Assignment 19

Assignment 19
The Journey of Crazy Horse, By Joseph M. Marshall
Introduction and Chapter 1

Crazy Horse was famous for several battles like the Fetterman Battle, the Battle of the Rosebud, and the Battle of Little Bighorn. He was a warrior and a well known hero for most of the Lakota people. The author of The Journey of Crazy Horse, Joseph Marshall talks about first hearing his grandparents talk about Crazy Horse and how the man had become a legend in his mind. Upon further study, Marshall discovers a warrior, a hero, and a real person behind the legendary figure. His journey of discovering the legend began the first time he heard the name back in 1951, which was nearly 74 years after Crazy Horse’s death at Camp Robinson. Marshall grew up in and around the communities of Horse Creek and Swift Bear on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. There he learned from his friends and particularly his maternal grandparents Albert and Annie Two Hawk, and he also spent a few years in the Lakota community around Kyle, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation where his paternal grandparents lived. His grandparents were a huge influence on his image of Crazy Horse because they were born in the 1890-1910 era and their parents were born in the 1860-1890 era. These relatives and acquaintance elders had not claimed to have seen Crazy Horse because they would not have been born while he was alive; however, they were the children and grandchildren of people who lived during the time of Crazy Horse.

Though no photo exists of Crazy Horse, oral traditions have kept his image alive. He was said to have been slender in build, had wavy dark brown hair, and his complexion was not as dark as most of the other Lakotas. His eyes were dark and he had a long straight nose and a narrow face. Much like other Lakota men of the time, he was a crafter of weapons and tools, a hunter and tracker, a horseman, scout, and fighting man. Other roles he fulfilled other than being a legend were that he was a son, a husband, a brother, a father, and a teacher. Crazy Horse was the son of a modest man, a healer named Crazy Horse. His family was a humble group, part of the Hunkpatila band of Ogala Lakota. His mother was Mniconju Lakota, thus he and his siblings would have carried the blood of the Ogala and Mniconju Lakota people.


Assignment 19
Chp 2
Crazy Horse was the son of a medicine man named Crazy Horse and a woman called Rattling Blanket Woman. For the first years of his life, he was kept close by his mother and grandmother. From his earliest years in the cradleboard and strapped to his mother, he then ventured to walking and investigating outside features. He was watched by his mother, grandmother, and other women of the village and they let the children’s inquisitiveness drive their actions as long as they were not in danger of harming themselves. Every Lakota baby had a similar characteristic of thick, shiny black hair that seemed to stick with them through their adulthood. Crazy Horse, however, was born with light brown hair and lightened with age. His hair was not the only thing that was light, his skin was paler that most too. In order to acknowledge such an odd eccentricity, his mother named him Light Hair. She did this to help the other Lakota people accept him easier and not give him a hard time about it later. It was common for girls to have light brown hair, but meant trouble for boys if they were to have light brown hair and lighter skin.

As he grew older, he started to gravitate towards his father more. He grew exceedingly curious of his father and his approval. There is a saying “a boy will learn the way of the warrior from his father and grandfathers after he learns courage from his mothers and grandmothers.” Not long after this, Rattling Blanket Woman, his mother, passed away. It was not uncommon for people to die in those times, but because Light Hair and his sister were so young, it is unknown whether they truly understood any of what was taking place at the time. They probably reacted in the same way everyone else was reacting. Many adult men were killed in battle or during a hunt, the elderly died of old age, and people died from illness, and women died of childbirth. However, Light Hair did not fully realize that his mother was gone and was never returning until a ceremony was held and they recognized some of her personal belongings in a bundle hanging from a platform.

Life went on though, and after a changing of seasons, Crazy Horse Sr. was ready to take on a new wife in order to help take care of his children. Instead of taking one wife, he took two wives who were sisters. It was not uncommon for men to have more than one wife, especially if the circumstances allowed for it. The sisters Crazy Horse married were the younger sisters of a man named Spotted Tail. He would make a name for himself years down the road and would later have a journey very closely rallied with Crazy Horse, the legend. Though not completely sure of how the marriage arrangement would go over with the two children, the two sisters worked well in the family dynamic and became Light Hair and his sister’s mothers.


Assignment 19
Chp 3
Light Hair was different from other Lakota boys and knew his father was different too. Being a medicine man, Crazy Horse was away from home more than the other men and did not hunt or go off to war. His father was curing fevers, treating broken legs or rattlesnake bites, and helping families prepare for burials; however, Light Hair did not completely understand what his did. Being the child of a medicine man did not help Light Hair because it made him feel all the more different. In the meantime, other boys teased him and bullied him because of his light hair.

Soon Light Hair began a journey that made him even more different than all the other boys. At the age of seven, he realized hunting was the way to provide for your family. It was the Lakota lifeblood and he was figuring out that hunting was the way to have fresh meat, hides for clothing, and hides for lodge coverings. With this, Light Hair played with his bow by shooting arrows through a hoop, and eventually he was told to shoot for the grasshoppers to test his aim. He learned a valuable lesson shooting at the grasshoppers, one of humility, aim, and steadiness. It was said that many Lakota hunters could bring down rabbits and dear because grasshoppers had taught them how to shoot with unerring marksmanship. He also learned how to read trails and read the signs of tracks and animals. One interesting lesson was with a coyote. His uncle, Little Hawk was with Light Hair when he told him to stare at the coyote in the eyes. The coyote felt Light Hair’s presence and looked up into his eyes and ran away. Little Hawk told him, “No matter how far, the eyes have the power to draw the eyes, a good thing to know when in scouting in Crow lands. Do not state at the enemy’s eyes too long. He will feel you state. He will know you are looking, just as the coyote did.” Much of his training in hunting was repetition and practice, but he took all of lessons with seriousness because he understood what all hunting had to show for your family. As he was learning how to hunt, Light Hair also learned the circle of life and how the hunter can be like the hunted.

While training with his uncle, Light Hair was sought after by a man called High Backbone. He was a quiet man and committed to achieving a status of wica, or the complete man. High Backbone had noticed Light Hair and decided to take him as an apprentice of sorts. Little Hawk and his other teachers had taught Light Hair not only how to hunt, but they had also instilled a great self-confidence in him. During the time they are together, the Ogala people move southeast to the area northwest of Fort Laramie. The Lakota people were curious about the stories they were hearing about whites moving up the Shell River. It was hard for them to believe because they had left their homes and were travelling in lines of wagons pulled by teams of cattle, mules, and horses. Light Hair accompanied High Back Bone to the Shell where they were joined by over a hundred other curious men and boys who were watching the groups of whites coming. The stories they heard were true, but they were still unaware of what their intentions were. They had heard rumors that the whites brought diseases with them. A Kiowa people to the south had lost nearly half of their people in less than two months after trading with a steamboat full of whites. The Sicangu living near the Muddy River had lost over a thousand people due to smallpox after trading with the whites. It was decided the only place it could have come from was the whites.


