CRAZY HORSE

by Kingsley M Bray

  25

  PUTTING BLOOD ON OUR FACES

  The Nez Perce war posed a new and unexpected crisis for Military Division of the Missouri chief Phil Sheridan. Eight hundred Nez Perce Indians, resisting relocation to an Idaho reservation, had led Department of Columbia troops in a fighting retreat through the Rockies. Early in August they crossed the Continental Divide and entered Sheridan’s military jurisdiction. Sheridan moved to mobilize troops from the departments of Dakota and the Platte. General Crook, in the East for most of the summer quelling labor riots, was ordered back to his Omaha headquarters.1

  Sheridan wired the Department of the Platte to ready the Fifth Cavalry for action. Regimental commander Colonel Wesley Merritt was ordered to Camp Brown, overseeing the Shoshone reservation in central Wyoming. Five companies of the regiment were ordered ready to entrain west. Another five companies were on detached service, patrolling the upper Tongue River in the aftermath of the Lame Deer campaign. Sheridan advised Omaha to order battalion commander Major Verling K. Hart to move his patrol west to the Bighorn River.2

  Sheridan was also keen to learn the dispositions of the Lakota and Arapaho scouts enlisted at the White River agencies. He was disappointed when Omaha wired that Crook had ordered home Hart’s complement of scouts just one week earlier. On August 28 Sheridan advised Crook, then still in Maryland, to order one hundred scouts to rejoin Hart immediately. Early on the 29th, Omaha wired Camp Robinson to ready the scouts, following up with a request for yet more Indian auxiliaries. For First Sergeant Crazy Horse and the northern Lakotas, a fateful series of events was now in motion.3

  In a series of rapidly arranged consultations, Clark and Bradley sounded the agency Oglalas and the Arapahos throughout August 29 and 30. Sharp Nose, first sergeant of scout Company A, assured the officers of total Arapaho cooperation.4

  An encouraging reaction was also received from the agency Oglala chiefs. The chiefs expressed concern that active service might postpone the delegation’s departure for the east. Clark wired Omaha to request authorization to defer the Washington trip. Sheridan responded that the delegation could not be delayed. Despite the confusion, Clark was confident enough in the Oglalas to leave final negotiations to agency personnel. By afternoon of the thirtieth, the Oglalas stated that, besides enlisted scouts, one hundred volunteers were willing to join the campaign. Clark ordered the Oglalas and Arapahos to be ready to move immediately, and an evening departure from Red Cloud Agency of 150 scouts was predicted.5

  Not all was going according to plan. Spotted Tail, although no longer enrolled as a scout, had to be consulted over Brule participation. At Red Cloud on the thirtieth, he stalled talks with Clark over details of pay and conditions. Before the issue could be resolved, Spotted Tail departed for home, leaving Clark and his superiors in doubt over Brule participation.6

  Spotted Tail’s conspicuous loyalty meant that Clark could not openly criticize the Brule chief. Not so with the northern leadership, however. Like Spotted Tail, northern Deciders had been summoned to counsel with Clark. Touch the Clouds and High Bear rode to the Oglala agency on the twenty-ninth. Over the next twenty-four hours, it became clear that Clark wished sixty scouts from Spotted Tail to go fight the Nez Perces. This announcement caused “hubbub and excitement among the Indians,” recalled Agent Lee. In particular, the “northern Indian scouts did not take to this measure with much zest.”7

  The northern Lakotas perceived their scout duties as performing traditional akicita functions: keeping order in the village and acting as peace envoys in the ongoing dialogue with the Lame Deer holdouts. Touch the Clouds told Clark’s messengers, “The Great Father has washed the blood from our faces, if we put it on again we will never take it off.”8 Nevertheless, Touch the Clouds agreed to meet Clark and discuss the situation the following day. First, he rode into Crazy Horse’s village to try to patch up relations and to forge a united bargaining position.

