Kinsman and friend to Crazy Horse, the Miniconjou leader Touch the Clouds (seated far left) sought a diplomatic solution to the crisis in U.S.-Lakota relations. He remained loyal to the war chief, accompanying him on the final ride to Camp Robinson to ensure fair play. Seated next to Touch the Clouds in this 1877 photograph are (left to right) Sharp Nose, Black Coal, and Friday (Northern Arapahos). The standing Lakota is Young Spotted Tail. Courtesy Library of Congress (LC-BH832-523).
Oglala delegation to Washington, 1877. This classic Matthew Brady image includes key agency leaders Red Cloud and Little Wound (seated, first and second from left), plus northern headmen Iron Crow, He Dog (seated, second from right and extreme right), Little Big Man, and Big Road (second row, first and second from left). Courtesy Library of Congress (LC-BH832-850).
Low Dog, 1881. Redoubtable warrior, and irreconcilably hostile to the Americans, Low Dog was one of Crazy Horse’s key supporters in the Oyuhpe band of Oglalas. Courtesy Denver Public Library (B-430).
Spotted Eagle, 1881. War chief of the Sans Arcs, Spotted Eagle organized the opposition to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1872. Among the leaders to choose exile in Canada over surrender, after Crazy Horse’s death, Spotted Eagle emerged as his most widely influential successor. Courtesy Denver Public Library (X-31563).
Black Shawl. This image from the collections of the Standing Bear family is believed to be of Crazy Horse’s wife. The seven-year marriage was the most stable of his personal relationships, and despite illness and the death of their daughter, Black Shawl remained loyal to the war chief, riding with him in the flight to Spotted Tail Agency on the eve of his death. Courtesy Donovin Arleigh Sprague, Crazy Horse Memorial.
Crazy Horse’s funeral cortege. This newspaper image depicts the procession of Crazy Horse’s family en route to Spotted Tail Agency, September 6, 1877. From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.
Crazy Horse’s scaffold burial at Camp Sheridan. Spotted Tail agent Jesse Lee ordered the plank fencing built to protect the scaffold on which Crazy Horse’s body was buried. Lee’s sympathy persuaded Crazy Horse’s father not to join the flights to Canada in the chaotic aftermath of the war chief’s death. From John Gregory Bourke Diaries, courtesy U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
Six
I CHERISH THE LAND
21
I CAME HERE FOR PEACE
Early on the morning of May 7, the people of the northern Oglala village gathered to meet the military agent, Lieutenant Charles A. Johnson. For the first time, Crazy Horse viewed the Red Cloud Agency compound, and he and He Dog visited Frank Yates’s trading store. The trader presented his prominent new clients with gifts of blankets. Outside, a talk was held with the officers. Short Bull recalled that Crazy Horse plainly stated his priorities. Prepared to concede the Tongue River location, he insisted on his second-choice site: “There is a creek over there they call Beaver Creek; there is a great big flat west of the headwaters of Beaver Creek; I want my agency put right in the middle of that flat.” Citing the good grass at the site, he concluded that “after the agency was placed there he would go to Washington and talk to the Great Father.” Then, from the issue bastion at the southeast corner of the agency stockade, clerks disbursed a portion of annuity goods. The agent, recalled Red Feather, “gave them rations, clothing and blankets. Everyone was very jolly.”1
Women hurried back to the village to start making clothes from the rolls of bright-colored flannel, calico, and stroud. Others gathered on the campground to be taught the use of some of the new comestibles. Supplied with skillets and flour, they observed Crook’s ubiquitous packer Tom Moore demonstrate the preparation of fry bread—already a major item in the agency Lakota diet. Army contract surgeon Valentine T McGillycuddy visited the village and attended Crazy Horse’s tipi at the war chief’s request to examine Black Shawl. The northern menfolk meanwhile had been invited to attend a giveaway staged by Red Cloud. Agency scouts redistributed to northern relatives the ponies just surrendered. Only U.S.-branded stock was retained by the army2
