A way out of this crisis did exist, the speakers continued. General Crook had ordered the peaceful Lakotas to move their village to White Clay Creek. The agency bands had already raised their hoop at that point, ready to counsel with Crook tomorrow, in a talk intended to restore peace to the Oglala agency. The northern village should set aside Crazy Horse’s leadership and move across White River out of the war zone declared by the Oglala tribe.
The envoys, including such compelling speakers as the herald Iron Hawk, spoke persuasively. It was left to He Dog to close the envoys’ address. He Dog scanned his audience and the throng of spectators outside, proclaiming, “All who love their wife and children, let them come across the creek with me. All who want their wife and children to be killed by the soldiers, let them stay where they are.”19
The council adjourned, and as He Dog and Iron Hawk walked across the village circle, a message was brought to them: Crazy Horse was now at home and wished them “to come to his tipi.” Crazy Horse again sat before his bed. As his guests entered, he turned and, reaching under the blankets, brought out the cigars and knife left by his earlier visitors. With no preamble about the council, Crazy Horse recounted the story of the two wasicu visitors.
He said this was a present [recalled He Dog] brought him by two visiting white men who had come to see him that afternoon. He did not like the way they shook hands with him, and he did not like their talk, and he did not like their gift. He thought the gift of the knife meant trouble was coming. He thought they shook hands with him as if they did not mean him any good. He was afraid there would be trouble at that council [with Crook].20
Focused disturbingly on private obsessions, only Crazy Horse’s last sentence showed any concern with the wider predicament facing his people. Dismayed by his old comrade’s state of mind, He Dog tried to laugh off the penknife, then turned to the real issue.
“Does this mean that you will be my enemy if I move across the creek?” he asked.
Crazy Horse laughed. “I am no white man!” he replied. “They are the only people that make rules for other people, that say,’If you stay on one side of this line it is peace, but if you go on the other side I will kill you all.’ I don’t hold with deadlines. There is plenty of room; camp where you please.”21
Dusk was falling before the Deciders reached a consensus. Little Big Man articulated their decision. The northern village would move to the south side of White River. Moreover, while Little Big Man carried the support of fellow Deciders Big Road and Iron Crow, Little Hawk’s loyalty to Crazy Horse precluded unanimity. A characteristic face-saving device, when coercion would be fruitlessly divisive, was a declaration permitting tribespeople to make their own decisions. Such an announcement was made, and the village bustled with preparation. About 115 lodges followed Little Big Man and a straggle of elders a short distance across the twilit valley, where the lodges were pitched once more in the security of the peace zone.22
The departure left scores of spaces in the vacated camp circle. Some one hundred tipis remained standing, however, about six hundred people remaining loyal to their war chief. The clearest identifying characteristic was age: a preponderance of younger men predictably chose to follow Crazy Horse and his war council.23 Yet other distinctions were clear, too. Little Big Man’s declaration had probably swayed a clear majority of the 115 lodges of northern Oglalas in the village. Most of the Bad Faces in the village had followed Little Big Man, while significant numbers of Oyuhpes and a few Hunkpatilas followed Big Road and Iron Crow.
Of the Hunkpatila band, Little Hawk’s tiyospaye and the few lodges of Crazy Horse’s own immediate relatives were left. A cluster of Oyuhpes, centered on the old Wakan tiyospaye that had been loyal to Crazy Horse for twenty years, completed the Oglala contingent in the rump village. Many of these remaining Oglala warriors were lodge members of Crazy Horse’s bodyguard.
