Killing Crazy Horse

by Bill O'Reilly

  But Howard’s negotiations with Chief Joseph have proven tricky. At one time, the general actually believed the Nez Percé had a valid claim to their lands and should not be moved onto the reservation. But all that changed in the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Howard began to treat Chief Joseph with contempt, seeing Native Americans as a threat rather than an ally. Joseph’s refusal to move onto the reservation became a personal insult to Howard. In the days after the Battle at White Bird Canyon the general believes he has trapped Chief Joseph on the banks of the Salmon River. But that is not the case, as the Nez Percé taunt him from the opposite shore, then successfully flee east—ironically, in the direction of the Little Bighorn battlefield.

  The chase continues on through July and into August. Joseph is proving himself a wily adversary, utilizing complex battlefield tactics to frustrate the Americans time and again. The Nez Percé are not moving forward in an attempt to retake land—rather, they continue to retreat. Eventually, Joseph would like to link up with Sitting Bull in Canada.

  In addition to Howard’s mounted force, an American unit under the command of Colonel John Gibbon begins tracking Chief Joseph and his people in July. On the morning of August 10, Gibbon’s men strike, surprising the Nez Percé in their encampment, killing eighty—mostly women and children. Chief Joseph soon counterattacks—wounding Gibbon and decimating his force. The hunt for Chief Joseph is over for Gibbons and his men. They march home to Fort Shaw in the Montana Territory.

  General Howard is furious. With every passing day, his sense of personal humiliation about being bested by his adversary, Chief Joseph, grows. Six days after the battle with Gibbon, that outrage intensifies when the Nez Percé steal all of Howard’s horses and pack animals in a surprise raid. It seems impossible, but fewer than three hundred warriors are on the verge of defeating more than two thousand U.S. soldiers under Howard’s command.

  On August 22, Chief Joseph leads his tribe into a region the United States recently branded Yellowstone National Park. Coincidentally, General William Sherman and some aides are camping there as well on this late-summer day. Joseph has now become national news. In the year since George Custer and his men were massacred, the American public’s anger has somewhat abated. With almost every American Indian tribe now on a reservation, the public perceives that the wars are over. However, there is some sympathy for Chief Joseph, whose retreat will eventually be a journey of more than a thousand miles.

  From his campsite in Yellowstone, a furious General Sherman orders Colonel Samuel Sturgis and the Seventh Cavalry to get Chief Joseph. Colonel Nelson Miles, so recently responsible for the surrender of Crazy Horse, is also involved, traveling from Fort Keogh to cut off Joseph’s retreat into Canada.

  By late September a confrontation is near.

  Just forty miles short of the Canadian border, Chief Joseph’s retreat is undone by bad weather and lack of food to feed his people. His tribe’s horses are bony and lame. The Nez Percé have traveled eighteen hundred circuitous miles. They have fought five major battles against the whites, winning three. U.S. casualties number 126 dead, while the Nez Percé have lost 151 warriors.

  A now bitter General Howard has given chase for almost a hundred days, but it is Colonel Miles who knows the glory of finally ending Chief Joseph’s flight.

  In his report to the secretary of war, Miles will write: “The Nez Percés are the boldest men and best marksmen of any Indians I have ever encountered, and Chief Joseph is a man of more sagacity and intelligence than any Indian I have ever met; he counseled against the war, and against the usual cruelties practiced by Indians, and is far more humane than such Indians as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.”

  By the time his flight comes to an end, Joseph’s skillful retreat has earned him the nickname “the Red Napoleon” in the American press. Even General Sherman, a master of military strategy in his own right, marvels at the Nez Percé’s mastery of the battlefield. “The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise,” Sherman noted. “They fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications.”

  Five weeks after entering Yellowstone, Joseph agrees to meet with Nelson Miles. The Nez Percé are surrounded in a place called Bear Paw but refuse to lay down their arms. As negotiations begin, thirty warriors slip away under cover of darkness. Three days later, they are warmly welcomed by Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa Sioux band in Canada.

  Joseph knows he could also escape. But gaining his personal freedom while abandoning his tribe would forever compromise his leadership. Instead, he allows himself to be considered a prisoner of war. After a five-day negotiation, Chief Joseph agrees to Miles’s terms of unconditional surrender.

  Chief Joseph surrenders to Generals Miles and Howard, 1877.

  “I am tired of fighting,” Chief Joseph says. “It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs: I am tired. My heart is sick and sad.

  “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

  * * *

  The date the Nez Percé lose their freedom is October 5, 1877.

  There are now no more powerful Indian nations roaming free in the United States.

  Notes

  Prologue

  1. The cow tail symbolized the Creek rebellion against the ways of the white settlers. Prior to the conflict, raids to steal cattle were considered a method of training young warriors for actual warfare. Cutting off a stolen cow’s tail was the same as taking a scalp. In prior centuries it was customary to wear a buffalo tail, but that animal was hunted to extinction in the Southeast by the end of the eighteenth century, leading to the adoption of the cow’s tail.