Assignment 19
Chp 4
At the age of twelve, Light Hair like many other Lakota boys had become a great hunter. He knew well the ways to track or lay motionless and how to shoot an arrow from long distances to take out a deer. His skills with bows and arrows were reaching expert levels. Lone Bear and Light Hair became close friends during this time and enjoyed many activities of boyhood. Together they would play games like imitating a buffalo chase or knocking-them-off-the-horses. They lived and learned through skinned elbows, knees, faces, and sometimes a roll through a cactus patch. All of these activities were helping them find their way to manhood. Other boys thought Lone Bear and Light Hair to be a particularly odd match up of friends since Lone Bear had glistening black hair and a dark brown complexion. On the other hand, Light Hair had lighter skin and dark brown hair. These boys tried to poke fun of them and of Light Hair, but neither of them gave the other boys the satisfaction of acknowledging them. One particular boy who gave them a hard time was named Pretty One by an uncle of his because he was fond of fancy clothes. This boy would prove to be a pain for Light Hair and Lone Bear for a significant portion of their lives.

There was much talk about the whites and why so many were moving through the area. The older men of the village were deciding whether it would be wise to get a closer look at Fort Laramie and figure out what was going on down there. Thus, the encampment moved further south. During this time, there was a great anticipation, especially for those who had never seen a white man, kind of similar to wanting to get a closer look at a rattlesnake but knowing there could be danger involved. Lone Bear and Light Hair rode down with High Back Bone and Crazy Horse in order to get a better look at Fort Laramie and there they saw the bluecoat soldiers with their long knives. That’s why they called the soldier the Long Knives. There were whites everywhere. One of the major issues for the Lakota was that after the wagons went through the area, they were leaving behind pieces of wood and iron. Essentially they were building a railroad through the heart of their buffalo hunting grounds, and because the wagons and people had trampled all the grass, the buffalo were moving to other places. Without the buffalo, they would not be able to remain in the same area, but the problem with that was that once you leave an area, it had a tendency to have something else move in.

Some Lakota were not against trading with the whites because they had tobacco, coffee, and other items like butcher knives. On the other hand, they thought some of the things white men made were good, but white men themselves were questionable. The question on the table was actually whether the Lakota would come to Fort Laramie to have a discussion over a peace treaty. It was understood that if the Lakota did not leave the trails alone and if the whites had any trouble, they would be punished. The consensus finally reached was for the chiefs to go to Fort Laramie to have talks about peace and see what the “peace talkers”


Assignment 19
Chp 5
The council was called for the peace talkers to talk to the various bands of Indians in 1851. For the whites at Fort Laramie, they called it the Fort Laramie Treaty Council of 1851, but the Lakota called it the Council at Horse Creek. Hearing promises of gifts, many tribes came including Lakota enemies such as the Blackfeet from the mountains northwest of the Elk River and the Crow from the north. From the west, the Snakes came from beyond the Wind River. The Mandans, Hidasta, and Arikara, the Sahiyela and the Blue Clouds also came to receive gifts and hear what the whites wanted. There were nearly 8,000 men, women, and children gathered around Fort Laramie. So many people had come, that there was a growing stench from so many horse droppings. After the horses had eaten most of the grass, it was agreed that the camp could be moved a day’s ride southeast to Horse Creek for fresh grass.

While the council was going on, there were complaints because the gifts were late, but the Bluecoats promised the goods would arrive and they were just running late. The council was held in a large tent with all of the chiefs decorated in their finest war bonnets and finely adorned shirts made from elk, deer, mountain goat, and big horn sheep hides. It was a colorful and powerful spectacle. Besides the gifts arriving late, the worst of everything seemed to be that there were not enough interpreters in order to translate for the nine different tribes present. There was a lot of confusion by the chiefs and warriors as to what the whites were trying to say and what they wanted. Eventually a clearing of terms is made. The first thing the whites wanted was for the enemy tribes to stop fighting. This was a difficult thing to help because even though there are drawn out lines on a map; there are no drawn lines on the land itself and who’s to say land which land is who’s. Another condition was that the travelers along the Shell River must remain unmolested and that they were travelling under the protection of the Great Father in Washington. For agreeing to these conditions, they were to be paid annuities of $50,000 a year for fifty years. These annuities were to be in the form of food (beef cattle, flour, and beans) and various other goods. Various other goods were not really understood, but in the end, the tribes accepted the deal.

At the end of the council, the tribes loaded up their gifts and headed back to their territories. Not long after the treaty was signed, the tribes had broken the first condition by the Blackfeet raiding the Crows and the Lakota raiding the Snakes. Many young warriors were becoming more agitated by the growing number of whites coming into their Lakota territory. Leaders like Smoke and Red Cloud were becoming a big influence by being orators and leaders in times of peace and war. More dead animal carcasses were being left to rot on the prairies along with trash and belongings from the whites. The annuities were also showing up late and for the people who had given up hunting and were depending on that as their food source, they were beginning to get nervous. The biggest worry of all was the disappearing buffalo. With the buffalo staying away from the Holy Road, the Lakota people began questioning their options.


Assignment 19
Chp 6
During that summer, several Lakota camps were in the vicinity of Fort Laramie waiting for their annuities. The commander of the fort decided to appoint a Sicangu man named Conquering Bear as the Lakota spokesperson, even though they already had a spokesman. Conquering Bear was a good man and cared about the welfare of his people immensely. In the meantime, an old lame cow wandered into the Sicangu camp one afternoon and since the Lakota didn’t own any cattle, it was correctly assumed that she had been lost or abandoned by a white man. Frightened by barking dogs, she was running between the different lodges and throwing over meat racks, and the Lakota people were laughing at the sight. After the laughter stopped, however, they realized even though she was thin and old, she was still fresh meat. A young Mniconju who was visiting with relatives took out the old cow and butchered it and divided the meat amongst the people.