As morning progressed, all the northern people gravitated over the prairie to a cluster of corrals marking the agency beef-issue station. Under the eye of butcher Ben Tibbetts, Oglala herders rousted some thirty head of stringy longhorns. Declining meat that had been prebutchered “on the block,” the Deciders requested that their issue “be turned over to them alive, so that they could enjoy a sensation next to that furnished by a buffalo hunt.”3
Hunters rode forward as Tibbetts’s herders whooped the cattle into a run. “All the thrilling whoops of battle, the terrific feats of horsemanship and the skill of the savage with his rudest weapon were exhibited in a twinkling,” observed a Denver journalist. The longhorns raced toward White River, flanked by the hunters. “Every moment a poor brute would receive its death wound from the unerring shaft, and occasionally one made fairly mad would turn and delight his pursuers by a plucky resistance.” Within twenty minutes, all the cattle were slain. Drying racks outside the tipis were soon hung with sheets of wafer-sliced beef and looped with coils of guts, the image of a camp living fat—if only on reservation rations.4
The beef issue ushered in a week of binge eating. Agency leaders hosted feasts and dances, and the Camp Robinson officers’ mess was happy to welcome Lakota veterans of the Great Sioux War. A few days after surrender, Billy Garnett invited Crazy Horse and the Deciders to eat at his cabin. As Billy’s Oglala wife served the meal, Crazy Horse gingerly sat on a chair and pulled up to the table. Away from the public eye, he dropped his mask of reserve and silence, telling Billy that he wished to be shown how to handle a knife and fork: “He said he had got it to do.”
Crazy Horse continued to quiz Billy about the journey east. How would the delegation travel, he asked; how were bodily functions performed on the weeklong railroad journey to Washington? Billy patiently explained to Crazy Horse’s satisfaction. When his guests departed that evening, the interpreter was confident that the war chief was entirely committed to the road of peace.5
The eating continued unabated. Overfed on unfamiliar foods, many people fell ill. At the officers’ mess, strawberries and cream were on the menu, until the unaccustomed richness of diet left the visitors violently sick. Soon after dinner with the Garnetts, Crazy Horse took to his bed, so ill that for several days—according to a hyped-up newspaper account—he was “not expected to live.” Although his symptoms persisted through midmonth, by May 13, just a week after surrender, Crazy Horse began to recover from the worst effects.6
Ill or not, the war chief had a busy week. On May 8 Colonel Mackenzie convened a general council at which he stated that he knew all firearms had not been surrendered. Already sick, Crazy Horse had begged off attending, but when he learned Mackenzie’s ultimatum, he personally “went from tepee to tepee, consuming nearly the entire night, coaxing and commanding by turns, that if any guns could be found they must be turned in before daylight.” A few rifles were turned in at the agency early on the ninth—proof of Crazy Horse’s commitment to the peace process.7
At the annuity distribution, Agent Johnson had remarked to Crazy Horse that he should enlist as an army scout—keeping order at the agency and handling diplomacy with the holdouts up north. The northern council decided a mass enlistment would be advantageous to their cause. At a private feast, Crazy Horse said that he “didn’t wish to go,” but Red Feather “coaxed” his brother-in-law to accept the invitation and articulate the council consensus.8
Crazy Horse made a short but conciliatory speech to Mackenzie. He “wanted to ‘get along straight and well’ at the Agency,” and “‘he would like a hundred of his best men enlisted’” as scouts. Careful to keep the northern agency atop everyone’s agenda, Crazy Horse closed his remarks by urging that the agency “be removed north, where the land is better and where the children would be properly brought up.” In private conversation with Lieutenant Clark, Crazy Horse agreed to enlist.9
Preparations were hurried forward. Clark agreed to