  2. The forty-five-year-old Tecumseh allied himself with the British during the War of 1812, seeking to defeat American military forces and establish an independent Indian nation west of the Mississippi River. He would be killed one month after the attack on Fort Mims, at the Battle of the Thames on the shores of Lake Erie.

  3. The quote comes from an 1890 letter William Weatherford’s grandson, Charles Weatherford, wrote about the massacre. In this letter, later published by the Mississippi Historical Society, Charles claims that the unnamed woman to whom the quote is attributed is his aunt, Mrs. Susan Hatterway, who was living as a refugee inside Fort Mims in 1813.

  4. Though the lives of many slaves were spared by the Creek, that of the young man tied to the whipping post was not among them. However, drummer Martin Rigdon managed to escape during a lull in the fighting. His parents and sisters, who had accompanied him to Fort Mims, were not as fortunate.

  Chapter 1

  1. Andrew Jackson fought that duel with his personal rival, Charles Dickinson, on May 30, 1806. Dickinson accused Jackson of reneging on a horse-racing bet and of being a coward, as well as slandered Jackson’s wife with a charge of bigamy. (Rachel Jackson was previously married. Her divorce was not final at the time she wed Andrew Jackson.) The two men fought at Harrison’s Mill in Logan, Kentucky. Dickinson was the better marksman and shot first, striking Jackson near the heart. Pressing his left hand over the wound to stop the blood flow, Jackson pulled the trigger of his own weapon, but the pistol misfired. Taking careful aim again, Jackson fired a second shot, which killed Dickinson.

  2. More than three thousand men answer Jackson’s call to battle. So many, in fact, that Tennessee earned the nickname “The Volunteer State,” a title it holds to this day.

  Chapter 2

  1. Among the original Tennessee volunteers was a garrulous frontiersman named Davy Crockett. He enlisted shortly after the Fort Mims massacre and served until December 1813. He was not present for the Creek battle at Horseshoe Bend.

 
; 2. Shortly after the Thirty-Ninth were ordered to join Jackson’s command in January 1814, the general sought to quell the unruly behavior of his Tennessee volunteers by executing a soldier for misbehavior. Jackson ordered an eighteen-year-old private from the Tennessee militia shot by a firing squad. The charges against Private John Woods were false, but Jackson refused to rescind the order.

  3. The advantages of a mounted fighting force were made clear early in U.S. history, with the successes of Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion and Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee in the Revolutionary War. However, it was not until March 1833 that President Andrew Jackson finally authorized the formation of a U.S. Army contingent of soldiers on horseback. They were officially known as dragoons, taking the name from similar French troops who rode into battle carrying a pistol bearing an imprint of a dragon.

  4. Call went on to serve as a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Florida Territory, which would not become a state until 1845. In 1836, he would be appointed territorial governor of Florida, courtesy of Call’s friend and former superior officer, Andrew Jackson.

  5. Though he was educated in white schools and Andrew Jackson attempted to arrange an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, Lyncoya was considered a “curiosity” and a “pet,” in the words of Richard K. Call. He died of tuberculosis at the age of seventeen. The Jacksons had adopted a third son by then. Andrew Jackson Hutchings (1812–1841) was the grandson of Rachel’s sister who was orphaned at the age of five, whereupon Andrew and Rachel Jackson adopted him. He ultimately married the daughter of Jackson’s best friend, General John Coffee.

  6. The Creek Nation was at a disadvantage because they had few horses. In fact, only their leaders usually rode. The southeastern part of the United States did not have large herds of wild horses available, so the Creek warriors were basically infantry.

  7. There are numerous versions of Weatherford’s surrender story and his ensuing speech. All are based on hearsay, so it is impossible to know which is most accurate. The salient points—that Weatherford rode into Jackson’s camp, surrendered with a great act of oratory, and was pardoned by Jackson—are all consistent. General Jackson will justify his actions to his good friend General Thomas Woodward, saying that Weatherford was “as high-toned and fearless as any man he had met with—one whose very nature scorned a mean action.”

  8. Initially, the Creek were allowed to remain in the Southeast, but in 1836, President Andrew Jackson ordered them relocated to Indian Territory.

  Chapter 3

  1. This practice persisted until 1913 and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. A speech has been standard practice since that time. Until 1934, the State of the Union address was delivered in December instead of January. It was called the “Annual Message” rather than State of the Union up until 1933. Calvin Coolidge delivered the first State of the Union address by radio in 1923, Harry Truman delivered the first by television in 1947, and Bill Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union was the first ever sent over the Internet.

  Chapter 4

  1. Congress is so suspicious of America maintaining a standing army that it has mandated the nation’s fighting force be reduced to a legal limit of exactly 6,183 officers and troops. The nation’s military academy at West Point continues to graduate would-be officers, but few actually receive a commission. Thus, when trouble arises, a volunteer militia is the fastest way of raising a fighting force.

  2. Lincoln earned this nickname while working as a store clerk in New Salem. After mistakenly overcharging a customer, he traveled several miles to refund the money.

