The Sixth Grandfather—Black Elk’s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie
Spotted Tail’s Folk—A History of the Brule Sioux, by George E. Hyde
Vestiges of a Proud Nation, edited by Glenn E. Markoe
War Cries on Horseback—The Story of the Indian Wars of the Great Plains, by Stephen Longstreet
We Are The Ancestors Of Those Yet To Be Born, by Bill Tall Bull
William Jackson, Indian Scout, by James Willard Schultz
Wolves For The Blue Soldiers—Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-90, by Thomas W. Dunlay
Wooden Leg—A Warrior Who Fought Custer, interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis
Yellowstone Command—Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877, by Jerome A. Greene
To close, I want to restate that this long and protracted campaign against the warrior bands of the Northern Plains impacted far more than the 408 lives accounted for in the official army record of the Great Sioux War. Killed were 283 officers and men (which included Indian scouts), most of whom died at the Little Bighorn. Only 125 were wounded. But those are not the whole of the costs.
In the midst of recovering from the devastating costs of the Civil War, finding itself staring squarely into the teeth of an economic depression, the battered federal government accounted for $2,312,531.24 it spent defeating the Lakota and their allies. As author Charles M. Robinson points out in his book A Good Year to Die, the full impact of this much money from that era could have built at least nine large steam warships, fully armed and equipped, ready for the sea.
Without argument, the Indian losses for the duration of the conflict are impossible to determine because of the removal of the dead and wounded from the battlefields by their comrades. However, author Robinson explains that a reasonable figure based upon the subsequent testimony of warrior participants places the number at approximately 150 killed and no more than ninety wounded. That means that in some fifteen months the government spent over $9,600 to kill or wound each one of those Lakota and Cheyenne.
Likewise, we have no solid count of those civilians killed outside of the many skirmishes and battles: teamsters, mule-whackers, cattlemen, and prospectors. Nor do we have firm figures for the casualties among noncombatants in the villages attacked by the army during the Great Sioux War. Not only were women, children, and old ones killed in the fighting, but even greater numbers died of starvation or exposure to the brutal temperatures of the Northern Plains.
Perhaps even more telling, for those who survived an attack to escape into the wilderness, their villages and most of what they had owned had just been destroyed. By any reckoning, the economic loss in lodges and robes, blankets and kettles, clothing and weapons was nothing short of devastating.
Their way of life had been brought to an end, crushed forever.
The eventual fate of those who were conquered depended much upon where they chose to surrender. As you’ve seen, many of the Ohmeseheso who turned themselves over to Miles enlisted as scouts and were therefore allowed to remain along the Tongue River where they kept their weapons and ponies, serving the frontier army faithfully across the next two decades.
On the other hand, those Cheyenne who followed Little Wolf and Morning Star south to surrender to Crook at Camp Robinson were not near so fortunate as their kin to the north. Despite their steadfast belief that they would receive a better deal from Three Stars Crook, they were quickly marched to Indian Territory. The removal of those Cheyenne bands created misgivings among the Camp Robinson Lakota who began to suspect that they were next, regardless of Spotted Tail’s professions that he had struck an unbreakable deal with Crook.
For some time Congress did in fact resist regional pressure to send the Lakota to Indian Territory, adopting instead a course only slightly less detestable in Lakota eyes: relocation of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies to the west bank of the Missouri River, near the town of Yankton where it would be far easier to supply the defeated peoples by river steamer.
At the same time, the Ponca Indians, a small band long friendly to the government, were uprooted and removed to Indian Territory so their reservation could be given over to the new Lakota agencies transferred to the Missouri. The very thing that Spotted Tail had feared and struggled so hard to oppose was now a reality.
By that May of 1877, as the last of the northern hostiles were escaping into Canada or surrendering at the Nebraska agencies, and as Miles was mopping up Lame Deer’s bitter-enders, far away to the west there were rumblings of trouble with the non-treaty Nez Perce of Joseph, White Bird, and Looking Glass. The first group of transferees from the Spotted Tail Agency was being shipped east to the new agencies on the muddy Missouri. However, it is interesting to note that many were allowed to remain at the old agencies for the time being. There, confronted with growing despair and more broken promises, they looked to Crazy Horse to lead them anew. But other Lakota, exhausted by war and the ruin of their culture, feared the Strange Man of the Oglalla.
All around him at the Red Cloud Agency were chiefs growing jealous of the powerful hold Crazy Horse held not only among his own people, but over the white agency and soldiers alike.
It would not be long before the army was forced to turn much of its attention to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, chasing the courageous Nez Perce into Montana Territory as they fled pell-mell for Canada. While the soldier chiefs turned their attention to catching Joseph’s people, many of the powerful Lakota leaders would turn their backs on Crazy Horse.
Both of these are dramatic, and ultimately tragic, tales I will chronicle over the next three years in forthcoming volumes of the Plainsmen Series.
