Furthermore, the Brule agency offered a new haven for the northern Lakotas. As a minimal option, Crazy Horse might find safety from agency Oglalas bent on his arrest or death. Spotted Tail represented a sanctuary where the Northern Nation might be reunited: Crazy Horse’s goal throughout the summer. As a final, and possibly critical, factor, fourteen lodges from Fast Bull’s camp had crossed White River early that morning. Led by Shedding Bear and Low Dog, they had now entered Touch the Clouds’s village ahead of surrender at the agency. Their arrival created the sort of tension and uncertainty that determined leadership might unbalance— the kicamnayan moment that Crazy Horse had mastered in battle—to provoke a mass breakout. About 9:50 A.M. Crazy Horse stepped out of his door flap, carrying bridle and saddle.15
Black Shawl packed a few essential items. Crazy Horse hurried to drive in the couple’s horses. Little Big Man hurried upriver with word for the Oglala chiefs that “Crazy Horse is either going to fight or he is going to run away: he is catching his horse.”16
As the troops neared the village, lone northern warriors made brave runs. Looking Horse, a Miniconjou scout from Crazy Horse’s village, charged across the front of both wings, “scolding” Clark and the agency chiefs.17
The Oglala tribe would not tolerate this defiance. Woman Dress shot Looking Horse’s pony. As the animal sank to the earth, Looking Horse sprang clear, but another scout pistol-whipped him to the ground. White Cow Killer, an Oglala brother of the hapless warrior, dragged his senseless body into the shade of a cottonwood, then hurried to rejoin the moving column.18
Clark ordered the scouts forward, instructing them not to fire first.19 The scouts prepared for battle, dismounting to remove saddles and strip off shirts and army jackets. Little Big Man galloped up to report that Crazy Horse was fleeing the village, then turned his pony and raced back toward the village, as the column started on his trail.20
Half a mile east, all was chaos. Escorted by Kicking Bear and Shell Boy, Crazy Horse and Black Shawl had mounted and started riding downstream at about 10:00 A.M. Before leaving, Crazy Horse informed the war council that he was going to Spotted Tail Agency. Black Fox declined to follow the war chief, ordering his seventy men to follow him across White River. The warriors formed a row along a knoll some six hundred yards south of the river. In full panoply of Lakota war gear, they made an imposing sight as the right-wing battalion of Oglalas and troops approached the mouth of Little White Clay. At the same time, the left wing was approaching the deserted campground. Fanned out to the north and west, Clark’s contingent could see a few families straggling out for the bluffs. Some of the people in the rear, disheartened and fearful, drifted back to surrender, but all eyes were now on the south side of the river. There Little Big Man drew up his pony again before the chiefs and officers, warning them that the northern warriors were “going to show a fight.” As he spoke, Black Fox’s warriors began to advance down the hillside toward the right wing. Darting ahead of them on a swift pony, a Sans Arc youth waved a revolver. Sixteen years old, Crayfish was a veteran of the Custer battle and utterly fearless. The right wing was ordered to halt as Crayfish charged the column, threading between some of the lead riders before whipping back up the hill toward his comrades.21
The scene was now set for the height of the drama. From the center of the northern line, Black Fox nudged his pinto forward. He carried a Springfield carbine, with a revolver belted at his waist. In magnificent war gear topped by a superb trailer headdress, he appeared the epitome of Lakota valor. Kicking his pony into a gallop, Black Fox harangued the Oglalas and troops, “I have looked all my life to die,” he chanted; “I see only the clouds and the ground; I am all scarred up.” He drew his knife and clamped it between his teeth, riding headlong for the line of chiefs and officers. From that line, American Horse and He Dog stepped forward. American Horse held aloft his pipe, saying, “Brother-in-law, hold on, let up, save the women and children. Come straight for the pipe; the pipe is yours. Hold on,” American Horse repeated, as Black Fox reined in, “we have not come down for anything like that; we came down to save you. Don’t you make any trouble.”22