Soon word came from the fort that a white man, a Mormon, had complained to the soldiers that someone had stolen his cow. The story was related to Conquering Bear and he rode to the fort the next morning in an effort to resolve the problem. He offered payment for the cow with a good horse. Since the cow was dead, there was no way to give the cow back. A man named Fleming, the commander of the soldiers, denied the offer of payment and instead insisted on the young man’s life that killed the animal. Conquering Bear tried to explain the circumstances, but was sent back to his camp to retrieve the Mniconju man or the soldiers would come get him. Instead of Fleming, a man named Grattan, came to Conquering Bear’s camp demanding the man be turned over. When Conquering Bear left his lodge to meet them, he was trying to stop the trouble by coming to a compromise. At this, the soldiers opened fire on Conquering Bear. He fell back and was mortally wounded. Angered warriors came forward when the soldiers were reloading the wagon guns and killed all the soldiers. Even the translator who had ridden away was killed as he begged and pleaded for his life. South of the camp, Lone Bear and Light Hair had watched everything that had just happened. After the firing had stopped, they left their safe hiding places and came to look at the dead white soldiers. None of them had ever seen a dead white man. There was a frenzy of anger, excitement, and sadness that engulfed the camp after the soldiers had been killed and Conquering Bear had been mortally wounded. The next morning, all the lodges of the camp were moved except for Conquering Bear because his family was afraid to move him. Swift Bear was able to control some of the angered warriors and calm them out of their belligerent hysteria. However, when they reached the place where the Sicangu and Ogala were camped together, they learned of the annuities that had reached the fort, but had not been distributed, they were set on fire with a new fuel of anger. About 200 men raided the fort that looked apparently abandoned; they emptied the storage houses and returned with bags of food. Conquering Bear’s lodge was later moved to join the rest of the Sicangu where Light Hair and High Back Bone and Crazy Horse all waited for the man’s death. Lone Bear went with a different camp than Light Hair.


Assignment 19
Chp 7
There was a time when making arrows for the Lakotas meant that they would have to go out and find the right kind of flint or stone and shape them into the shape of an arrow head. However, the white man had been around for quite some time and their barrel hoop iron was an easier commodity and many young warriors used that instead to form arrow points. The times were changing for the Lakotas and many of the older men shook their heads disapprovingly because they felt their people were losing their ways. In the meantime, there were loafers, or hang-around-the-forts that had forgotten or given up the old ways of hunting and depended on white handouts and annuities. Many of the traditional Lakota looked at these people with disdain and the loafers themselves thought it was fine, but in the back of their minds, they realized the annuities could be permanently taken away or late at any time. The whites did not like to adhere to their promises.

Conquering Bear finally succumbed to his grievous wound near the rolling hills close to the Blue Water River. There the Lakotas built a scaffold and honored him by holding a ceremony. After several days or mourning, the Crazy Horse lodge packed up with several other Ogalas and headed away from the Sicangu camp towards the Powder River country. For young Light Hair, his days of boyhood had come to an end. His concerns, along with his friends, turned more in favor of news from the older men of the village. They talked of recent events with the whites and the events unfolding at Fort Laramie. More soldiers were coming to the area and with that more whites. Some of the people thought the best way to react was to stay away from the whites in order not to catch their illnesses. Others were more in favor of taking direct action and driving the whites away. Either way, many were still concerned with the material goods they could acquire from the whites. Trading for a wool blanket was much easier than the work it would take to kill an elk, skin it, and soften the hide for clothing.

Buffalo scouts reported the herds had moved to the north and therefore the hunters went and hunted and had plenty of meat for the upcoming winter months. Light Hair no longer played with the younger boys and helped with the horse herds instead. He was less talkative than ever, but the winter months were good to the people and they had plenty to eat and the burning coals kept their lodges warm all winter long. Summer came and Light Hair went to spend time with his mothers’ brother Spotted Tail west of the sand hills country. Spotted Tail was a prominent leader and decided to take Light Hair with him on a raid against the Pawnee and Omaha tribes who had come to close to the Running Water of the Sicangu lands. Two groups were led in order to steal horses from their enemies. Along the way, Light Hair killed what he thought was his first victory. Unfortunately the attacking enemy had been a woman and he realized it only after he had attempted to scalp her. The raid was successful, and they returned with many horses. Another raid was carried out and again many horses were taken, this time from the Pawnees. After this, they received news that more soldiers were coming and were looking for the men who had killed Grattan and his soldiers. They were there with the sole intention of killing and punishing those who had done the killing. Spotted Tail’s people joined with Little Thunder and his camp nearer to the Blue Water River.

After returning from a buffalo hunt, Light Hair returned to the camp and discovered they had been attacked. Most of the warriors had been away on a hunt, so they had had no real defense against the attacking party. He discovered that the attacking party had been soldiers and they had burned the village and killed many and were chasing after many more. Light Hair left markers indicating which way the party had left in order to let the returning warriors know how to find them. Shock and grief overwhelmed him, but also a sense of anger. While trying to find the soldiers and the rest of the tribe, he came across a woman named Yellow Woman. Her husband had been killed and her baby as well. She refused to let the infant go, even though he was already dead. He finally convinces the woman to leave the child and he leads her out of harm’s way.

Spotted Tail was wounded and his remaining camp was well guarded so that the injured and wounded would have a few days to recover. Early in the morning, soldiers moving up the Blue Water met with Spotted Tail and Iron Shell under a truce flag. General Harney, the commanding officer, smoked with the group, but would not listen to what the group had to say about the killing of Grattan and his soldiers. Once realizing the General’s intentions, Spotted Tail sent Little Thunder back to the camp to warn the people and to have them ready to fight. However, he did not make it there in time to warn them. The soldiers attacked and Spotted Tail, Iron Shell, and the other leaders had no way to help defend their camp because they had ridden into the meeting unarmed. Spotted Tail, being unarmed, was able to capture a horse and a long knife from one of the soldier and managed to kill over ten soldiers. However, there were too many soldiers and the camp was overrun. They killed everything in their path and set fire to all the lodges. Many of the people were killed viciously and their bodies mutiliated. The soldiers gathered over a hundred captives and headed up the Shell River. A few had managed to get away, and gathered the wounded later. Among the dead were Spotted Tail’s daughter and one of the captives was his young beautiful wife. Light Hair remained with his uncle’s camp in order to help guard the wounded and help them recover. In the autumn, Light Hair returned to the Hunkpatila camp. There his father and mother noticed a greater quietness in him. One evening after he had been out by himself, he returned and presented his father with a gift of tobacco. He had had a dream and needed to share it with his father.


