The origin of the Crook murder story remains a tantalizing clue in the intrigue against Crazy Horse. The fact that the Oglala tribal council had received no report of a murderous plot allegedly overheard on September 2 until Crook told the chiefs of Woman Dress’s story, at midafternoon on the 3rd, is another indication of its fabrication. Any such news would have been instantly relayed to the tribal village. In all likelihood, Woman Dress and persons unknown agreed on the story early on the morning of the third. The story is unlikely to represent any plot by the Oglala tribal council as a whole. Instead, a few leaders most opposed to the northern war chief met privately to discuss how best to ensure that Crazy Horse could not be restored to military favor.
Who those leaders were can never be precisely known. According to Lieutenant Bourke’s late published account, Woman Dress told Crook that he had been sent by “‘Spotted Tail’ and the other Indians.”15 On the face of it, this seems improbable: Woman Dress was an Oglala and would be unlikely to carry messages for the Brule head chief. However, Spotted Tail was at Red Cloud Agency by the afternoon of the third, and it would be natural for him to have visited in the Oglala village en route between the agencies. Of the Oglala band chiefs, Red Cloud and American Horse seem the most likely candidates. Woman Dress belonged to Red Cloud’s Bad Face band, was the chief’s first cousin, and “always stayed with” Red Cloud, according to Red Feather. The rivalry between Red Cloud and Crazy Horse needs no further elaboration. American Horse was even more robustly opposed to the war chief. According to his own account, he would have shot Crazy Horse dead on September 5 if others had not gotten in the way.16
American Horse took the lead in orchestrating another demonstration against the war chief. The chronology seems to fit late afternoon of the 3rd, after the Oglala chiefs returned from their talk with Crook. A plan was made within the Loafer band to force a crisis with Crazy Horse by abducting Nellie Larrabee. Such an act carried the risk of Crazy Horse’s violent opposition—a variation on the shoot-him-down plan proposed to Crook. At a Loafer band council, head akicita Red Shirt was present, as well as key warriors High Bear, Apples, and Eagle Horn. A more reluctant guest was Little Bear (Sioux Bob), the hapless betrothed of Nellie Larrabee before Crazy Horse appeared on the scene.
To Little Bear’s alarm, a scenario was storyboarded in which he marched up to Crazy Horse’s tipi and demanded the return of his woman. Leaving Little Bear no time to back down, Red Shirt led his party straight into Crazy Horse’s village. Dismounting before the war chief’s tipi, they marched in line toward his door. Only Little Bear, marching rather stiffly at the head of the column, struck a discordant note amid this display of Lakota machismo. When Little Bear’s voice unaccountably failed him, Red Shirt and the others spoke up, demanding that Nellie return with them. The moment of truth seemed at hand, but Worm emerged from the lodge to explain that his son was not at home. Into the tense silence, Nellie herself appeared, stooping to leave the tipi. As she was compelled to mount Little Bear’s pony, Red Shirt’s party shot dead the war chief’s best horse, standing tethered beside the lodge. No resistance was offered to this act of calculated defiance.17
For the northern village, this was a defining moment. In a classic case of Lakota bluff, the Loafers had successfully cowed the victors of the Little Bighorn. For many of the young warriors, their war chief’s recurring absences, as he sought through prayer the guidance of his wakan helpers, must have seemed ever more disturbing. Now a crisis had come, and Crazy Horse was not even present to save his warriors’ face. Before the end of the day, many of the demoralized openly favored crossing White River and joining Little Big Man’s camp of defectors.
