful Indians.

  "Many young mell were auxious to go for fighting the soldiers,"

  said the Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg. "But the chiefs and old men all urged us to keep away from the white men." 16

  While these several thousand Indians were camped on the Rosebud, many young warriors joined them from the reservations. They brought rumors of great forces of Bluecoats marching from three directions. Three Stars Crook was coming from

  the south. The One Who Limps (Colonel John Gibbon) was coming from the west. One Star Terry and Long Hair Custer were coming from the east.

  Early in the Moon of Makiug Fat, the Hunkpapas had their annual sun dance. For three days Sitting Bull danced, bled himself, and stared at the sun until he feli into a trance. When he

  rose again, he spoke to his people. In his vision he had heard

  a voice crying: "I give you these because they have no ears."

  When he looked into the sky he saw soldiers falling like grasshoppers, with their heads down and their hats falling off.

  They

  were falling right into the Indian camp. Because the white men

  had no ears and would not listen, Wakantanka the Great Spirit

  was giving these soldiers to the fndians to be killed.17

  A few days later a hunting party of Cheyennes sighted a column of Bluecoats camped for the night in the valley of the Rosebud. The hunters rode back to camp, sounding the wolf

  howl of danger. Three Stars was coming, and he had employed

  mercenary Crows and Shoshones to scout ahead of his troops.

  The different chiefs sent criers through their villages and then

  held hasty councils. It was decided to leave about half the warriors to protect the villages while the others would travel through

  the night and attack Three Stars's soldiers the next morning'

  About a thousand Sioux and Cheyennes formed the party.

  A

  few women went a
long to help with the spare horses.

  Sitting

  Bull, Crazy Horse, and Two Moon were among the leaders.

  Just

  before daylight they unsaddled and rested for a while; then they turned away from the river and rode across the hills.

  Three Stars's Crow scouts had told him of a great Sioux village down the Rosebud, and the general started these mercenaries out early that morning. As the Crows rode over the crest of a hill and started down, they ran into the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. At first the Sioux and Cheyennes chased the

  Crows in all directions, but Bluecoats began coming up fast, and the warriors pulled back.

  For a long time Crazy Horse had been waiting for a chance to test himself in battle with the Bluecoats. In all the years since the Fetterman fight at Fort Phil Kearny, he had studied

  the soldiers and their ways of fighting. Each time he went into

  the Black Hills to seek visions, he had asked Wakantanka to give him secret powers so that he would know how to lead the

  Oglalas to victory if the white men ever came again to make war upon his people. Since the time of his youth, Crazy Horse

  had known that the world men lived in was only a shadow of

  the real world. To get into the real world, he had to dream, and

  when he was in the real world everything seemed to float or dance. In this real world his horse danced as if it were wild or

  ctazy, and this was why he called himself Crazy Horse. He had

  learned that if he dreamed himself into the real world before

  going into a fight, he could endure anything.

  On this day, June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse dreamed himself into

  the real world, and he showed the Sioux how to do many things

  they had never done before while fighting the white man's soldiers. When Crook sent his pony soldiers in mounted charges,

  instead of rushing forward into the fire of their carbines, the Sioux faded off to their flanks and struck weak places in their

  lines. Crazy Horse kept his warriors mounted and always moving

  from one place to another. By the time the sun was in the top