  Touch the Clouds found Crazy Horse’s village in intense debate. Early that morning, the council had declared its readiness to depart immediately to join Sitting Bull on the hunting grounds. The arrival of Clark’s messengers asking that Crazy Horse and twenty Company C scouts join the Nez Perce campaign resulted in a protracted debate that would last all day. Asked to accompany the scouts and troops, Crazy Horse’s initial reaction echoed that of Touch the Clouds: “You have asked us to become peaceful, how can you ask us now to go to war again?”9

  Yet as afternoon wore on, the mood of the northern council began perceptibly to turn. Little Big Man focused debate, but Crazy Horse also shifted from a purely obstructionist position, as he grasped that his desire for an immediate departure could be dovetailed with Clark’s proposal. If northern warriors agreed to serve as scouts, the war chief concluded, that could serve as “an excuse which [Crazy Horse] thought would enable him to get away and go north” —not as a pursued fugitive, but as a valued ally of the United States.10

  Crazy Horse immediately sought to reopen diplomatic relations with the agency bands. In a characteristic burst of energy Crazy Horse did “all in his power to induce other Indians, (especially the enlisted scouts,) to accompany” the departing northern village.11 Messengers linked the issues of the hunt and the campaign, urging that all scouts depart for the war zone with the northern village. Crazy Horse contended that American troops were unable to fight against Indian enemies, and that the scouts should be free to employ their own tactics. Crazy Horse’s envoys deployed enough finesse to keep the talks going into the following day.

  A united line was forged between Crazy Horse and Touch the Clouds late on the thirtieth. Crazy Horse would demand an unprecedented salary raise for combatant scouts: “thirty-five dollars a day for himself and each of his men,” as Red Feather remembered, illustrating how debate had shifted to fine detail. Although he remained uncomfortable with the concept of combat duty for his scouts, Touch the Clouds tentatively approved the Crazy Horse plan. A message was dispatched ordering Company E scouts to come to Red Cloud, ready for orders.12

  They also agreed on the broad substance of the next day’s speeches. Clark would be told that both northern villages were ready to depart immediately on the hunt. Once on the hunting grounds, scouts and additional volunteers would assist the troops in rounding up the Nez Perces. With this bottom line agreed on, chiefs and warriors returned to their family tipis. Touch the Clouds could congratulate himself in mending fences with Crazy Horse, and on helping bring a note of realism into the northern Oglala council after five days of brinkmanship.

  In a life characterized by enigma and misunderstanding, few events have been so misrepresented as Crazy Horse’s meeting with Clark on August 31. Misunderstanding began with the context of the talk itself. There is no evidence to indicate that Clark had specifically scheduled a meeting with Crazy Horse at all. Although Crazy Horse’s personal intentions regarding the scouting project remained unclear to the lieutenant, and the planned departure of scouts on the previous evening had not taken place, by the morning of the thirty-first, Clark was reasonably confident of the cooperation of most Red Cloud Agency scouts. He had invited Touch the Clouds and High Bear to approve scout Company E’s participation in the Nez Perce campaign. Crazy Horse’s presence was simply as a guest of his kinsman Touch the Clouds. The Oglala war chief was empowered to speak in support of the solidarity of the two northern villages, but his role in the talk was conceived as secondary.

  A twenty-man party of northern Lakotas left the northern village early on the morning of the thirty-first. The fact that most were Crazy Horse’s own young men—including bodyguard members from the Last-Born Child Society—indicates that, whatever the formal status of the party, the Oglala war chief was asserting his own presence. At 9:00 A.M. they were ushered into Clark’s quarters, taking seats on the floor of his office. Touch the Clouds, flanked by Crazy Horse and High Bear, sat in front of the arc of warriors, facing Clark’s desk: the chair so often occupied by Crazy Horse stood empty as Clark, accompanied by Frank Gro
uard, as interpreter, and Three Bears, representing the agency Oglala village, entered to open the proceedings.13

  Through Grouard, Clark proposed that the scouts go north to help fight the Nez Perces. Touch the Clouds rose to make the keynote response, reviewing events since surrender in an “earnest and forcible speech.”14

  “We washed the blood from our faces,” he began, carefully echoing his first response to Clark’s messengers, “and came in and surrendered and wanted peace.” He went over the assurances of the Great Father and General Crook that had promised “absolute peace” to the northern Lakotas. Now he and his people were asked “to go on the war-path, a thing which he violently condemned as a breach of faith.” Asserting his own record of loyalty since surrender, he reminded Clark that he had been ordered first to

  give up his gun and he did it; then it was to enlist as a scout to keep peace and order at the agency, and he did that; then he was asked to throw away the buffalo hunt and he did that; then like a horse with a bit in its mouth, his head was turned toward Washington, and he looked that way; now the Great father, the “Gray Fox” (General Crook) and “White Hat” [Clark] put blood on their faces and turned them to war.

