CRAZY HORSE

by Kingsley M Bray

  14. For the Fort Sully treaties of 1865, see Proceedings of a Board of Commissioners; Bvt. Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Sully to Maj. Gen. J. Pope, Oct. 1, 1865, UMA, UMA, LR, OIA; also Newton Edmunds to CoIA, Oct. 14, 1865, and Report of the Commission to Treat with the Sioux of the Upper Missouri, both in ARCoIA 1865.

  15. For Big Ribs’s mission and Red Cloud’s position, see Col. Henry E. Maynadier to CoIA, Jan. 25, 1866, UPA, LR, OIA. Recruited by Gen. H. M. Dodge at the iyeska (mixed-blood) communities north of Denver, the embassy left Fort Laramie on Oct. 15, 1865, returning on Jan. 13, 1866. See also Coutant, History of Wyoming, 2:541; and, for details of the Oglala councils with the treaty commission at Fort Sully, Proceedings of a Board of Commissioners, 93–110.

  16. Man Afraid of His Horse’s diplomatic engagement is attested to in Vital Jarrot to CoIA, Feb. 11, 1866, UPA, LR, OIA.

  17. Jarrot to CoIA, Feb. 11, 1866; Jarrot to E. B. Taylor, Feb. 5, 1866, UPA, LR, OIA. Maj. Gen. John Pope to Secretary of the Interior, Feb. 12, 1866; and E. B. Taylor to CoIA, Oct. 1, 1866,ARCoIA 1866,206,210–11; also 1866 Treaty Articles, and CoIA to Secretary of the Interior, Jan. 20, 1867, both in Papers Relating to Talks and Councils, 19–20, 31–34.

  18. On Red Cloud’s role, see Singing Bear, in Buechel and Manhart, Lakota Tales and Texts, 2:604–14; Charles P. Jordan to Doane Robinson, June 26, 1902, Robinson Papers.

  19. Maynadier to CoIA, Mar. 24, 1866; E. B. Taylor to Maj. Gen. Frank Wheaton, Mar. 12, 1866; Taylor to CoIA, Mar. 12, 1866, all UPA, LR, OIA.

  20. Maynadier to Wheaton and Taylor, Apr. 5, 1866, UPA, LR, OIA.

  21. A full listing of all headmen at the June 5 treaty council is printed in Rocky Mountain News, June 18, 1866.

  22. Minuted proceedings for the Fort Laramie talks have not yet surfaced. The following account depends on Taylor to CoIA, June 9, 1866, UPA, LR, OIA; also Rocky Mountain News, June 18 (includes quotation), 25, 27, 1866;Taylor and Maynadier, undated report, and Taylor to CoIA, Oct. 1, 1866,ARCoIA 1866, 208–209, 210–12. For Man Afraid of His Horse’s perception of these talks, see his statement to Cheyenne chiefs, Carrington Papers, 10.

  23. Rocky Mountain News, June 18, 1866;Taylor to CoIA, June 9, 1866 (includes quotation).

  24. Taylor to CoIA, June 9, 1866; Unrau, Tending the Talking Wire, 345; Rocky Mountain News, June 27, 1866 (includes quotation).

  25. The evidence suggests that Bad Faces considered the land north of Crazy Woman Creek their own. As revealed by the pattern of subsequent hostilities, the land south of there, including the upper Powder River valley, was considered Hunkpatila country. The pattern reflects post-1858 expansion into Crow country. See M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 94.

  26. Carrington Papers, 5. In the absence of minuted proceedings, the roles of Red Cloud and Man Afraid of His Horse have been misunderstood. Contrary to the assumption of Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux, 209,306–307, it is clear that they returned to Fort Laramie for the second round of treaty talks scheduled to start June 13. The Rocky Mountain News coverage of the proceedings establishes that as late as June 19, formal talks had not actually resumed. This is entirely consistent with the situation outlined by Coutant’s informants: Red Cloud and Man Afraid of His Horse were both present at Fort Laramie, “but. . . not taking any part in the peace talks, yet doing a great amount of hard work among the tribes on the outside. Nothing was allowed to escape the attention of those chieftains.” Coutant, History of Wyoming, 2:543.

  27. F. C. Carrington, My Army Life, 292: Red Cloud’s speech was clearly recalled by William Murphy, in 1866 a private of Company A, Eighteenth Infantry, at the 4th of July, 1908, celebrations in Sheridan, Wyoming. Murphy explicitly states that it was a “harangue to the Indians,” not a speech to the commission as many secondary writers have assumed. The chronological context seems to fit June 14, since talks “continued for some time” after the speech, i.e., before the northern Oglala departure on the fifteenth. Margaret Carrington also implies a hiatus, suggesting that after Red Cloud, “with all his fighting men,” withdrew from council, Man Afraid of His Horse remained engaged in debate “with the treaty-makers,” i.e., those chiefs favoring agreement. M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 79.