The majority of the thirty-seven remaining lodges of Miniconjous, twenty-five lodges of Sans Arcs, and some of the thirty-eight lodges of Brules that had also composed the united village, remained with Crazy Horse. Their elders and head-men, the Miniconjous Black Shield, Wounded Hand, and High Lodge, and holy men like the Sans Arc Elk Head, Keeper of the Calf Pipe, expected no favors from the agency hierarchy and chose to stay with the war chief.24
At Camp Robinson, news from Camp Sheridan advised that runners from Fast Bull’s camp had just visited Touch the Clouds. The camp was now ready to surrender at Spotted Tail: its vanguard, led by Shedding Bear, might even “be there in a very few hours.” Bradley hurriedly discussed the development with General Crook. It confirmed the general’s caution in ordering the suspension of operations against Touch the Clouds, but it also threw into question the whole issue of surrounding Crazy Horse’s village. Mindful of Agent Lee’s warnings, Crook and Bradley weighed the factors. “There was much reason to fear,” as Crook’s aide Lieutenant Bourke would write some months later, “that if ‘Crazy Horse’s’ village should not be completely surrounded and his warriors not all captured, those that escaped might get mixed-up among those of [Fast Bull’s] band and some of the latter might be killed or wounded.” Crook was at pains not to repeat the errors of judgment he had ascribed to Colonel Miles, when in May Fast Bull’s father, Lame Deer, was killed during the aborted parley on Muddy Creek.25
At last Crook came to a new decision. He suspended the surround of Crazy Horse’s village and announced that messengers were to be sent to Crazy Horse’s village early in the morning, inviting the war chief to the council on White Clay and giving him “one last chance for self-vindication.”26
Clark sent for He Dog, who had returned with the envoys from the northern village, and asked him “to get Crazy Horse to talk to them some more.” He Dog hurried home while Clark sent a large amount of provisions. He Dog told his wife to prepare a big feast and then sent invitations to the officers at Camp Robinson. Another messenger was hurried across the river to invite Crazy Horse: an informal meal, hosted by an old friend, was envisaged, at which public face might be retained while defusing tensions unresolvable in open council.
The day was too far advanced, however. Weary and suspicious, Crazy Horse yet managed to be gracious for the sake of He Dog. “Tell my friend,” he observed to the messenger, “that I thank him and I am grateful, but some people over there have said too much. I don’t want to talk to them any more. No good would come of it.”27
A momentous day was over. Crazy Horse had seen his following halved, isolating him and his core following. As Oglala chiefs were apprised of Crook’s decision to suspend immediate operations against Crazy Horse, and to invite him to attend tomorrow’s meeting between the general and the tribal council, their deliberations must have focused on furthering their diplomatic gains. If Crook’s initiative succeeded and Crazy Horse was brought back into the fold, the prospect of Crazy Horse’s restoration to army favor was not appealing to sections of council opinion.
Crazy Horse was dangerously isolated by nightfall on September 2, an isolation as much mental as political. The war chief’s meeting with the officers betrays a mind fixated on minutiae. Outside the thrill of battle, Crazy Horse’s mind had always leaned to the otherworldly. Since surrender, with no outlet for physical action, his meditative instincts had deepened. He left the village three times a day, according to Spotted Tail Agent Lee, to engage in private prayer. According to Lee’s wife, in these same days, Crazy Horse’s fitful sleep was disturbed by another equivocal dream, “that he was not to die between sun and sun, nor by a bullet.” On such brittle shards of vision, he expended mental energies frayed by fatigue.28
This otherworldliness was in danger of becoming pathological. His mind tortured by the political demands placed on this most apolitical of men, his own personal imperative to “keep my country” at all costs, the relentless tide of talk, gossip, and rumor, and the consequent weeks of sleeplessness, had all robbed him of essential perspectives. An unclasped penknife fixated his mind, but faced with a defection that would
halve his following, Crazy Horse showed no interest whatsoever.
The war chief’s tragedy was that his commitment to “keep my country,” was inconsistent with the increasing privacy and quietism of his spiritual life—the calling as a healer that had first sounded six months previously. To try to keep the country was an intensely political act. Deserted by comrades willing to negotiate a compromise solution, leadership now devolved solely on Crazy Horse, leaving him open to the distorting perspectives of messianism. Torn apart by these pressures that pulled him toward passivity and defiance, Crazy Horse brooded another night. Still suffering from her swollen arm, Black Shawl slept alone, while Crazy Horse and Nellie sat talking late. It is to be hoped that the couple took from each other what comfort they could, for it would be their last night together on earth.