No account records Crazy Horse’s reaction to the loss of his second wife. For the war chief, their passionate union had evolved into a relationship of unusual trust and communication: he can only have felt the loss intensely. What the open abduction demonstrated in political terms was the determination of elements of the agency Oglalas to force a crisis with the northern village. Crazy Horse would have realized that Red Shirt’s party had been prepared to shoot him down. After Crazy Horse returned, these matters were anxiously debated in the council tipi. Careful not to escalate the potential blood feud, Crazy Horse declined to respond to the Loafers’ challenge. “Crazy Horse never did any thing,” recalled his cousin Eagle Elk, “[he] only stayed away from [the Loafers] altogether.”18
By the end of the afternoon, the war council’s morale was at its lowest ebb. The mercurial Crazy Horse had proved unable to give his followers a clear lead in the day since the village breakup. Now, when he restated that “he desired to move away” immediately, ahead of further interventions, they demurred. Black Fox, Crazy Horse’s principal lieutenant in the blotahunka, and other key warriors “refused to follow” their war chief. As the evening drew on, the mood of unease deepened.19
At the agency and at Camp Robinson, developments had continued. As plans for the nighttime operation were revealed, key players registered their dissatisfaction with the course of events. Agent Irwin called on Lieutenant Colonel Bradley with He Dog in tow, each man of the three disturbed by rumors of an impending arrest operation. Crook, preoccupied with Nez Perce developments, and Clark, jealously guarding his intelligence, had left the post commander and civilian agent out of their loop of communication—and here was a northern defector breaking the news to them. Bradley quizzed interpreter Garnett about the afternoon council.20
Bradley quickly decided to change the plan. Uncomfortable with the prospect of a covert operation, and in any case aware that the essential element of surprise was lost, he immediately summoned Clark. Bradley told him that he wished to reschedule the whole operation; the arrest should take place the next morning. Both Clark and Crook had envisaged an essentially Indian policing operation. Bradley insisted that the army should be fully involved in the arrest and disarming. Although General Crook played no direct role in events after leaving Bradley’s quarters earlier in the afternoon, he evidently indicated his approval of Bradley’s reevaluation.21
Lieutenant Lee was one of the first to be apprised of the news. Upon hearing that a morning arrest was planned, the Spotted Tail agent asked if word had been sent to Camp Sheridan. Advised of the secrecy of the operation, he insisted that word be sent to prevent any “stampede” from Touch the Clouds’s village. The revelation that Spotted Tail was then at Red Cloud Agency, involved in hush-hush talks with Clark, was the last straw. Lee and Clark engaged in another heated debate. Both Clark and Bradley wished Spotted Tail’s participation in the arrest tomorrow, but Lee was adamant that the Brule chief’s presence would be necessary to prevent trouble at his own agency. Once again, Lee wrung a concession. Bradley reluctantly permitted Lee and Spotted Tail to leave for the Brule agency after midnight.22
Returning along the parade ground to his quarters, Clark summoned Billy Garnett from his stool at the sutler’s bar. “These Indians can hold nothing,” grumbled Clark before outlining the change of plan. He ordered Billy to hurry to the tribal village and inform the chiefs that Bradley had decided against a night operation. Instead, all loyal Oglala chiefs were to report with their warriors to Camp Robinson before sunrise. There they would be issued arms and ammunition for the daytime arrest of the war chief and the disarming of his village.23
Evening was deepening when Billy rode again into the Oglala circle. Dismounting, he noticed “a bunch of Indians back of [American Horse’s] lodge plotting up something.” To the Loafer headmen, Billy briefly reviewed Clark’s instructions. “I told them not to bother themselves; not to kill Crazy Horse that night; that this was the message that Lieutenant Clark gave me, but to report to [Camp Robinson] before sun-up and draw ammunition and guns.”24
At Crazy Horse’s village, the approach of night brought only fresh misgivings and fears. One visitor to Red Feather told of the parley with Clark and the promised reward to the killer of Crazy Horse. Red Feather hurried to his brother-in-law’s tipi with the news. He found Crazy H
orse subdued and fatalistic. The war chief unfastened his scout Sharps rifle from the lodgepoles above his bed. He presented the rifle in its scabbard to Red Feather in a symbolic act of abdication, then indicated the knife at his waist. “He was waiting like that for the soldiers,” recalled his brother-in-law. Crazy Horse was now prepared to fight and die as a simple warrior in defense of the village.25
An anxious Red Feather rode to Camp Robinson to confirm the army’s plans. Crazy Horse had given up any hope of leading his followers north. Instead, a growing number of people spoke of joining Little Big Man; yet others favored flight to Spotted Tail Agency. Although Black Fox, on whom leadership was devolving, continued to urge solidarity, before daylight fully half the village would exercise one of these options.
With the village in meltdown, and Crazy Horse in a mood of fatalistic despair, the day drew toward midnight. For the war chief it had been a day of dizzying mood swings and political shifts. Grimly, he relinquished his position as war chief, relieved at the lifting of an intolerable burden. Expecting the momentary attack of troops and agency relatives, Crazy Horse was prepared to die fighting, alone like a Thunder dreamer, in defense of what remained of the Northern Nation.