Assignment 19
Chp 8
Light Hair confronted his father with the fact he had had a dream and his father took him on a journey from camp for just the two of them. They sat in a sweat lodge and both were completely naked to purify themselves. After offering his father the tobacco, he told his father of the dream he had. The dream was not difficult to remember and he remembered many of the important details that would follow him for the rest of his life. In the dream the rider was a man who was slender and wore his hair loose. He had a lightning mark painted across one side of his face and on his bare chest were blue hailstones. Behind him, there was a dark thunder cloud and his horse was strong and changed colors from red to black then white and blue. Bullets seemed to pass through the air missing the horse and the rider. A red-tailed hawk flew through the air, but there was a startling part too where the people, his own kind, rose up and grabbed the rider and pulled him down from behind and then the dream ended. This part of the dream seemed to be a warning.

His father warned him that his dream was a dream of the “Thunders.” Not just anyone had a dream of the thunders, but Light Hair was to have a “sacred calling” and would have to do the opposite of what was expected. The calling of the “sacred clown” was to be Light Hair’s destiny. Lighting and hail were closely associated with the thunders and his dream had presented all the signs. The rider in the dream had also presented all the characteristics of the ultimate sacrifice of a Lakota warrior of dying in the defense of his people. His dream seemed to suggest that the dreamer would gain honor and immortality by living and dying as a warrior. After a final prayer of thanksgiving, Crazy Horse threw open the door of the sweat lodge and they ended their ceremony. Crazy Horse offered his pipe to the Sky, the Earth, to the West, North, East, and the South, and finally to the Grandfather and they smoked.

After his dream, Light Hair smiled less and was less likely to participate in the ceremonious dance and often went out by himself for long periods of time. The people of the village thought it was strange, but for Light Hair, he felt he must do exactly the opposite of what all the people expected him to do. Later, Light Hair and several of his friends go on a raid against a Crow camp. There were no great stories to tell of this raid, but news of his dream was travelling quickly across the Hunkpatila camp. Crazy Horse and Little Hawk, his younger brother, found the essential items Light Hair needed from his dream like the reddish-brown stone to wear behind his left ear and his father taught him how to paint the lighting and hailstones from his dream. One day in camp, Light Hair is struck in the knee by a stray bullet by someone practicing shooting. In an effort to recover from his slight wound, Light Hair does not go on a raid with some of the other warriors. In a few months Light Hair’s wound has healed, but they receive disturbing news from the Hunkpapa and Mniconju to the north and from the Sicangu camps near the sand hill country. The buffalo were hard to find and the Holy Road was still filled with wagons and along the way, there was a trail of grave markers and decaying carcasses of dead pack animals, and discarded household goods. All of this news came hard to the Hunkpatila camp, and they also heard that some Lakota camps had such a rough time they were resorting to eating their horses to make it through the winter. As winter passed, the ash stave given to Light Hair by High Backbone was fashioned into a beautiful new strong bow. News also came about Red Cloud’s niece and how she was being honored with a huge ceremony. Black Buffalo Woman was to be a huge prize to whomever she or her parents chose as her suitor because Red Cloud was such a prominent figure and an important leader. Light Hair attended the ceremony, but was not as enthused as most of the young men of the village. That night, he received news from High Back Bone about a raid that he was leading and Light Hair was to prepare himself for battle.


Assignment 19
Chp9
High Back Bone led the Lakota raiding party deep into Snake territory, but the men they encountered on the hill were not Snakes. Nonetheless, the men they saw were ready and willing to fight. Through a carefully thought out plan they tried to coax their enemy from the hill, but they did not fall for the trick. There was no choice for the warriors in their current position from downhill, so they dismounted their horses and had two warriors guard the horses while the others used what little cover they could to advance up hill. After starting up the hill, they couldn’t get very far and decided to regroup and try a different strategy. They positioned themselves on all directions around the base of the hill so they could charge all areas at once. Light Hair was stripped to his breechclout and moccasins with his hair loose and he had painted the lightning mark and hailstones on his face like the rider in his dream. At the base of his head, he wore the tail feathers from a red-tailed hawk and he had the brownish red stone his father and Little Hawk had gotten for him behind his left ear.

As High Back Bone charged forward, he gave the sign for the others to do the same. Light Hair’s horse was shot out from under him and he rolled across the rocky ground. He had managed to hit some of his targets before his fall, but now all he had for a weapon was a small pistol. An enemy rode towards him and he shot the man and gained control of his horse. With a new horse, he raced back down the slope to recover his bow. Together with High Back Bone, they charged back up hill and Light Hair was unable to load another arrow and fired another shot from his pistol and killed the attacking enemy. He jumped down from his horse to take his scalp and then moved on to scalp another dead enemy. The fight was over and all the enemies were left dead. Horses and guns were the prize possession after the raid. When all the fighting had ended, all the warriors circled around the hill to make sure there were no more enemies, and then they came to face Light Hair. They had all noticed him during the fight and all the arrows and bullets had flown past him. Thus, they decided his dream was true.

Light Hair and the others returned to the camp victorious, and all the warriors bragged and told their stories of how they had count cooped the enemy. Light Hair, however, did not tell anyone of his accomplishments in battle nor did he participate in the dancing. Being a thunder dreamer, he did exactly the opposite of what everyone expected of him. The next morning when Light Hair woke, he thought the day would be just as any other. He stepped out of his parents’ lodge and was surprised by a crowd of people gathered in a circle. His father was at the edge of the circle dressed in his best medicine robe and announced today he would give his oldest son a new name. He gave him the name of honor, the name of his father and his grandfather, and the name that had been passed down to him. He named Light Hair Crazy Horse.


Assignment 19
Chp 10
Light Hair had now become Crazy Horse with his father passing down his name. Thus his father had to change his name too and took on a name of humility by taking the name Worm. In a few fast moments, he became a man. He had gained the respect of his father and the respect of High Back Bone and many of the warriors. This new name had given him a new sense of purpose. Every year another young man would become a man, and this particular year the son of Black Shield had become a man. However, Black Shield’s son was killed by a Crow camp and nearly a hundred warriors gathered together to avenge the reputable leader’s son’s death. The raiders went far into Crow territory and attacked several camps. They returned with many horses and guns as their victories. Crazy Horse again did not tell of his victories and gave away all of his horses to the needy elderly in the camp.