sign up Crazy Horse and fifteen of his leading men. Of the Deciders, Little Hawk, Little Big Man, and Big Road were enrolled. The herald Iron Hawk and akicita leaders He Dog and Four Crows were also approved, all members of the Sore Backs kindred. That tiyospaye’s solidarity was underlined by the enlistment of Bad Heart Bull and Crazy Horse’s comrade Good Weasel. The war chief’s brother-in-law Club Man and relative Whirlwind Bear represented the Hunkpatilas, while Thunder Tail represented Black Twin’s old tiyospaye. Of the Siksicela band, Crazy Bear enlisted. The Oyuhpes following their Decider Big Road included Charging Hawk and White Bear. In what amounted to a concession to Crazy Horse, another ten northern men from Spotted Tail Agency were taken on the army payroll. Led by the Hunkpatila elder Iron Crow, the men would bring their families—perhaps eight or nine lodges—from Spotted Tail to join Crazy Horse’s village.10
On Saturday, May 12, the enlistment took place at Camp Robinson. “A remarkable scene occurred,” reported the Cheyenne Daily Leader’s correspondent, “when these red soldiers were sworn into Uncle Sam’s service. They swore with up lifted hands to be true and faithful to the white man’s government.” Of Crazy Horse and his comrades, the journalist contended, “the sullen, discontented look worn by the hostiles when they first came in, is fast disappearing now.” The issue of Sharps carbines and Remington revolvers, with ammunition, went far to create the atmosphere of goodwill. The new intake, salted with a few agency trusties, was organized into a regular unit as Company E. As top sergeant, Crazy Horse headed seven subordinate noncoms: sergeants Little Big Man, Little Hawk, He Dog, and No Water; and corporals Iron Hawk, Four Crows, and Pawnee Killer. The enlistment closed with a significant statement by Lieutenant Clark. The chain of command now ran down from Clark and Spotted Tail Agency chief of scouts Captain George M. Randall, through three top sergeants: Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, and Crazy Horse.11
By mid-May Crazy Horse had time to take stock of the situation at the White River agencies. The new enlistment asserted a Lakota hierarchy at the Oglala agency headed by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Reflecting his status, the war chief paid his infrequent visits to the agency, commissary clerk Charles P. Jordan remembered, “accompanied by a body guard of 6 or 8 men.” Further emphasizing his distinction, Crazy Horse always sat on a chair to face the agent or Lieutenant Clark, while the bodyguard sat “on the floor—3 or 4 on each side of him.” His position in the chair asserted two facts that sat in uneasy alignment: his attempt to master the forms of wasicu protocol, and his unswerving belief in his own figurehead status as principal Lakota.12
Crazy Horse had also had time to assess the attitudes of the agency Lakotas. Some 530 lodges of agency Oglalas were organized into five bands, scattered over the prairie two or three miles south and east of the agency itself.13 In the years following the split in the Oglala tribe, Crazy Horse soon saw that changes had continued apace. On ration days, many agency families drew up in wagons. Lakotas dressed in manufactured clothing. Underlining the cultural sea change Crazy Horse had so long resisted, Red Cloud appeared for formal events in civilian dress clothing; had his iyeska relatives look after a growing herd of cattle he owned; and permitted his wife to keep a noisy batch of chickens. If such developments disturbed the war chief, a substantial amount of goodwill prevailed between the Oglalas and their northern guests. Most northern families were happy to be warm, secure, and well fed, and for most people, the reunion of the tribe was an occasion for simple joy. Oglala women began to prepare scores of little gardens in sheltered spots near the camps. Some of the newcomers showed unexpected interest in planting their own tiny plots of corn and beans. Underscoring unity of aspiration, the Payabya, Loafer, and Spleen bands had already requested an agency on the hunting grounds, and as the month progressed, Red Cloud’s camp council moved gradually toward adopting a similar position.
Many of these issues found expression in a “grand peace council” hosted on May 11. Chief Little Wound sent out invitations to the whole Oglala tribe “to talk over a lasting peace and agency reforms” with Lieutenant Clark. Little Wound welcomed his guests in a huge double tipi, while akicita strangled a dozen dogs for the cooking pots.14
Crazy Horse sat close to Little Wound and the other chief guest, White Hat Clark. A holy man rose to invoke the favor of Wakan Tanka on the gathering, before each of the chiefs rose to speak. For two hours the speakers forcibly presented the case for peace: only Crazy Horse remained silent—. “stolid and relentless,” concluded a Denver newsman.