  28. M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 79–80 (includes all quotations); Coutant, History of Wyoming, 2:543–48. F. C. Carrington, My Army Life, 124–25, M. I. Carrington dates this confrontation to June 15. Frances Carrington, in an otherwise overdrawn account, notes the detail of the chiefs ordering tipis struck.

  29. Carrington Papers, 10, 19. The Cheyennes told Carrington that five hundred warriors were in the Oglala Sun Dance village, suggesting an approximate count of four hundred lodges. The treaty was signed by the Brules and Oglalas remaining at Fort Laramie on June 27, and by representatives of one small Cheyenne band on June 28.

  30. Ibid. For evidence of the War Deciders: Carrington Papers, 29, 32 (Buffalo Tongue); Fort Laramie, post scout reports, Nov. 1866 (Black Twin); Fire Thunder, in DeMallie, Sixth Grandfather, 103 (Big Road). Fire Thunder’s observation, “Red Cloud was, of course, over all of us” neatly sums up the same tacit primacy implied by Singing Bear: it also echoes the literal meaning of ataya zuya itancan, war chief over all—see DeMallie, “Teton Dakota Kinship and Social Organization,” 152.

  31. Hebard and Brininstool, Bozeman Trail, 1:278.

  32. Carrington Papers, 10 (includes quotation), 29, 32; M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 119–21. The split within Hunkpatila, which finally crystallized in May 1871 (see chapter 14), undoubtedly had its origin in the first weeks of hostilities against the Bozeman Trail garrisons. Young Man Afraid of His Horse was one of the leaders in the July 23 attack at Crazy Woman Creek: John Colhoff to Joseph Balmer, Oct. 17, 1948 (transcript in author’s collection). Little Hawk’s presence can be inferred from his key role around Fort Reno in 1867 (see chapter 10). Buffalo Tongue (born 1819) was herald of the White Packstrap, a warrior society founded by Man Afraid of His Horse himself.

  In 1866 Hunkpatila numbered approximately forty-five lodges, 280 people. Four tiyospaye are detectable: Kapozha, led by Man Afraid of His Horse and Worm; the former Standing Bull kindred, now led by Worm’s brother Little Hawk (the elder); Yellow Eagle II’s tiyospaye; and Payabya, perhaps associated with Man Afraid of His Horse’s brother-in-law Blue Handle. Most of these family groups, with the possible exception of Little Hawk’s, were divided over the war issue. Through the war years, the band underwent a complex process of splitting and regrouping, reflecting residual veneration for Man Afraid of His Horse. Politics were particularly volatile in the period July 1866–March 1867.

  33. Baptiste Pourier, interview by Eli S. Ricker, tablet 13, Ricker Papers, locates Red Cloud in the attack on the Bighorn ferry, dated July 17 in the meticulous reconstruction of Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, 31–32.

  34. M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 122–24. For background on the first months of the Bozeman Trail posts, see Carrington Papers, passim; Utley, Frontier Regulars, 100ff; Hebard and Brininstool, Bozeman Trail, 1:263–96; D. Brown, Fort Phil Kearny, passim.

  35. Carrington Papers, 20–21, 30; M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 126.

  36. Carrington Papers, 20–21, 30; Singing Bear, in Buechel and Manhart, Lakota Tales and Texts, 2:605, 611; R. A. Clark, Killing of Chief Crazy Horse, 100.

  37. On Miniconjous, see John B. Sanborn to Secretary of the Interior, July 8, 1867 (High Backbone), in Indian Hostilities, 66. There were “not quite a hundred lodges” in the Miniconjou village on Tongue River by November: Fort Laramie, post scout reports, Nov. 1866.

  38. By late October, few Lakotas remained on Powder River: Crazy Horse and the Buffalo Tongue camp of Hunkpatilas had therefore consolidated on the Tongue. See statement of “Bordeau Bro in Law,” “Notes Taken of a Conversation with Two Indians,” Fort Laramie, post scout reports, Nov. 1866. On Crazy Horse as Red Cloud’s “principal lieutenant,” see Whitewash, in Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, 361.

  39. Whitewash and White Bear, in Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux India
ns, 359–61; M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 189, 191–92. An interesting note on Red Cloud as “the chief soldier, the one who managed the war for the Sioux in all the wars with the whites” (my emphasis) is in Red Fly statement, Aug. 5, 1903, “1902–06/Red Cloud and Sioux Indians,” Box 59, MS 2039, Sheldon Collection. On Red Cloud, the standard references are Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, and Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem. They are now supplemented by Larson, Red Cloud, and Paul, Autobiography of Red Cloud.