  Touch the Clouds stressed his unhappiness at this course of events: “You ask us to put blood on our faces again, but I do not want to do this,” he continued, turning to acknowledge his guest as he added, “Neither does Crazy Horse. You,” he reproached Clark, “enlisted us for peace.” Both he “and Crazy Horse had been deceived and lied to” and this “latest plan of yours is hard medicine.” Nevertheless, underlining the northern Lakotas’ consistent record of loyalty, both he and Crazy Horse would reluctantly “do as ‘White Hat’ said, and war it would be! They would all go north and fight,” he contended, demanding that the scouts fight under their own leaders.” We will surround the Nez Perces,” Touch the Clouds concluded,” and whip them and then there will be peace all around.”

  The Miniconjou sat down to a “hou” of approval from Crazy Horse, and the Oglala war chief arose to make a briefer speech.15 In accordance with his guest status, Crazy Horse at first confined himself to reaffirming Touch the Clouds’s statements:

  The big chief, Gen. Crook, sent out word to us that if we would come to the Agency we would be well treated, and should live in peace and quiet. We believed him, and we came in with our hearts good to every one; and now we are asked to put blood upon our faces and go on the warpath, almost in the same breath with the request to go on a mission of peace to Washington.16

  Crazy Horse stressed that when he surrendered to Clark in May, “it was with the understanding that he would never have to make war against any nation,” and that he had not intended to go “back on that agreement.”17 Now, however, Clark and the wasicu insisted that he fight for them.18

  With substantive speeches made, Clark now hoped to begin dialogue, but the hunt issue immediately raised its head. Clark repeated his direct question: would Crazy Horse assist the military in the north against the Nez Perces? Crazy Horse responded, “I was going out there to hunt.”19 This statement, followed by an increasingly heated exchange between the war chief and the lieutenant, soon reduced the talks to a shambles of argument. What was really said, and—even more important—what was understood by the two speakers, their interpreter, and the other Lakotas in the office?

  Fundamental is that Crazy Horse made an unambiguous statement that the northern Oglala village would leave on its hunt imminently, “that he didn’t intend to stay any more and would leave at once.”20 According to Clark, “[Crazy Horse] told me that he did not like the country about here, that he never promised to stay here, and that he was going North with his band, that he had made up his mind and was certainly going.”21

  Clark asked how the Indians could make a successful buffalo hunt with ammunition sales closed. Crazy Horse allegedly replied that “he was going out, and that if ammunition was not issued or sold him he would break the doors open [of the agency trading posts] and take it himself.” Although this statement may reflect the distortion of Grouard’s mistranslation, by this juncture in the conversation, Crazy Horse’s manner (less easy to misrepresent) was already “very overbearing and insulting” to Clark.22

  Although not yet present at the talk, Billy Garnett’s summary of this stage of the council seems fair: Crazy Horse “talked very badly” to Clark, Garnett stated less than a year later. “He said he would not go out with the troops, but that he would move out slowly with his entire village and when overtaken would help to fight the Nez Perces.”23 Although the tenor of debate was rapidly deteriorating, Crazy Horse continued to offer the quid pro quo: permit the hunt and he would cooperate in the scout scheme.

  Clark told Crazy Horse “he must remain where he was.”24 He insisted “he didn’t want the lodges and women; that he just wanted the men.”25 At this point the council reached a crisis. With Clark flatly refusing to permit the northern villages to leave on the hunt, Crazy Horse taunted Clark, “[I]f the White man could not conquer his enemies, he could do it for him. But if any went North they would all go” (my emphasis).26

  As temperatures rose, Grouard began to mistranslate statements by Crazy Horse and Touch the Clouds. Grouard was flustered, less than competent as interpreter, and by his own account frightened at the course the interview was taking. The personal motivation behind his mistranslations remains unclear, but the actions of Three Bears suggest that Oglala factions determined to discredit Crazy Horse wished to ensure that dialogue between the war chief and the army totally broke down. Perhaps Grouard had been reluctantly persuaded to assist in disrupting proceedings.27 Grouard was now twisting key statements. Already according, to one account, he had mis-represented Touch the Clouds by stating that the Miniconjou said that “if it was insisted that the Indian scouts take part in the Nez Perce war they would join the Nez Perces and fight the soldiers.”28 Another remark by Crazy Horse was misrepresented: “Crazy Horse could see that the Government wanted to fight and that he would go back to his village and the Government could send troops and kill them all.”29