At length, Black Fox drew up and assented “hou.” Tentatively, American Horse and Black Fox shook hands and sat on the ground some fifteen feet in front of the line of agency leaders. The pair smoked together while behind them thirty northern warriors executed a precise series of mounted maneuvers. Black Fox declared that Crazy Horse had run away with his wife to Spotted Tail Agency. “He listens to too many bad talks. I told him we came in for peace, but he would listen to them. Now he is gone and the people belong to me. I come to die, but you saved me.”23
American Horse told him that they had come to arrest Crazy Horse and disarm the village, but with the war chief having fled, his following would probably only have to come to Red Cloud Agency and join the tribal hoop. “If this is all” replied Black Fox, “I am glad to hear it.” He rose to address his followers. “All over,” he shouted. “Hey, stop this running and get back there.” Without a word, still riding in perfect order and ready to fly or fight at a word from Black Fox, the warriors turned their ponies to cross the river onto the campground. Mightily impressed by Black Fox’s command, Billy Garnett remembered, “That very man had the control of that village.”24
As the tense standoff dissolved, Mason ordered officers’ call. Just then Crazy Horse was seen, topping a distant rise to the east. Officers and chiefs huddled to identify the little party. Riding at the front was Black Shawl, with her husband and his two comrades, Kicking Bear and Shell Boy, in a protective arc behind her. Even as they appeared, the four riders vanished over the rise. Clark detailed No Flesh to take ten of his Kiyuksa warriors and capture Crazy Horse. As he lashed up his pony, No Flesh announced he intended to kill the war chief.25
The group of officers and chiefs paused a while. Reviewing “further particulars,” Clark ordered No Water and a second detail of ten scouts from the right wing to “arrest [Crazy Horse] and bring him to my house” at Camp Robinson. “I promised No Water $200 if he accomplished his mission.” As No Water’s party loped east, the officers crossed the river to the campground. American Horse led a scout detachment to bring the rest of the women and children back from the bluffs. By 11 A.M. Mason and Clark had started the procession back to the agency. Before noon some forty-three lodges had surrendered, relieved at the leniency of their reception. Soon after midday, they pitched tipis in the tribal circle rising outside the Red Cloud Agency compound. As the work began, Clark scribbled a hurried note to apprise Lee at Spotted Tail of the morning’s events and of the flight of the Oglala war chief toward his agency.26
Forty-five miles east of Red Cloud Agency, Beaver Creek takes its rise in the uplands of the Pine Ridge, flowing north through a valley confined by low pine-topped bluffs and ridges. In 1877 the valley was the home of more than one thousand lodges of Brule Sioux and their northern Lakota relatives. Spotted Tail Agency, located twelve miles south of the mouth of the creek, and its military post, Camp Sheridan, three-quarters of a mile to the north, were the points of reference in the political geography of the valley. Upstream of the agency in three vast tipi camps were the host Brules. Three miles north of Camp Sheridan, at the forks of Beaver Creek, was Touch the Clouds’s village. Lining the creek between the northern village and Camp Sheridan were a few Oglala tipis. Worm was living there, as were kin like Standing Bear and Fast Thunder, several of Black Shawl’s relatives, and Crazy Horse’s hunka brother Horn Chips.27
Agent Lee and Spotted Tail had left Camp Robinson at 4:00 A.M. and approached their agency late in the morning. They found Captain Burke receiving the surrender of Shedding Bear’s fourteen lodges. As Burke tallied people, stock, and firearms, Lee explained the situation at Red Cloud. Before departure, Clark had assured Lee he need not fear: Clark could lay his hands on Crazy Horse at any time he wished, and no disruption would spread to the Brule agency. Neither Lee nor Burke was so sanguine. Camp Sheridan was manned by one company of cava
lry and one of infantry, and the officers agreed that preparations for the worst must be made.28
The Shedding Bear camp had been accompanied to the agency by three of the northern Deciders. After the situation was outlined to them, Touch the Clouds and Red Bear agreed to return to their village, “to try to hold their people steady.” Roman Nose would remain at the agency to dampen excitement there. Spotted Tail had already departed to prepare the Brule villages.29