28
BAD WINDS BLOWING
Few were sleeping when Red Feather left the northern village to ride up to Camp Robinson. At the post, all was bustle. Having assessed the activity, Red Feather sought out Billy Garnett. The interpreter told him that “the scouts and soldiers were going after Crazy Horse.” After meeting another Lakota scouting the post, Red Feather and he pooled their intelligence and rode back to the village. Together they entered Crazy Horse’s tipi “and told him the soldiers were coming.” The war chief offered no remark. He continued to sit, the knife at his belt his only visible weapon, “waiting like that for the soldiers.”1
Not all were so fatalistic. Inside every tipi, the evolving situation was assessed. Many people were fearful that retribution was at hand. No organization or leadership sought to coordinate action. The Sans Arc Pistol Maker, for example, led his family and fled to relatives at Spotted Tail. A larger number elected to join Little Big Man’s camp. Piecemeal, twenty-five or thirty families slipped into the darkness to cross the river to safety. No akicita turned out to prevent the movement: Crazy Horse had withdrawn into silence, and Black Fox was unwilling to rupture what remained of village solidarity.
Of one hundred tipis standing before dusk, seventy-three remained when intelligence began to filter to Camp Robinson. As the sun rose and news of the troop movement crystallized, another twenty or more lodges were struck. By midmorning the village had been halved again: some fifty tipis remained standing on a campground littered with abandoned lodgepoles and baggage; three hundred people remained to face a day of whirlwind.2
At the Oglala tribal village, Billy Garnett had brought Clark’s revised summons for all to report to Camp Robinson before daylight. Runners were dispatched to Little Big Man’s camp, and as night deepened, the northern Deciders and defecting akicita rode up to sit in the tribal circle.3
The Oglala chiefs succinctly informed He Dog and the other northern defectors that troops were to be sent to arrest Crazy Horse. Trouble was expected from the war chief’s warriors, and Lieutenant Clark had told the Oglalas “to prepare [their] guns and ammunition” for a morning operation.4
The Oglala tribal council was not content to serve as mercenaries for the army: the tribe’s prime concern was to rehabilitate its northern relatives. The Oglala tribe would take into its protection those northern Lakotas who rejected Crazy Horse’s leadership. Little Big Man agreed to move his camp into the tribal circle. Those in Crazy Horse’s village who agreed to the council’s terms would also be made welcome. To accelerate this process, before dawn Little Big Man rode back to the northern village.5
Those northern people who “had no ears” could expect summary punishment. Crazy Horse was singled out as a target. Although individuals like Young Man Afraid of His Horse might nurse misgivings, the council’s mood now favored the permanent removal of Crazy Horse from the equation of Lakota politics. The Oglala band chiefs “all say Crazy-Horse would not listen to them,” observed the New York Tribune’s reporter three days later; “that he was obstinate, dictatorial, stubborn, and objected to every measure which was taken for their and his good. . . and opposed every effort. . . to pacify him.” As the Oglala warriors prepared for the day’s action, several anonymous leaders remarked “that they would like to kill [Crazy Horse] like a dog if he resisted.” The plan to kill the war chief was no longer a whispered plot but the Oglala council’s public decision.6
Some four hundred Oglala men mustered at Camp Robinson soon after 7 A.M. From their camp north of the post, one hundred Arapaho men had also gathered; a few Cheyennes were on hand from the small camp still clustered around Joe Larrabee’s cabin. Extra ammunition was issued by Lieutenant Clark, and firearms supplied to those who needed them.7
General Crook had departed in the small hours for the railroad, and Lieutenant Colonel Bradley oversaw the operation. He assigned immediate command of the cavalry contingent to Major Julius W. Mason, who formed his eight companies of the Third Cavalry into two battalions. Companies D, G, F, and E, under command of Captain Guy V. Henry, were to march down the north side of White River to Crazy Horse’s village. Captain Frederick Van Vliet took charge of Companies C, B, H, and L, which would march along the south side of the river. Lieutenant John Murphy, Fourteenth Infantry, accompanied Van Vliet’s battalion in charge of a single twelve-pounder cannon. Joined by Lieutenant James F. Simpson as adjutant and V. . T. McGillycuddy as surgeon, Major Mason took his place at the head of Van Vliet’s right-wing battalion.8
In consultation with Lieutenant Clark, the Oglala chiefs made their dispositions, using Mason’s division by battalions to further their own aims. The vanguard of Henry’s left-wing battalion were the Indians perceived as most loyal: Sharp Nose and Black Coal, with their one hundred Arapahos and Cheyennes, and the Oglala contingent from the Kiyuksa band. Three Bears, the Kiyuksa war leader, was placed in tactical command of the Indian left wing, reporting directly to Clark.