As the meal was consumed, the hundreds of women and children crowding outside the lodge parted to allow through an old man, leaning on a cane and supported by a young warrior. In a staged exhibition of the generosity Lakotas—and their American allies—owed each other, Little Wound stood and “pulled off his fine new blanket and presented it to the sufferer.” Other chiefs shed their own blankets and other garments and—to the accompaniment of tremolos of praise—presented the old man with their gifts. Crazy Horse was never outdone in generosity. As singers took up his name in an extemporized chant of honor, the war chief stood and stripped off his clothing. Stepping forward, he presented the old man with his blanket and other garments. From outside, Crazy Horse’s pony was led onto the floor space. Its reins were put into the indigent’s hands, and a herald rode the circuit of the campground, proclaiming the greatness of Crazy Horse’s name. After a closing prayer, “the assembly adjourned in excellent spirits.”15
The grand peace council highlighted the ideology of Oglala tribal unity that had emerged in the days since surrender. Clark was able to report to his hosts that General Crook was now returning from the East and would hold a major council at Red Cloud Agency. With the general, the summer’s diplomatic schedule could be finalized. Meanwhile the Oglalas began to determine the ceremonial calendar. In keeping with the new mood, the northern village proposed that it host the tribal Sun Dance at the end of June. The Oglalas believed that Crook’s imminent arrival meant an early departure for the delegation and return from the capital by the time of the ceremony. If all went as planned, the Oglalas might depart White River for the new northern agency site immediately after the end of the Sun Dance.
As the Moon When the Ponies Shed entered its second half, Crazy Horse moved to consolidate his position. He wished to unite his village with the Miniconjous and Sans Arcs who had surrendered at Spotted Tail. The Scout enlistment had provided a handy excuse for permitting several transfers: Crook’s impending visit to Red Cloud and the Sun Dance supplied two justifications for adding more visitors to Crazy Horse’s circle.
As news of Crook’s itinerary firmed up, the Oglala bands sent invitations to Spotted Tail Agency for Brules and northern Lakotas to camp with them. Since surrender, Spotted Tail had succeeded in keeping the northern village at his agency well in line: the Miniconjous and Sans Arcs were not allowed to forget that they were guests, and that generous Brule hospitality could easily turn into stern sufferance. Many people grew restive, favoring transfer to Crazy Horse’s village. According to one reminiscent account, the Miniconjous and part of the Sans Arcs even acknowledged Crazy Horse as their head chief—dangerously alienating Spotted Tail from his nephew’s interests.16
No clearer evidence of Oglala unity could be demonstrated than the formation of the tribal village that greeted Crook late in May. Two miles southeast of the agency, the bands raised a single hoop. Tribal consensus formed around the northern reservation. Chiefs and elders deputed two leaders to make keynote speeches to the general: Young Man Afraid of His Horse and Crazy Horse, as the principal Lakota proponents of the scheme, would articulate the tribal position. Red Cloud, faced with the restoration of a united Hunkpatila band, could only follow in the wake of the tribal consensus.
At noon, May 23, General Crook arrived at Camp Robinson. Two days were spent finalizing details for the departure of Colonel Mackenzie’s Fourth Cavalry to its old stations on the southern plains. Crook and Mackenzie also counciled with Cheyenne leaders about joining their southern Cheyenn
e relatives in Indian Territory. Demoralized by the war and uncomfortable with their Lakota hosts, many Cheyenne chiefs were still dubious about such a move. Pressured by the military, however, a brittle consensus formed around agency leaders keen for preferment: the Cheyennes agreed to an early departure for the south.17
Crook had returned to White River with little that Crazy Horse could endorse. In the East, Crook had run into a wall of opposition from his superiors Sheridan and Sherman. The military chiefs had agreed on a strategy of ensuring total surrenders followed by agency relocations to the Missouri River. The official correspondence is muted, but Sheridan berated Crook about the leniency of his surrender terms. Sheridan favored the arrest and imprisonment of key war leaders and disavowed Crook’s northern reservation scheme. Crook conceded to Sheridan that he thought the Lakotas could be persuaded to move to the Missouri, but he requested permission to travel to the capital to confer with the Indian commissioner.18
During the same weekend of Crazy Horse’s surrender, Crook held a lengthy meeting at the Indian Office and persuaded the commissioner to postpone any removal until October.19 The respite bought everyone time: Crook could continue to use his influence in the Hayes administration to secure a northern reservation; the Washington officials, preoccupied with a summer of unprecedented labor unrest, could place the Lakota delegation question on hold; and the military high command could reassure itself, with numbing cynicism, that “a Later removal is not Objectionable Especially if the approach of Winter makes [the Lakotas] more manageable.”20
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