Because of the collection of rundown trailers scattered across the ground where Lame Deer’s village once sat, because so little remains that would allow me to visualize how the site appeared 120 years ago, I went exploring the countryside around the tiny community of Lame Deer, Montana. While the creek the frontiersmen originally called the Big Muddy is now named in honor of Lame Deer, less than a handful of miles west of the town I ran across present-day’s Muddy Creek as it ambled and twisted toward its junction with the Rosebud.
It was there I found hills and a valley closely matching those in that 1901 L.A. Huffman photograph of the battle-site. I turned off the blacktop and onto BIA 209, a gravel road that led me toward the far slopes where it wasn’t hard for me to visualize the women and children, the old ones, and eventually the warriors all fleeing in escape that chilly spring morning.
Down in the bottom I crossed the last few yards of the Muddy and turned off to follow the faint parallel tracks of a four-wheel-drive road meandering beside the contorted creekbed. Here in Montana it has been an unusually wet year, so I found the stream running high as I brought the truck to a stop and sat still for a few minutes, stunned at the sudden, all-consuming quiet.
Nothing like that ground where the mobile homes now sit, there beneath that hillside where Lame Deer’s bones rest for eternity.
Here, I could step over to the side of the Muddy and settle down in the grass beside the whispering water and the freshly killed carcass of a wild turkey. No downwind tainted smell, the turkey hadn’t been here for more than a day. In time the noisy magpies quieted their protests and returned to their feast.
Once more I was struck with the feeling that I was the interloper here. Some critter had killed that fat bird, eaten its fill, then moved on.
Perhaps, I thought, it’s part of what I’m being told.
These moments of such quiet are far too rare. Here beside this creek I listen for the whispers of ghosts from that last fight of the Great Sioux War.
Each time the breeze died in the tall grass that brilliant, sunny day as the hours passed, I could once again hear the gentle gurgle of the Muddy across its pebbly bed, make out the trill and whistle of the birds in the brush all around me.
And in those voices of the earth warming, I made out the voices of tho
se who wanted their stories told—stories of this place … tales of a time that was, never to be again.
—Terry C. Johnston
Muddy Creek
Montana
May 7, 1997
OVERWHELMING ACCLAIM FOR THE WORK OF TERRY C. JOHNSTON
“Compelling … Johnston offers memorable characters, a great deal of history and lore about the Indians and pioneers of the period, and a deep insight into human nature.”
—Booklist
“Johnston’s books are action-packed … A remarkably fine blend of arduous historical research and proficient use of language … Lively, lusty, fascinating.”
—Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
“Rich in historical lore and dramatic description, this is a first-rate addition to a solid series, a rousing tale of one man’s search for independence in the unspoiled beauty of the Old West.”
—Publishers Weekly on Buffalo Place
“A first-class novel by a talented author.”
—Tulsa World on Dream Catcher
“With meticulous research, vivid dialogue, memorable characters, and a voice uniquely his own, Johnston has once again written the finest of historical fiction, seamlessly blending together both time and place to bring to life a world as real as our own.”
—Roundup magazine on Dance on the Wind
“Terry C. Johnston is the absolute master at taking authentic details into the realm of gripping, compelling entertainment … Johnston has the astounding ability to take the reader into the hearts and minds of real Western characters, while simultaneously making the details of historically based plots crystal clear. He walks the ground before he writes, then the reader walks with him.”
—Michael Martin Murphey, Popular Western Entertainer
THE PLAINSMEN SERIES BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON
Book I: Sioux Dawn
Book II: Red Cloud’s Revenge
Book III: The Stalkers
Book IV: Black Sun
Book V: Devil’s Backbone
Book VI: Shadow Riders
Book VII: Dying Thunder
Book VIII: Blood Song
Book IX: Reap the Whirlwind
Book X: A Cold Day in Hell
Book XI: Trumpet on the Land
Book XII: Wolf Mountain Moon
Book XIII: Ashes of Heaven
Book XIV: Cries from the Earth
Book XV: Lay the Mountains Low
Book XVI: Turn the Stars Upside Down
About the Author
TERRY C. JOHNSTON was born on the first day of 1947 on the plains of Kansas, and has lived all his life in the American West. His first novel, Carry the Wind, won the Medicine Pipe Bearer’s Award from the Western Writers of America, and his subsequent books have appeared on bestseller lists throughout the country. He lives and writes in Big Sky country near Billings, Montana.
Each year Terry and his wife, Vanette, publish their annual “WinterSong” newsletter. Twice every summer they take readers on one-week historical tours of the battle sites and hallowed ground Terry chronicles in volume after volume of this bestselling Plainsmen Series.