  These statements do not seem to have unduly disturbed Clark. Perhaps he had added a judicious pinch of salt of his own to Grouard’s words. But as the talks degenerated into a duel of wills between the lieutenant and the war chief, Grouard’s distortions became more serious. Camp Robinson surgeon McGillycuddy not an eyewitness, stated that Crazy Horse concluded his remarks to Clark by stating, “We are tired of war; we came in for peace, but now that the Great Father asks our help, we will go north and fight until there is not a Nez Perce left.”30

  If this was indeed the climax of the council, it is significant that this late in the proceedings Crazy Horse—whatever his manner—was willing to concede to Clark the principal point of the whole talk: the military cooperation of the northern Lakotas. But Grouard misinterpreted again, according to McGillycuddy’s information, telling Clark that Crazy Horse said, “We will go north and fight until not a white man is left!”31

  The room was in chaos. Crazy Horse and Clark were furious with each other, and Grouard was badly frightened. Into this tinderbox, Three Bears now chose to throw his own fuse. Picking up the theme of killing, Three Bears asserted that Crazy Horse and his party were planning to murder Clark. As scout Company B corporal, and first war leader of the Oglala Kiyuksa band, Three Bears was one of Clark’s most loyal and distinguished trusties. He sprang up from the floor and roared at Crazy Horse that “if he wanted to kill anybody, to kill him, as he would not be permitted to kill his (Three Bear’s [sic]) friend, that not one of the conspirators would get out of the building alive if they raised any trouble, that the place was full of armed soldiers, ready to do their share of the killing.”32

  “Considerable confusion followed the speech of Three Bear[s], and Crazy Horse did not seem to know what to do.”33 Grouard concluded that the situation was now “too hot” for him. He slipped out of Clark’s quarters and, meeting Billy Garnett, told him to take over the interpreting.34
/>
  Clark told Garnett to ask Crazy Horse once more if he would not go out with the scouts and serve against the Nez Perces. Garnett crossed the room to engage in a brief private conversation with the war chief. He could see that Crazy Horse was “not right.” In the minutes following Three Bears’s outburst, Crazy Horse had come to a new decision. When Garnett asked him if he would serve with the scouts, Crazy Horse answered unequivocally, “Hansni, No.” As Garnett remained at his side, Crazy Horse explained to the interpreter, “I told him [Clark] what I want him to do. We are going to move; we are going out there to hunt.” Turning to address the lieutenant through Garnett, he taunted Clark, “You are too soft; you can’t fight.”

  Clark sought to explain that the new war on the hunting grounds foreclosed any possibility of hunting, but Crazy Horse cut him short: “If you want to fight the Nez Perces, go out and fight them; we don’t want to fight; we are going out to hunt.”

  His patience worn away, Clark snapped, “You cannot go out there[,] I tell you.” Even as Garnett framed the interpretation, Crazy Horse turned to his warriors and remarked, “These people can’t fight, what do they want to go out there for? Let’s go home; this is enough of this.” Crazy Horse rose, and Touch the Clouds, High Bear, and the rest followed him from the office.

  Clark wasted little time in alerting Lieutenant Colonel Bradley of the depth of the crisis, as he perceived it. “Crazy Horse and Touch-the-Clouds with High Bear came up and told me that they were going north on the war-path” (my emphasis).35 This summary statement represents the situation as Clark understood it. Although it reflects Grouard’s distortion of the two chiefs’ repeated statements about leaving on the hunt, it is worth pointing out that most of the more lurid embroideries ascribed to Grouard are not mentioned. Perhaps Clark was able to reach a more measured understanding of the situation from Garnett. Nevertheless, the situation could not be plainer. Although willing to assist in the Nez Perce campaign at the start of the interview, by its close, Crazy Horse had withdrawn all offers of cooperation. Both he and, more qualifiedly, Touch the Clouds intended an immediate departure of their villages for the hunting grounds. Bradley set the post telegrapher’s wires busy with reports to Omaha and Chicago.