27
THEY REFUSED TO FOLLOW
Daylight of Monday, September 3, rose over the upper White River valley. Shortly before midnight, the last of Bradley’s reinforcements had gone into hasty bivouac on the prairie north of the Camp Robinson quadrangle. Eight companies of the Third Cavalry and three infantry companies were now concentrated at Camp Robinson. Even at chronically low levels of manning, over six hundred regulars were at Bradley’s disposal. The agency Oglalas could field over seven hundred warriors to aid their wasicu allies. The Arapahos, also loyal to Crook, could mount more than one hundred active warriors.
Such a force outnumbered Crazy Horse’s depleted following by almost ten to one. Apprised of the latest troop arrivals, the northern villagers began once more to change in mood. The air of sullen defiance became increasingly anxious as the morning progressed. Crazy Horse registered the change in mood. As the day began, the war chief made one of his drastic shifts of mind and decided to reopen dialogue with the military. Perhaps this reflected his latest conversations with Nellie, who was seriously worried by her husband’s position. Certainly, he was influenced by the anxiety among even die-hard supporters. Although the warriors continued to support Crazy Horse’s argument for a secret nighttime departure, “fear of punishment” by troops and Oglala relatives was breeding serious misgivings.1
The arrival of messengers from Crook seemed to offer a way out. They extended a personal invitation from the general for Crazy Horse to attend the council at the Oglala tribal village that afternoon, where Crook could “hear what [Crazy Horse] had to say for himself.”2 Only the previous evening, the war chief had refused He Dog’s invitation to a preliminary feast. Now, warily, he responded to Crook’s olive branch. “Crazy Horse called [Clark] to the council,” recalled Red Feather. “He wanted to tell White Hat that he and his people were ready to go back where they came from.”3
This only repeated what everyone had known for over a week. But the air of moderation, of a calm exchange of information, was new. Crazy Horse’s singling out of Clark was also significant, and the return to an open departure, negotiated with the military, addressed the obvious anxiety of the war council. In a day of about-faces, this was one of the most surprising. Briefly, it seemed that an exit strategy was shaping from the impasse of intransigence and mistrust.
Late in the morning, a decisive twist in events prevented such an outcome. Crook and Clark boarded an ambulance at Camp Robinson bound for the council. They had arranged to pick up as interpreters Billy Garnett and Baptiste Pourier at Frank Yates’s trading store just outside the agency compound. As the ambulance lumbered up, its passengers saw Garnett and Pourier deep in conversation with an Indian.4
Billy introduced the Lakota as Woman Dress, one of Clark’s trusties, and told the general that Woman Dress had just warned them that Crazy Horse was coming to the council. Sixty warriors would accompany the war chief. Once talks opened, Crazy Horse planned to pick a verbal quarrel with Crook and then, approaching the general as if to shake hands, stab him to death. His followers would rise up and fall on Clark and any other officers with him. In the confused aftermath of this bloody scene, the northern village could make a break for the hunting grounds.
The astonished general quizzed Garnett and Woman Dress. Warily, Garnett and Pourier vouched for the veracity of the Oglala, who insisted that the whole council should be called off. Crook pressed for verification, asking Woman Dress if he personally had overheard Crazy Horse’s plan. The Indian replied that Little Wolf, another of Clark’s trusties, had eavesdropped outside the war chief’s tipi the previous evening and reported to his brother Lone Bear. In turn, Lone Bear had informed Woman Dress.5
Still incredulous, Crook chewed over this information but was convinced by Clark to return to the post. Clark then instructed Garnett to attend the tribal council and summon the loyal agency chiefs to Camp Robinson for confidential talks. Stressing that the northern leaders must not be informed of this development, Clark turned back with the general.6
Billy arrived about noon to find the Oglala tribal council in session. He noted that neither Crazy Horse nor any northern leaders were present, which sat uneasily with Woman Dress’s story. American Horse stepped out of the council lodge to talk to the interpreter. American Horse announced to the council that Crook’s plan had changed: that the general had received a letter on the way to the village and had to return to the post. After repeating that Crook “won’t be here today,” American Horse slipped quietly around the circle, whispering to the chiefs the summons to headquarters. Garnett, assured that American Horse would bring the chiefs presently, hurried back to Camp Robinson.7