  40. For the December 6 attack, see Carrington Papers, 36–39; M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 194–97; “Indian Hostilities,” 59. A full secondary account is Vaughn, Indian Fights, 32–43; see also D. Brown, Fort Phil Kearny, 174–81; and Utley Frontier Regulars, 103–104. On Yellow Eagle’s role, see Whitewash, Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, 359. This is Yellow Eagle III, son of the tiyospaye headman. He was a close associate of Crazy Horse’s through the 1870s (see chapter 14).

  41. Literature on the “Fetterman Massacre” is vast. Besides the sources listed in the following notes, my narrative depends on Carrington Papers, 39–50; “Indian Hostilities,” 15, 28ff, 62–66; M. I. Carrington, Absaraka, 200–17; F. C. Carrington, My Army Life, 142–48; Grinnell, Fighting Cheyennes, chap. 18; Hyde, Life of George Bent, 343–46; Hebard and Brininstool, Bozeman Trail, 1:297–346; Vestal, Warpath, chap. 6; Powell, People of the Sacred Mountain, 1:451–51; Utley, Frontier Regulars, 104–106; D. Brown, Fort Phil Kearny, 186ff; Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux, 221–33; Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 145–49; H. H. Anderson, “Centennial of Fetterman Fight” ; Appleman, “Fetterman Fight” ;Vaughn, Indian Fights, chap. 2.

  42. White Bull, in Vestal, Warpath, 53–54.

  43. The winkte prophecy was recalled by Grinnell’s Cheyenne informants: see Fighting Cheyennes, 237–38.

  44. For decoys, see especially the Eli S. Ricker interviews with George Sword (Apr. 29, 1907, tablet 16) and American Horse (Aug. 18, 1906, tablet 16), Ricker Papers; also the Grinnell interview material presented in Powell, People of the Sacred Mountain, 1:456.

  45. Red Cloud’s presence along the west side of the ambush ridge is directly attested to by the statements of White Face and Big White Horse, July 30, 1903, “1902–06/Red Cloud and Sioux Indians.” Disproving hearsay statements that the Bad Face leader was absent from the battle, they state: “Red Cloud was there. I saw him.”

  46. Bordeaux, Custer’s Conqueror, 23.

  47. American Horse’s contention that he killed Fetterman as stated is strongly confirmed by the testimony regarding Fetterman’s wounds of Assistant Surgeon Samuel M. Horton, July 25, 1867, Fetterman Investigation. See Hebard and Brininstool, Bozeman Trail, 1:312n, and the introduction, by John D. McDermott.

  48. DeBarthe, Frank Grouard, 181; W. K. Powers, [John Colhoff’s] Winter Count of the Oglala, 32.

  49. Rocky Bear statement, n. d. [ca. 1902], Box 59, MS 2039, Sheldon Papers.

  CHAPTER 10

  1. Kinney to HQ Dept. of the Platte, Feb. 7, 1867, Fetterman Investigation; Bvt. Brig. Gen. H. Wessells to Gen. C.C. Augur, Feb. 14, 1867, UPA, LR, OIA; Captain J. Mix to AAG, Feb. 11, 12,1867, DPR. Crucial to understanding Little Hawk and Crazy Horse’s campaign against Fort Reno, Feb.-Aug. 1867, is Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, 371ff. Robinson’s sources are probably his interviews with White Bear and Whitewash, conducted at Butte Creek issue station, Rosebud Reservation, June 11, 1904. For the makeup of the Little Hawk camp in spring 1867,I follow Vestal’s account of the investiture of Sitting Bull: Sitting Bull, 91–92.

  2. Dates of skirmishes are confirmed in Webb, Chronological List of Engagements, 28. For background on the Bozeman Trail garrisons, see Utley, Frontier Regulars, 123–25; D. Brown, Fort Phil Kearny, chaps. 10–11; Murray, Military Posts in the Powder River Country.

  3. The activities of the investigative commission generated a printed report, Indian Hostilities, and a mass of unprinted correspondence, memoranda, testimony, and minutes of proceedings, collected in Fetterman Investigation.

  4. Statement by Iron Shell’s envoys, Apr. 1867, Indian Hostilities, 93–94.

  5. Significant numbers of Bad Faces chose to follow Man Afraid of His Horse. The band chief Brave Bear, Sword Owner’s father, remained with the main village, as did He Dog’s tiyospaye. Black Twin, a war Decider in 1866, began a lifelong career of doing the opposite to Red Cloud. Most of the True Oglalas, following American Horse and Sitting Bear, also remained with the main village.

  6. May 9, Minutes of Special Commission, Fetterman Investigation. For background on Hancock’s march and the resumption of warfare on the central plains, see Utley, Frontier Regulars, chap. 8.