The hours passed in mounting tension until 2 P.M., when an Indian courier raced into the agency, declaring, “the soldiers were fighting Indians over at Red Cloud.” Roman Nose quelled the clamor, and White Thunder, a Brule chief and scout sergeant, was hurried down to keep Touch the Clouds in line. White Thunder took with him Black Crow, son-in-law of Spotted Tail. Lean, sharp-faced Black Crow was as ready to shoot down Crazy Horse as any of Clark’s Oglala partisans.30 As the afternoon progressed, more loyal Brules joined them and by “dint of hard effort. . . were succeeding fairly well” in controlling the northern village. About 4:00 P.M., however, news arrived that a true crisis had come.31
Black Crow rode into Lee’s compound, shouting,” Crazy Horse is in the northern camp!” The Brule warrior was sent back to the village with orders for the northern Deciders to bring Crazy Horse to the post. Simultaneously, Clark’s courier appeared. Lee tore open Clark’s note:
Dear Lee—There has been no fight. Crazy Horse’s band is just going into camp and will give up their guns without trouble in all probability. Crazy Horse has skipped out for your place. Have sent after him. Should he reach your agency, have “Spot” arrest him, and I will give any Indian who does this $200.00.32
Soon after this thunderbolt, fifteen or twenty Oglala scouts rode into Camp Sheridan, No Flesh’s party sent in pursuit of Crazy Horse. The party seemed anxious to hide themselves and their exhausted ponies. No Flesh requested Burke’s assistance in arresting Crazy Horse.33
To assess the latest news, Lee and agency interpreter Louis Bordeaux rode to Camp Sheridan, where Touch the Clouds appeared “in great excitement and said that he understood that Crazy Horse had taken refuge in his camp.” With difficulty Lee and Burke managed to pacify the Miniconjou chief, who was anxious that the roundup operation was intended for his village also. At length Touch the Clouds agreed to return to his village and “retain Crazy Horse there at all hazards.”34
Shortly afterward, Spotted Tail arrived to report that the northern village was striking its tipis. Burke and Lee agreed that they must leave immediately for the village. Spotted Tail would assemble the Brule warriors and follow. Taking along Bordeaux and post surgeon Egon A. Koerper, Burke and Lee boarded the post ambulance and started down Beaver Creek. Within a mile, they met Jose Merrivale and Charley Tackett, who announced that Crazy Horse, Touch the Clouds, and a large party of northern Lakotas were on their way to the post. After another half mile, at about 5:30 P.M., the anxious officers saw three hundred warriors drawn up in a line of battle. Many wore warbonnets. Lances and other weapons were brandished as the ambulance drew up and its passengers climbed down to meet the Oglala war chief and his escort.35
Seven and a half hours before the confrontation on Beaver Creek, Crazy Horse and Black Shawl had ridden out of the northern Oglala village. Although soon aware that two groups of Oglala scouts were in pursuit, Crazy Horse acted coolly. The doubts and premonitions of the last few days were put aside. In the heady rush of action, the war chief once more made quick, lucid decisions. This would be a sustained chase, and he told Black Shawl to pace the ponies. On level ground and downhill, they put their mounts to a run, but at the foot of hills and ridges, the little party slowed to climb the slope at a walk, conserving the strength of their animals. At the hilltop, the horses were fresh again and responded easily to the downhill run. At first their gain on the scouts seemed imperceptible: for hours, the pursuing dust raised twin clouds at a steady distance behind them. But both groups of scouts were using their horseflesh to exhaustion, racing uphill and down at a gallop. By the time they crossed Chadron Creek, the gap was lengthening. No Water’s first pony foundered; the corporal mounted a second horse and quirted it mercilessly onward before it too collapsed and died. His party walked their mounts the rest of the way. No Flesh’s party closed the distance enough for a shouted exchange with Crazy Horse, but as they crossed the Bordeaux Creek flats, their horses too played out. By 2:00 P.M. Crazy Horse and Black Shawl were free of pursuit and able to slow their sweating mounts as they approached Beaver Creek.36
The couple swung downstream and rode into the small cluster of Oglala tipis. As Black Shawl dismounted, relatives hurried to help her to her mother’s tipi, but Crazy Horse had little time for farewells. Pausing briefly at the lodge of Horn Chips, who could warn him of the scout deployments along the valley, the war chief remounted and rode downstream.37
When Crazy Horse, eluding White Thunder’s Brule scouts, galloped into the northern village about 3:30 P.M., “there was a wild scene,” Lee learned, “beggaring description.” Miniconjou and Sans Arc warriors whooped their support of the man who had led them to victory against Custer.38