By early afternoon, as the officers awaited the arrival of the Oglala chiefs, the general was convinced of Crazy Horse’s treachery. A final invitation was sent to Crazy Horse to attend the talk at post headquarters, but Crazy Horse, claimed Bourke, “paid no attention” to the summons.8
About 2:30 P.M. the agency chiefs were shown into Colonel Bradley’s quarters. Awaiting them were Crook, Clark, and three interpreters: Garnett, Pourier, and the reinstated Frank Grouard. Colonel Bradley was at the adjutant’s office across the parade ground. Fourteen Oglala leaders sat around the room. American Horse had been liberal with Clark’s invitations. All the major band chiefs were present: scout sergeants Red Cloud, Little Wound, Young Man Afraid of His Horse, American Horse, and Yellow Bear were accompanied by Red Dog, High Wolf, Slow Bull, Black Bear, Daylight, and Blue Horse. Representing the warriors were akicita leaders Three Bears, No Flesh, and Crazy Horse’s old enemy No Water.9
Crook expanded on a favorite theme: the loyalty the Lakota people owed to a government that fed and clothed them. After retelling Woman Dress’s story of Crazy Horse’s planned treachery, at which the chiefs expressed surprise, Crook told them the Oglalas were being led astray by the war chief’s folly. To assure the Great Father of Oglala loyalty, they must assist in the arrest of Crazy Horse. The chiefs talked briefly among themselves, then stated that Crazy Horse “was such a desperate man, it would be necessary to kill him.” The interpreters concurred.10
Crook demurred but asked what would be the best way to capture Crazy Horse and disarm his band. A strategy was quickly formulated. Each chief present would select two of his best warriors to coordinate the operation. They would select a strong war party, which would surround Crazy Horse’s village that night, and then call to the war chief and all enlisted scouts to come out and give up their arms. If this summons drew no response, then the Oglalas would use force against Crazy Horse and his warriors. Approving this scheme, Crook ordered Clark to issue the necessary ammunition and told the chiefs to then return to their village and prepare for the night’s work. Impressing the Oglala chiefs with the need to keep the plan secret from the northern village, Crook left to prepare for his own departure for Cheyenne.11
In conversation with Clark, the chiefs returned to the theme of killing Crazy Horse. Reluctantly, Clark conceded a reward of three hundred dollars and his own famous sorrel racer. Then he led the chiefs to the storehouse and issued them ammunition. When they departed for their village, it was already late in the afternoon.12
Crazy Horse’s fra
gile trust in renewing dialogue with the military was already exhausted. First Crazy Horse learned that the talk with Crook had been cancelled; then Crook’s messenger brought a summons for Crazy Horse to come to Camp Robinson. Although unaware of the lies Woman Dress had told about his intentions, Crazy Horse must have viewed these about-faces with suspicion. Signaling a termination to all dialogue, he gave no reply to the general’s message.
Instead, Crazy Horse returned to stepping up the pressure for an immediate departure. Another mood shift took place—and as quickly reversed itself. Abandoning his acquiescence of the previous day, the war chief decided to force the reunion of his divided village. A body of akicita was sent across the river to order Little Big Man’s camp of defectors home, only to be plainly rejected by He Dog.13 Faced with these mounting disappointments, Crazy Horse once more left the village to seek out a quiet place to pray.
As the Woman Dress incident demonstrated, elements in the Oglala tribal village were also prepared to step up the pressure. There had been no truth in the alleged plot to murder General Crook. Little Wolf, the Clark trusty whom Woman Dress claimed had overheard the plot, was a familiar figure in Crazy Horse’s village. With their blankets hooded over their heads, he, his brother Lone Bear, and their comrades Long Chin and Woman Dress had often been seen idling around the war chief’s tipi. Perhaps Little Wolf had observed Crazy Horse’s meeting with He Dog the previous evening, and, overhearing talk of officers and knives, had exaggerated the story out of all recognition. Or perhaps Woman Dress applied the murderous spin to an inconsequential tale. Either way, it had no truth. “This was not true,” Red Feather simply dismissed the tale. Ten years later, Little Wolf claimed to have never told such a story.14
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