Black Buffalo Woman’s lodge was more popular than ever. Suitors from the most prestigious families showed up in efforts to win the young woman. Crazy Horse was worried that he would be rejected, but all that changed after he had talked with her under the cover of her robe outside of her parents’ lodge. Worm was elated when he heard Crazy Horse was asked by the warrior societies to stir up a raid in Snake territory. A few Snakes had attempted a raid for Ogala horses, but were unsuccessful, and nonetheless had to be contested since they were so far into Lakota territory. Surprise was on the side of the Lakotas, but the reaction from the camp was quick. Crazy Horse was with the first group of raiders and they fought hard to drive the Snakes back, but the fighting men of the camp had now gathered in large numbers. Their horse raid had now turned into a battle for survival. While attempting another ambush, Crazy Horse was attacked and his horse was captured. The incoming enemy fire made it impossible to reload his rifle and without his horse his odds of survival were nil. He decided to attack from a tree and knock the approaching rider from his horse and knock him out with his war club. He was able to do just that and the other Lakotas were able to make an escape before the Snakes could regroup.

The Snakes continued to pursue the Lakotas, and at one point regained some of their stolen horses, but they had lost several men and soon gave up. This raid had been one of the most successful raids ever for the Lakotas because they had never stolen so many horses, but they had suffered losses too and at least five men were killed. Once again Crazy Horse did not participate in the dances upon returning to the Hunkpatila camp. However, his companions had told what they had witnessed when the young Crazy Horse had managed to unhorse a Snake and capture the gun in one daring moment. His one action had saved them all according to one witness.


Assignment 19
Chp 11
Red Cloud’s popularity was growing amongst all of the Lakota because he had taken to the warpath with all the young coming to answer his call to arms. Crazy Horse, like many other young men in the camp had taken a greater interest in Black Buffalo Woman. People were beginning to say that Crazy Horse may have a shot at being a potential suitor for the well known family. One of the other suitors was a man named No Water and his brother had become a skilled orator and a man of growing influence particularly with Red Cloud. Black Buffalo Woman of course was the niece of Red Cloud and therefore he had some say in which man her family chose for her.

Scouts were sent to all the Lakota camps in order for Red Cloud to assemble an army of warriors. High Back Bone led a party consisting of Crazy Horse, Little Hawk, Young Man Whose Enemies Are Afraid of His Horses, Lone Bear, and He Dog. They travelled up the Elk River and Red Cloud decided to keep the large group together to maintain an advantage. No Water was among some of the warriors and he came down with a toothache and one of the medicine men warned it was a bad sign and that he should return to the camp instead of go with the rest of the war party. So he was sent home in order to prevent some bad event from taking place. The Lakota warriors wreaked havoc on the Crow camps they attacked. From each encampment, they stole many horses and guns and they ended up stealing too many for them to be practical so the decision was made and the warriors headed home. Crazy Horse had proved himself well as had Little Hawk since they had rescued several fallen Lakotas while risking their own lives.

Scouts from one of the camps along the Powder River met with the returning warriors and accidentally let it slip that Black Buffalo Woman had chosen and married No Water while the warriors had been away. Crazy Horse was broken and went off by himself for several days in order to regain himself. He was so distraught that he left his warhorse behind at the warrior camp and Little Hawk had to bring the horse back to his father’s lodge for his brother. Half a month later, Crazy Horse returned to his family’s lodge as if nothing had ever happened, but those who knew him best thought he may never be the same. Autumn arrived and with it news came of a new leader amongst the Hunkpapas named Sitting Bull. He had many honors on the field of battle and was a healing medicine man. There was also news of more whites moving across the Great Muddy River and how the boats stopped to trade every now and then. It was also said that the whites were involved in a fight with each other over the ownership of the black skinned slaves. The buffalo hunts were arranged and the meat racks were full in time for winter and the Hunkpatia people lived well throughout the cold winter. Spring brought with it the news of more white and a place they were setting up square houses and saying all the land around them belonged to them.


Assignment 19
Chp 12
The Holy Road was more crowded than ever that summer with white emigrant travelers. Crazy Horse, like many Lakotas, had no desire whatsoever to venture near the Holy Road or Fort Laramie. However, as more emigrants came, more forts, trading posts, and soldiers were springing up in Lakota territory. Many of the old men of the villages were still questioning how they could make the whites go away. As for their enemies in the past, the Snakes, the Crows, and the Pawnees, they had all been respectable enemies. Conversely, the whites didn’t understand war the same way and just sought to kill for the sake of killing. Crazy Horse decided to go and figure these things out by going to Fort Laramie.

While on his way there, he encountered a loafer who told him about a new white man named Bordeaux and how he could speak Lakota very well. Bordeaux told Crazy Horse about more soldiers coming to be posted at Fort Laramie. He explained the message system of the whites and how rapid a message could be sent across the Great Muddy River. On the way home, he followed the Shell River and stayed north of the Holy Road. Along the way, he saw a settlement and watched for movement but saw no activity at first. Later he saw over forty soldiers among an assortment of wooden buildings and canvas tents. With more soldiers approaching, the Lakotas knew there would be more white emigrants heading to the area.

Word came from near the Black Hills that there were many young men eager to drive the whites off their lands. The white hunters had taken to killing the precious buffalo and skinning them for their hides and leaving the rest of the animal to rot. They didn’t take any of the meat, except to feed them in the meantime. When the hunters finally did leave, the worms, flies, ravens, buzzards, and coyotes had already had their fill. Crazy Horse and Little Hawk had been out with a group of young men hunting when they came across piles of buffalo bones scattered across the prairies. All the two could do was to face their skulls to face the east in a show of respect. The hunters were able to find plenty of buffalo that autumn in order to last them through the winter. An interesting thing happened when High Back Bone was out with a hunting party. They came across a group of Crows and the Crows fired one arrow landing in front of the group and High Back Bone took the arrow and investigated and inspected it. High Back Bone returned the gesture by firing one arrow back and let it land slightly in front of their party. The same thing happened, and the Crows took the arrow, inspected it and turned and walked away. On that day, mutual respect was more important.

In the spring, disturbing news came from their Dakota relatives near the lake country. They had fought a war to drive the whites from their country and had lost. The whites had not honored their promise to protect their boundaries and so the Dakota had decided to enforce their boundaries instead. With this, thirty eight of their men had been hanged at once on orders from the Great Father. News also came that the whites had discovered gold west and north of the Elk River. Thus, the older men of the camps decided if the whites wanted to come and take gold from Lakota lands, they would attack and not let the Powder River country be another trail for whites whatever their purpose was or destination.

After a soldier party was attacked and many of their horses were captured by the warriors, Crazy Horse was approached by a warrior society in order not only to be a part of it, but to lead it. Winter came and along with it came news that over 300 people had been killed at a place called Sand Creek. Most of them were Sahiyela and some Blue Clouds led by the leader Black Kettle. Both leaders of the camp were wise men and were consistently working for peace. The killings were horrific and news spread of the mutilations and monstrosities that had happened there. Messengers could barely tell the story of what had happened, and the Lakotas were set to a new level of anger.