All those wanting to write to the author, those requesting the annual “WinterSong” newsletter, or those desiring information on taking part in the author’s summer tours, can write to him at:
Terry C. Johnston
P.O. Box 50594
Billings, MT 59105
ASHES OF HEAVEN
Copyright © 1998 by Terry C. Johnston.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-96511-7
EAN: 80312-96511-2
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / May 1998
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN 9781466843226
First eBook edition: March 2013
* Bighorn Mountains
* Red Cloud’s agency for the Oglalla Sioux, near Camp Robinson, Nebraska
* Term used by the Lakota to designate the Cheyenne tribe
† Powder River
# Name given Colonel Nelson A. Miles by the tribes of the Northern Plains who fought against him
@ Battle of the Butte, January 8, 1877. The Plainsmen Series, vol. 12, Wolf Mountain Moon
* white man
† General George C. Crook
* Battle of the Rosebud, June 17, 1876—Reap the Whirlwind, vol. 9, The Plainsmen Series
† Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876—Seize the Sky, vol. 2, Son of the Plains Trilogy
* Dull Knife Battle, November 25, 1876—A Cold Day in Hell, vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
* Battle of Beecher Island, September, 1868—The Stalkers, vol. 3, The Plainsmen Series
* Battle of the Butte
* White man
* Johnny Bruguier
† Term used by the Northern Cheyenne to designate themselves as the “Northern People”
* Cheyenne name for Sitting Bull
† Reynolds’s Fight on Powder River, March 17, 1876—Blood Song, vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
* Lakota for Minnicoujou, which is the spelling of the word as used on the tribal flag
* Dying Thunder, vol. 7, The Plainsmen Series
* The Crow People
* Wolf Mountain Moon, vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* Trumpet on the Land, vol. 10, The Plainsmen Series
† Wolf Mountain Moon, vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* Wolf Mountains
* Yellowstone River
† Otis’s supply train bound for Tongue River Cantonment, October 1876, A Cold Day In Hell, vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
* How the Northern Cheyenne referred to the Oglalla Lakota
† Belle Fourche River
* Rosebud Creek
† Little Bighorn River
* The Sacred Buffalo Hat
† Their camp was located somewhere between present-day St. Xavier and Lodge Grass, Montana, on what is now the Crow Reservation
* Little Missouri River
† Big Horn River
* Called Dull Knife by the Lakota and the white man
† Whose village was attacked by Colonel Reynolds on 17 March 1876—Blood Song, vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
# The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851
* Term both northern and southern peoples use to describe themselves, literally meaning “those who are hearted alike”
* The Southern Arapaho
† The Sacred Powers, the Spiritual Beings
* Battle of Beecher Island—The Stalkers, vol. 3, The Plainsmen Series
* Platte Bridge Fight, July 11, 1865—Cry of the Hawk
† Fetterman Massacre, December 21, 1866—Sioux Dawn, vol. 1, The Plainsmen Series
# July, 1867
* Blood Song, vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
* Fetterman Massacre, Sioux Dawn, vol. 1, The Plainsmen Series
† Wagon-Box Fight, Red Cloud’s Revenge, vol. 2
* Before the breakout that would precipitate the skirmish at Warbonnet Creek, Trumpet on the Land, vol. 10, The Plainsmen Series
† William Rowland
* The Crow People
* Present-day Hanging Woman Creek
† Wolf Mountain Moon, vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* Wolf Mountain Moon, vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* Devil’s Backbone, vol. 5, The Plainsmen Series
† Blood Song, vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
* The Platte River
* Blood Song, vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
* The Black Hills
* The Missouri River
* Shadow Riders, vol. 6, The Plainsmen Series
* Dying Thunder, vol. 7, The Plainsmen Series
† Blood So
ng, vol. 8
# Trumpet of the Land, vol. 10
@ A Cold Day in Hell, vol. 11
* Wolf Mountain Moon, vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* Sioux Dawn—vol. 1, The Plainsmen Series
* Fort Phil Kearny, Sioux Dawn—vol. 1, The Plainsmen Series
* A Cold Day in Hell, vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
* Blood Song—vol. 8, The Plainsmen Series
* Reap the Whirlwind—vol. 9, The Plainsmen Series
* William Rowland
* Bighorn Mountains
† The Shoshone
* Trumpet on the Land—vol. 10, The Plainsmen Series
* The Crow People
† The Shoshone
* Wolf Mountain Moon—vol. 12, The Plainsmen Series
* A Cold Day In Hell—vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
† Black Sun—vol. 4, and A Cold Day In Hell—vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
* A Cold Day In Hell—vol 11, The Plainsmen Series
* Trumpet on the Land—vol. 10, The Plainsmen Series
* Rosebud Creek
* What the Cheyenne called today’s Deer Medicine Rocks on the upper Rosebud
* No more than one of the white man’s miles
* A Cold Day In Hell—vol. 11, The Plainsmen Series
Ashes of Heaven Page 42