  3. In perhaps the first example of a Native American voice being published for a white audience, Blackhawk’s version of events appears in an 1833 autobiography: Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk, published in Cincinnati and edited by John B. Patterson.

  4. This band of Sioux were mercenaries working on behalf of the U.S. government to defeat Blackhawk.

  5. U.S. military officers Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis are the men who take charge of Blackhawk after he surrenders. Taylor will go on to become president of the United States, while Davis will become president of the Confederate States during the Civil War.

  Chapter 5

  1. The Apache are descended from Athabascan tribes originating in Canada and Alaska. Their migration southward likely took place before the year 1100. They do not function as a single tribe but as many autonomous bands defined by region. The Eastern Apache number the Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Kiowa, and Lipin bands. The Western Apache are comprised of the Cinecue, Mimbreno, Coyotero, and Mogollon Apache. In times of war, it is common for several bands to be under the leadership of a single chief.

  Chapter 6

  1. The law’s full name is “An Act to Regulate Trade and Intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and to Preserve Peace on the Frontiers.” Congress passed it on June 30, 1834, declaring that no whites were allowed to settle on Indian land or trade with the Indians. The mandate was so ineffective that a second law establishing “A Permanent Indian Frontier” was passed in 1840. This law, too, was ignored.

  Chapter 7

  1. A census of the Cherokee nation conducted by the U.S. War Department in 1835 counted the total tribal population as 16,542 full-blooded Cherokee, 201 intermarried whites, and 1,592 African American slaves. Though the tribe was never allowed to vote on the Treaty of New Echota, more than 13,000 signed a petition against the accord in February 1836.

  Chapter 8

  1. In a nod to his close relationship with Andrew Jackson, Polk’s nickname was “Young Hickory.” He was a gifted orator whose life was marred by a childhood surgical procedure to prevent urinary stones. A hole was drilled in his prostate gland without the use of anesthetic, leaving him permanently impotent.

  Chapter 9

  1. A total of 1,733 Americans were killed in the war with Mexico. More than 4,000 were wounded. The Mexican Army suffered more than 10,000 dead.

  2. Mercury was commonly used by miners to separate gold embedded in rock. The mercury was then washed downstream into San Francisco Bay. California gold miners used so much of this toxic metal that more than 150 years later, many restaurants in San Francisco still refuse to serve fish caught in the bay due to high mercury levels.

  3. The Pomo were massacred after taking revenge on white settlers who had raped their daughters and attempted to enslave the adults.

  Chapter 11

  1. The Texas Rangers were formed by Stephen F. Austin in 1823 to protect white settlers from Indian attack. This occurred during a time when Texas was still part of Mexico, giving the Rangers no legal authority. However, upon the creation of the Texas Republic in 1836, President Mirabeau Lamar formalized their role as protectors of the frontier. The Rangers were disbanded after Texas became a state, but concerns about the U.S. Army’s inability to protect settlers from Indian attack led to their reinstatement in 1857. The Rangers still exist today as a law enforcement agency focused on investigating crime and protecting the governor of Texas.

  2. The average infantry regiment costs $500,000 a year to maintain. The feed and care of horses added $1 million each year to that cost. It should be noted that America’s first true cavalry regiment was named the Second Cavalry, for reasons known only to bureaucracy. Their first commander was Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, famous for his later role as a general in the Civil War, who kept a rattlesnake for a pet in his Texas headquarters.

  3. Rachel was soon reunited with her husband. She published a book about her captivity shortly after her release from the Comanche. Narrative of Twenty-one Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Comanche Indians is considered one of the most accurate portrayals of daily life on the prairie with an Indian tribe. Rachel Parker Plummer died from childbirth complications on March 19, 1839.

  4. John Parker eventually fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. After that, he moved to Mexico, where he lived until his death in 1915.

  Chapter 12

 
1. To this day, it is not known exactly why the U.S. contingent allowed Cochise’s wife and children to live. After their release, they returned to Apache territory, eventually finding Cochise high in the mountains.

  Chapter 13

  1. Lincoln’s decision was based on the belief that all men must be granted equal fairness under the law, regardless of race. His pardons were granted to all those for whom guilt could not be confirmed. Regardless, it appears that those Sioux hanged were chosen at random.

  2. The Minnesota Historical Society acquired the scalp and skull of Little Crow. These remains were put on display at the Minnesota State Capitol building in 1879. They were viewed by the public until 1915, when they were removed from display at the request of Little Crow’s descendants. It wasn’t until 1971 that Little Crow’s remains were returned to his family for burial at the First Presbyterian Church in Flandreau, South Dakota.

  Chapter 14

  1. The location of Fort Phil Kearny is in modern-day Wyoming. The “Dakota Territory” was a construct of the U.S. government, extending from what is now North and South Dakota west through Montana and Wyoming. A separate and unique Wyoming Territory was not created until 1868. Of note: the name “Wyoming” was not the name the Native Americans called the region. Instead, Congress named it for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, site of a 1778 battle during the Revolutionary War.