Assignment 19
Chp 13
The Sahiyela sent messengers north to the Lakota hoping to ignite a fire about the blood spilled at Sand Creek. Fighting men were assembled in order to attack a soldier stockade called Julesburg. A plan to draw the soldiers out was again thwarted by the inexperience and overzealous young warriors. They rushed out of their hiding places and gave away their intentions and the soldiers had a chance to retreat back into their stockade. Older men in the village were upset with the young men and argued that they must understand that fighting these soldiers is not like fighting their other enemies. Instead of fighting for honor or victory stories, they were fighting to wipe them out and for that to happen, they must understand that victory for their people comes before individual glory. All the whites were considered enemies now and the Lakota swept through the northeast, while the Sahiyela to the northwest and the Blue Clouds swept in between. They raided way stations, soldier posts, and any travelers along the Holy Road or any other trail frequented by the whites.

Crazy Horse led a second attack on Julesburg and this time there was no real fighting to speak of, but they carried as many supplies as they could from the storehouses and then set them ablaze. Afterwards, the combined camps moved north further into the Powder River country. Word came from the loafers at Fort Laramie that the soldiers there were planning to move all the nations of the plains north beyond the Great Muddy. The war between the whites over the black-skinned slaves was over and now their focus would be on the fight against the Lakota. Winter turned to spring and Crazy Horse was more intent than ever on hearing what the old men of the camp were saying about dealing with the white encroachment.
News came that two old Lakota men were hanged during this time because they had returned a white woman who had been held captive. One of the men Two Face, Crazy Horse had known, and the town had left the hanging men strung up until they essentially rotted off. Now the soldiers were sending all of the loafers to Fort Phil Kearny because the whites couldn’t trust them. They were driven like cattle by soldiers and their commander by the name of Fouts. High Back Bone, Crazy Horse, and several others rode south in an effort to rescue the captive loafers. They had caught up with them in the middle of the night and several warriors had managed to sneak in to mingle with their friends and wait for the attack the next morning. When the soldiers made ready to head out the next morning, the women hadn’t taken down all the lodges yet, and the soldiers were impatient and calling out orders when the hidden warriors charged in and opened fire. The soldiers could do nothing, but watch their former captives run through the hills and escape.

During the summer, the Lakota had their Sundance festival and the Sahiyela had their Medicine Lodge ceremonies. The elders made plans of ambush attacks during this time of rest and renewal. Crazy Horse helped with a raid of decoys to one of the forts, but another ambush was spoiled by youthful impatience. This battle also claimed the life of High Back Wolf when he fell from his horse. Before dawn, Crazy Horse went with Blind Wolf, High Back Wolf’s father, to retrieve his body. Crazy Horse rejoined his decoys after sunrise and once again it appeared as though the soldiers may have fallen for one of their decoy plans, but he later finds out that they were riding out to help a group of people stuck fighting other Indians. By the time the soldiers were close to the hills, the soldiers turned back in a retreat, but the commanding officer stayed in the rear to protect, but his horse was so frightened by the charging warriors, that it darted into the charging Sahiyela and they quickly took him out. While riding away into the hills to rest his horse, Crazy Horse noticed a fire burning in the distance and went to check it out. A large group of Sahiyela had broken off earlier and had ran off a herd of mules and attacked a circle of wagons.

After the fight with the soldiers on the bridge, the great gathering started to break up slowly. Crazy Horse and Little Hawk returned home to news of a large soldier column heading north by a man named Connor. He was promising to avenge and punish the Lakota for the soldiers killed at the Shell River crossing and those killed in the wagon fight. Preparations were made and scouts were sent out to figure out strategies. When the warriors found the soldiers, they had encircled themselves surrounded by their wagons. They didn’t seem very eager to fight, but after days, two whites walked from the wagons to talk with Red Cloud and Dull Knife, the main leaders of the Lakota and the Sahiyela. They managed to work out a deal with them in order for the Lakotas to get a wagonload of provisions, and the soldiers were allowed to leave. After that, they encountered another group of soldiers who had been fighting with the Mniconju. A sudden change in the weather worked in the warrior’s advantage. A rainstorm turned to ice and killed many of the soldiers’ horses. There were so many soldiers and when many of the horses died, there were not enough horses to pull all the wagons. The soldiers again were reluctant to come out and fight, but another rain/ice storm came and killed more of their horses. They had put themselves in a bad position since they had no food and soon they were forced to eat their dead horses. Finally after six days, the soldiers gathered what they could carry and walked away from their wagons. The Lakotas followed them just to make sure they would keep walking, but many were stumbling and dropping their rifles they were so exhausted and weak.


Assignment 19
Chp 14
As far as Crazy Horse was concerned, there was no room for the whites in Lakota territory. Red Cloud had gone to Fort Laramie to talk with the peace talkers and had told them there were to be no new roads and he reminded them of the Horse Creek Council fifteen years ago. The whites didn’t want to build a new road; however, they just wanted to use the old one. Peace talkers offered wagonloads of presents for the use of the old road. In the meantime, a new group of soldiers came up the old road with several wagons and were led by a man named Carrington. He brought with him 700 soldiers to a small fort on the Dry Fork of the Powder River. There the soldiers began building a new fort so they would be safe with their animals and families. Before this fort was finished, some of the soldiers were sent north near Crow lands to build another fort. By the time summer was over, three forts were built in the middle of prime Lakota hunting grounds and the whites were traveling along a trail once staked out by a gold prospector. High Back Bone, Young Man Afraid, and Crazy Horse were leading raids against each of these forts at the time.