After dispatching Black Crow to the agency, White Thunder rode boldly into the village to make his arrest. Brule scouts followed their sergeant, but facing the overwhelming force of northern warriors, they were compelled to withdraw. Supporters knotted around Crazy Horse to lead him to the council lodge. As the village briefly quieted, White Thunder deployed his followers to form a cordon around the village.39
Inside the council tipi, the Sans Arc Deciders presided over a council of warriors. Crazy Horse argued forcefully for an immediate flight north. After a half-hour debate, Red Bear told heralds to order tipis struck. The women hurried to comply, and the two hundred northern lodges “came down with magic swiftness.” White Thunder ordered his party to ride the outer circle of tipis, haranguing the village. Asserting Brule authority, they ordered their northern relatives to stop: at length, as women paused in their work, the Brule speeches “restored some degree of quiet” to the village.40
An anxious hush descended. As White Thunder pondered his next move, Black Crow returned from the agency, then rode alone into the village. With no concessions to council propriety, Black Crow told the war chief “that He understood that he Crazy Horse never listened, But now he had got to listen and had got to come with him to the Commanding Officer” at Camp Sheridan. Over the murmur of objections, he stated flatly, “You must listen to me. You must come with me.”41
Black Crow’s manner left the northern leaders in no doubt of Brule resolve. To Crazy Horse’s dismay, the Sans Arc Deciders issued new orders. While High Bear remained in camp to oversee the repitching of tipis, Red Bear would lead the warriors to Camp Sheridan. They would escort Crazy Horse and see that no harm was done to him. As the warriors hurried to don war clothes and untether their best ponies, Black Crow rode outside the camp circle to confer with White Thunder. Quickly the two men agreed that Crazy Horse was to be shot if he attempted escape. They ordered the rest of the “reliables” to mingle with the northern warriors. About 5:10 P.M. the three hundred-strong escort started upstream. Three riders formed the front: Red Bear and White Thunder, flanking Crazy Horse. Immediately behind Crazy Horse rode Black Crow, well positioned to shoot the war chief dead.42
Shortly after starting, Touch the Clouds appeared, riding hard from the post. He joined the line of leaders, riding between Crazy Horse and Red Bear as the party observed Burke and Lee’s ambulance approaching them. The leaders reined in, the warriors fanning out into a long line, resplendent with warbonnets, shields, banner lances, and war shirts, across the valley. As the ambulance drew up and its passengers climbed out, the line pressed forward—” very much excited,” concluded Agent Lee. First out of the ambulance was Dr. Koerper. The surgeon had recently treated Touch the Clouds’s family, and he walked coolly toward the Miniconjou chief, proffering his right hand in friendship. Touch the Clouds stared straight ahead. The moment stretched; then Koerper
walked the last few steps to stand on Touch the Clouds’s left. Still holding out his right hand, Koerper placed his left on the neck of the Miniconjou’s pony. At last Touch the Clouds relented, and took the doctor’s hand in friendship.43
Burke and Lee now approached the leaders. Crazy Horse leaned forward tentatively to shake the officers’ hands. Through Louis Bordeaux, Burke and Lee asked that Crazy Horse accompany them to Camp Sheridan, “as they wished to talk with him.”
“I have been talked to,” responded the war chief, “night and day[,] until my brain has turned.”44
Asked why he had come to Spotted Tail, Crazy Horse replied that “he had come away from Red Cloud with his sick wife, and to get away from trouble there.” He at last signaled his agreement to go to the post. As the party readied itself to start, Lee observed the war chief. Lean and melancholy, “Crazy Horse was sitting on his pony with [a] very much distressed look in his countenance.”45
With the ambulance leading the way, the procession started for the post. After a while White Thunder rode to catch up with Bordeaux, riding behind the ambulance. White Thunder advised the interpreter “to tell the officers to hurry back and get home[;] that there was danger.” Bordeaux rode forward and urged Lee to speed up. The driver urged the mules to a lope, and the ambulance lurched ahead. By now nervous, Bordeaux hurried his horse ahead of the ambulance as the post appeared in sight.46
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