In front of Mason’s right wing rode the main Oglala contingent, their vanguard fronted by chiefs acting as mediators. Red Cloud, Little Wound, Young Man Afraid of His Horse, American Horse, and Yellow Bear rode at the head of the wing, each chief carrying a calumet pipe in the crook of his left arm. About 9 A.M. the two battalions began their march east, “to surround, attack, dismount, and disarm Crazy Horse and his braves.”9
Billy Garnett joined the column leading a contingent of reinforcements from the tribal village, who attached themselves to the right wing. Defectors from the northern village formed the core of the reinforcements, following Big Road, Iron Crow, and He Dog. In the event of action, Clark was concerned that northern auxiliaries might defect to Crazy Horse, and the lieutenant ordered Garnett to direct the right wing to form two divisions. Those considered most trustworthy were formed into a division riding on the extreme right, under command of Young Man Afraid of His Horse. Between them and the river rode the northern contingent, with a group of agency warriors, led by American Horse, with He Dog acting as akicita.10
As the march resumed, the column of four hundred cavalry, in skirmishing formation, and at least five hundred Indian allies could not be kept secret. A rattle of gunfire, when the Arapaho contingent flushed a coyote, signaled the approach, and Indians appeared along the rolling hills flanking the march. Crazy Bear brought the first news of the march back to the northern village. Once more, no coordinated response was in evidence: the rump village seemed in a paralysis of morale.11
Depleted by nighttime desertions, the fifty lodges remaining had faced daylight with misgivings. Many women struck tipis and loaded travois in preparation for flight. In the urgency of fear, many belongings were left where they lay. Women and children hurried northwest, where the lee of the Hat Creek bluffs offered refuge and the first toehold on the trail north.
As morning progressed, more of the non-combatants raced for the bluffs. What leadership remained in the village, grouped around Black Fox, managed to keep most of the men on the campground: that was the limit of its success. Crazy Horse remained incommunicado within his tipi.12
Crazy Horse’s inaction accelerated the freefall of village morale. Little Big Man was in the camp, doing what he could to pacify people, securing the surrender of several straggling families. Meanwhile, news of the march at last galvanized the rump war council. In a hasty meeting, a quick trawl of opinion favored negotiation. Crazy Horse’s brother-in-law Red Feather galloped toward the column with word that the men in the northern village “promised to give up [their] guns and move near” Red Cloud Agency.
Red Feather met the column three or four miles from the village. In a hurried talk with Clark, he passed on the war council’s message. Then, “[t]he soldiers told me to tell Crazy Horse they were coming, and he was to do as they said.”13 Red Feather galloped homeward. During his absence, something had happened to break the deepest of Crazy Horse’s deadlocks. When Red Feather left the village, about 9:20 A.M., the war chief had been in a state of paralyzed resignation. Within half an hour, he was moving swiftly to implement a new course, just as if he had received a new surge of the Thunder power of his vision. Although a radical, possibly spiritual, boost in personal morale had taken place, Crazy Horse had probably been galvanized to action by earthly visitors.
His key aides Kicking Bear and Shell Boy entered the tipi soon after Red Feather’s departure. A rapid review of options was probably passed over. As the march cut off flight to the bluffs, an immediate break for the north was impossible. In the face of collapsing morale, armed resistance was futile, surrender, unthinkable. Until now Crazy Horse had been opposed to fleeing to Spotted Tail Agency, where the Brule chief effectively controlled the northern Lakotas. Suddenly flight to Spotted Tail seemed to open up a range of options just as they were being slammed shut at Red Cloud. Most important for Crazy Horse’s sense of humanity, atrophying in paranoia, was Black Shawl’s health. She remained sickly from winter privations, and her arm was still grotesquely swollen. A healer in the small Oglala camp near the Brule agency was trusted by Crazy Horse and Black Shawl. Moreover, her uncle and her widowed mother both lived there. His wife could be left with her closest relatives in the event of any further crisis, not at the mercy of vindictive reprisals by Red Cloud Agency Oglalas.14
CRAZY HORSE Page 53