All the Lakota could do was to harass them because the soldiers had to be lured out into the open in order for the warriors to have a chance at taking them out. The young warriors’ impatience always got the better of them because they would rush out of their hiding places and give away the larger plan. High Back Bone scolded the young men and reminded them of Sand Creek so they would be able to think of the greater good of their community as opposed to individual victory. This time, another raid was planned against the wood cutters who would go out from the forts every day. In order to draw the soldiers out of the fort, they would attack the wood cutters and when the soldiers would come out to drive them away; ten decoys would show themselves and lead them toward the Lodge Trail Ridge. The idea was for the soldiers to believe they were only fighting the ten decoys. If they failed, several hundred men would be kept waiting and not have a chance to fight against the whites. In an effort to give the plan the most chance, the old men chose a young strong leader who was skilled in warfare and proven judgment in battle, Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse and High Back Bone smoked and he was able to pick the right ten men for the job. He picked two Sahiyela and seven other Lakota as the team of decoys. By the time they started down the flats at Goose Creek, the warriors had reached over five hundred strong. The decoys chose a thicket and mounted their warhorses and waited until midmorning when the wagons left the fort to go chop wood. They attacked well away from the fort, but still within sight so the Lakota could be seen. Very soon, the gates to the fort opened and a column of mounted and walking soldiers came out. The Lakota kept up their firing, and soon as they passed the thicket, Crazy Horse and his decoys charged. They took the soldiers further from the fort and over the frozen snowfields. Each time the columns slowed, the decoys would do something to taunt them and urge them forward. Once the soldiers reached the bottom of the slope, there was a decisive moment where if the ambushers showed themselves, the soldiers still had a chance to escape, but this time they remained hidden until the signal was given by the decoys. As the decoys gave the signal, the five hundred warriors rushed in to ambush the soldier columns. They shut off the escape route and killed at will. Toward the end of the battle, the warriors went around to all the dead and dying soldiers killing them with a pistol shot or a hard swing of a war club or the stab of a lance. When the killing frenzy ended, the soldiers were stripped naked, fingers were chopped off, eyes were gouged out, and bellies slashed open. The Lakota and Sahiyela warriors remembered what had happened to their relatives at Sand Creek and wanted to exact their revenge. Many warriors had been wounded, and at least fifteen were dead. Lone Bear was among the dead. Upon returning to the village, the battle had become known as the Battle of the Hundred Slain.

The soldiers remained in their forts for the rest of the winter. They did not travel out to get wood and the Lakota also had a hard winter and nearly didn’t have enough meat to last them the entire winter. Crazy Horse and Little Hawk ventured out to find more elk and meat and luckily returned with a large amount. In the spring, travelers returned to the wagon trails. Crazy Horse and others joined raiding parties against the forts. Again the peace talkers came to Fort Laramie to talk to Old Man Afraid of His Horses and Red Cloud. Their terms were simple in that they would not sign a paper until all the whites abandon their forts, stopped using the wagon trail, and paid the Lakota with a worthwhile supply of ammunition. Of course, the peace talks refused to meet their demands. With no agreement in place, the soldiers stayed in the forts and Red Cloud returned to the Powder River country. Lakota and Sahiyela warriors went harder than ever against travelers on the Powder River Road and a strange thing happened. The soldiers left. They left in columns with their wagons filled high with their goods. As soon as the soldiers were out of sight, the warriors rushed into the fort and set all the buildings on fire so that no others could use it in the future. Red Cloud was going to meet with the peace talkers to sign a treaty for Lakota lands. News from the north came about Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa’s and how they were still defiant. After a Crow raid, Crazy Horse returns to No Water’s camp to rest and sees his childhood love Black Buffalo Woman. Their relations turn from acquaintances to something more. She goes off with him to another camp and left her children with her relatives. They were intercepted by a No Water who had come to reclaim his wife.



Assignment 19
Chp 15
When Crazy Horse awoke, he was in an unfamiliar lodge with an old face he knew looking at him. One of his eyes was still swollen on the left side of his face. He had been shot by No Water who had intended on killing him, but instead shot him in the face, but it wasn’t fatal. There would be a permanent scar, but nothing that was life threatening. The old man was old Spotted Crow, his uncle, and told him Black Buffalo Woman was back with her people. She was taken back to her people by Bad Heart Bull and no one in the village would harm her. No Water had actually sent two fine horses in order to make a peace gesture. Worm suggested Crazy Horse take the horses to prevent the young men from retaliating in his name. Crazy Horse’s fever from the wound went away and he accepted the horses to prevent further fighting. A man returning from the Snake country came with news that they could not find Little Hawk, Crazy Horse’s brother.

Once Crazy Horse had healed enough to hunt, many people came and greeted him back into the village and no one said anything about Black Buffalo Woman or the trouble that caused the Ogalas to spill each other’s blood. More warriors returned from the Snake country and brought news that Little Hawk had been killed while they were on their way home. His brother had been killed while he had been pursuing his own selfish needs. The next day, No Water was visiting the camp helping a relative, and saw Crazy Horse and may have sensed his anger because he jumped on his horse and galloped out of camp. Crazy Horse then grabbed the nearest horse and rode out to chase No Water. He was able to escape, but Crazy Horse had done something the council of old men looked down on. The told Crazy Horse because his actions over a woman had endangered the peace of the Ogala, he had to return his Shirt. Though no one was happy about it, he gave the shirt back and in order to make sure there would be no turmoil over the Shirt, they solved the problem by never letting there be any more Shirt wearers among the Ogala.

Black Shawl, Red Feather’s sister was a strong woman who had no married and accepted the offer to marry Crazy Horse. Once they were married, they pitched their lodge close to his parents’ and they set out on a trip into enemy country to retrieve Little Hawk’s body. They returned a month later and had built a scaffold for his bones hidden from the enemy. News behind them told of Lakota raiding Miners who had been sifting gold in the cold creeks. News of Red Cloud spread that he had been to see the “Great Father” and he had been deeply impressed with the towns and things of the whites. He had been given a new agency and the whites had drawn lines to indicate the areas in which the Lakotas were supposed to remain. The Powder River country would always be Lakota hunting grounds, but they must move their lodges to a new territory called the great reservation. There was much anger amongst the Lakotas for the deal Red Cloud had made. The young men felt like the paper had no power over the lives of any Lakota. Red Cloud returned to his own camp and divided all off the provisions and all the headmen came to claim them for their people. Crazy Horse did not show up to claim any of the white man’s goods for his people. Many Lakota believed he was doing the right thing and they decided to go and live with Crazy Horse’s camp. Sitting Bull was to the north and was also defiant. High Back Bone and Crazy Horse set out on a raid through Snake territory and the two were split by words of anger. In the raid, High Back Bone is killed and Crazy Horse is left without his mentor and their last words had not been those of friends. Later, Black Shawl Woman and Crazy Horse have a daughter named They Are Afraid of Her.


Assignment 19
Chp 16
Hunters were returning empty handed time after time now. The white buffalo hunters had been able to kill as many as a hundred buffalo in one day and there had been many hunters. There were few buffalo left and they were very difficult to find. Hunters had to ride for days just to find one and there was a great reason to worry. Their way of life of living on the buffalo was coming to an end. Lodge coverings could not be patched or repaired without new buffalo hides and there was no way to make new lodges because you needed as many as seven to twenty hides to make new ones. The wild Lakotas were facing a future of living in white man’s canvas lodges if they could not find any more buffalo. Though it would be different and potentially noisier because buffalo hides didn’t make noise even in the strongest winds, Crazy Horse thought it would be better to remain free to roam the lands as they always had.