  7. Webb, Chronological List of Engagements, 29; Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, 371.

  8. On the Sitting Bull investiture, Vestal, Sitting Bull, chap. 14; Utley, Lance and the Shield, 84–89, 350–51; G. C. Anderson, Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood, 63–65; K. M. Bray, “Before Sitting Bull.” All these are based on Vestal’s interviews with pro–Sitting Bull Lakotas. Anderson and Utley have critically weighed the partisan Vestal accounts and produced more balanced interpretations of Sitting Bull’s new rank and role. It seems important to contextualize the political situation. Coming after the seating of Red Cloud (1865) and High Backbone (1866) as tribal war chiefs, Sitting Bull’s elevation should be seen as an attempt to streamline northern Lakota response to the American intrusion on the hunting grounds.

  A word on chronology: Vestal’s informants were vague on the date of the investiture, placed anywhere in the 1867–69 bracket. Anderson opts for spring 1868; Utley, for 1869. A neglected clue strongly suggests 1867. Presiding at the ceremony were the four Hunkpapa Shirt Wearers seated in 1851, including Loud-Voiced Hawk (Cetan Hotanka). The commander of Fort Stevenson noted the recent accidental death of this chief (“Ishetan-Otanka,” or Hawk-bustard in his rendition) on Apr. 3, 1868: de Trobriand, Military Life in Dakota, 260. An obvious 1867 context exists. Writing from Fort C. F. Smith on May 4, experienced guide Jim Bridger stated: “At the present time the entire tribe of the Northern Sioux are collecting on Powder River below the mouth of Little Powder River, and their vowed intention is to make a vigorous and determined attack on each of the three posts” on the Bozeman Trail (Army and Navy Journal, June 29, 1867). For this reason, and because Crazy Horse’s movements are traceable later in the summer, spring 1867 seems to be the correct frame for the Sitting Bull investiture.

  9. Kinney to CoIA, June 4, 1867, “Indian Hostilities,” 126.

  10. Webb, Chronological List of Engagements, 29.

  11. Fort Laramie council, June 12–13, Minutes of Special Commission, Fetterman Investigation; off-the-record talks are summarized in Sanborn to CoIA, June 16, 1867, “Indian Hostilities,” 115–16. See also ARCoIA 1867, 268–70; M. T. Patrick to Supt. H. B. Denman, July 1, 1867, ibid., 289–90. Secondary accounts (e.g., Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 151–52) that state that Red Cloud was present are mistaken.

  12. Minutes of Special Commission. See also Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux, 237, 309. Rafael Gallegos mentioned Man Afraid of His Horse’s trade for ammunition in testimony, Aug. 4, 1867, Fetterman Investigation.

  13. Horn Chips interview, tablet 18, Ricker Papers. See also H. B. Denman to CoIA, July 16, 1867, UPA, LR, OIA.

  14. Webb, Chronological List of Engagements, 30; Kinney to CoIA, June 17, 1867, UPA, LR, OIA; White Bear, Robinson, History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, 372.

  15. G. P. Beauvais to Secretary of the Interior, Dec. 14, 1867, UPA, LR, OIA.

  16. Black Eagle statement, accompanying Col. David S. Stanley to John B. Sanborn, Oct. 6, 1867, RIPC, ID.

  17. Dog Hawk statement, in M. T. Patrick to Supt H. B. Denman, July 28, 1867, UPA, LR, OIA; Gallegos testimony, Aug. 4, 1867, Fetterman Investigation. Crow intelligence allows us to follow closely the movement of the Lakota Sun Dance village: see Mattes, Indians, Infants, and Infantry, 134–38, and Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, 66–68. See also Utley, Frontier
Regulars,123–25.

  18. Appleman, “Hayfield Fight,” 138–39, and “Wagon Box Fight,” 152.

  19. Literature on the Wagon Box Fight is vast. Fundamental to an overall grasp of the action and its chronology is Captain Powell’s own understated report to Fort Phil Kearny post adjutant, Aug. 4 1867, reprinted in a pamphlet, Hackett, Odds and Ends. Indian accounts key to my reconstruction are Sword interview, tablet 16, Ricker Papers; Fire Thunder, in DeMallie, Sixth Grandfather, 107–108; Eagle Elk, Nov. 27, 1944, 11, Neihardt Papers; White Bull, in Vestal, Warpath, chap. 7; and the Cheyenne statements in Powell, People of the Sacred Mountain, 2:749–54. Reminiscent accounts are collected in Hebard and Brininstool, Bozeman Trail, 2:39–88. Valuable secondary accounts, besides Appleman, “Wagon Box Fight,” are Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 159–61; and Utley, Frontier Regulars, 123–25, which includes an informed analysis of Indian casualties. Military historians have been loath to accept Indian recollections of as few as six fatalities, but clearly estimates of hundreds of slain warriors are laughably overblown. Even Powell’s guess of sixty killed may more accurately reflect the number of downed ponies. Two weeks after the battle, Lt. George Henry Palmer observed, “the Indians lost thirty or forty killed.” See Greene, “‘We do not know.’”