Crazy Horse was dealing with a new set of understandings about the whites. He did not think they had enough men or weapons in order to drive the whites out of Lakota lands. Even if they had more warriors, many would be killed in action and there would not be enough men left over to provide and protect the women and children. His uncle Spotted Tail had moved his Sicangu people to an agency and many others were beginning to hear how good life was living on the agencies. Many Lakotas had followed Red Cloud to a new agency near the mouth of the White Earth River to the southeast. With all of these families moving off to the reservations, Crazy Horse only had 150 warriors. As brave as they were, they could not stand up to fight the whites because they had many more rifles and would suffer many casualties.

Crazy Horse went through a time of depression while dealing with his frustrations over the whites. He decided to lead a group of young warriors on a raid on the Crows and taught them valuable lessons without any actual fighting. New news came about whites heading into the Black Hills for gold. The Black Hills were supposed to be protected by the Horse Creek treaty, but the whites were pouring through along the Bozeman trail. When Crazy Horse returned from the Crow raid, he returned to his father looking ragged and greeting him at the front of his lodge. Once he entered his lodge, he learned the They Are Afraid of Her had died of the coughing sickness. Nothing could have prepared him for his own child’s death.


Assignment 19
Chp 17
Crazy Horse went into Crow lands in order to find the right scaffold for They Are Afraid of Her. He hung a few ornaments from the support poles like the dew claw rattle, a small wooden hoop, and the stuffed deer hide doll with the face painted on it. It was taught to all Lakota that death is a part of life and sooner or later everyone dies, but this death was harder than any others of his warrior friends and family who had died in battle. It was a hard reality for him that challenged the goodness in his life. Days passed and he mourned until he had no more tears left. He denied thirst and hunger and slept under the scaffold in a robe. His father had told him she had died of a coughing sickness unknown before the whites. Though they had tried, they had found no medicine to save her.

When he returned to camp, news came that angered him more. Soldiers were heading into the Black Hills. The Black Hills in the hands of the whites was the Lakotas’ worst fear. White miners were also in the area in search of gold. They had traveled up the thieves’ road in relative safety and were mining goal without the Lakotas knowing. News of the gold in the Black Hills had traveled rapidly to towns in the east and many whites were coming to the Black Hills to steal gold from their lands. The next morning after hearing this news, Crazy Horse set out with a group of seasoned veterans towards the Black Hills. They moved quickly across their own territory and carried with them an assortment of firearms, bows, arrows, knives, and war clubs. Whenever the Lakotas traveled to the Black Hills, there was always a sense of reverence and an unspoken acknowledgement, but this time as the warriors approached, there was a dark feeling of uncertainty overshadowed by anger over the invasion of the whites.

Once they got there, they found out the rumors and fears were true. Whites were in the Black Hills and they were not hard to find. They were unkempt, bearded, and busy. It was a strange way to live according to the Lakota. Most of the camps didn’t even have sentinels set up to watch for enemies, and apparently finding gold was more important than their safety. This worked well for the Lakotas and they charged in open areas and used their lances and war clubs and their silent bows to take the miners out. Since they used no gunfire, they didn’t alert any of the miners in other areas of their presence. It was only a matter of time though; that the whites started finding dead bodies left behind by Crazy Horse’s attacking forces. After a wild shot by a terrified miner wounded an important man, Crazy Horse decided to head back to the Hunkpatila camp. Messengers arrived from Sitting Bull to gather the fighting warriors together in an effort to drive the whites out of the Black Hills. More news arrived about Red Cloud and how the peace talkers were trying to persuade the Lakota to sell the Black Hills. One of the headmen who went to Washington named Lone Horns had news that he was the only one among the headmen who contested the sale of the Black Hills.

Assignment 19
Chp 18

Something was happening on the Northern Plains however, the Sahiyela and Lakota were gathering in the spring along the Powder River and thousands streamed north to the buffalo ranges. By June, more than a thousand lodges had been established in Sitting Bull’s camp. More than 2000 warriors and close to 7,000 Sahiyela, Lakota, and Blue Clouds gathered together. Crazy Horse and his group of Ogalas traveled north to meet with Sitting Bull to find out what the next plan of action for the wild Lakotas.

The tribes had gathered together in the valley of the Rosebud for the Sundance festival. A great vision came to Sitting Bull during the festival of white soldiers coming into their camp and each one falling sideways as the locusts do when they die. After Sundance was over, Lakota scouts came warning the village that soldiers were approaching camp from the south. June 16, 1876 Soldiers were moving along valley of Rosebud and one morning Crook’s men were having coffee when Crazy Horse and his men came riding in for a full frontal attack. The battle of the Rosebud raged all day until nightfall when Crook had lost 84 men and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. Three Stars Crook retreated with his men to Goose Creek in order to await further reinforcements.

Sitting Bull did not believe his vision had been completely realized with the Battle of the Rosebud, and the chiefs decided to move the village west to the valley of the Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn). By this time, the groups of Indians had multiplied to no less than 10,000 people and possibly 3,000 to 4,000 warriors. July 25, Custer’s expedition had begun filtering into the valley of the Little Bighorn. The huge village was alerted by dust rising when the riders road in, but the warriors were able to get most of the women and children out of the way before the battled ensued and warriors sprang into action. As much of the battle wore on, Reno’s command was quickly repelled and they retreated up a hill until the next day. However, Crazy Horse led the attack towards Custer’s formation and they left no man alive and took no prisoners. Custer was killed during the battle, but no one knows exactly who killed him. After news of Custer and his men being killed by the Sioux, outrage struck the whites and what had been thought of as a battle was now thought of as a massacre. Each reservation was overtaken by military power and the Indians were treated as prisoners of war. While the Indians still roaming the Plains were hunted down and either killed or made to give in to reservation life. Sitting Bull took his people north to Canada and Crazy Horse retreated until he could no longer run anymore. He was later murdered by a young private while resisting arrest. The Powder River country and the Black Hills were also relinquished by the Indians in order to prevent starvation due to the governments tactics to cut off their rations altogether if they did not agree.



Assignment 19
Chp 19
An overall sense of unity had been accomplished through the bringing together of all the Lakotas and Sahiyelas. Their victories over the Long Knives had been such a great accomplishment. Never before had they had such a powerful victory. The Sahiyelas had identified the soldier commander as Long Hair or Son of the Morning Star. Crazy Horse knew the value of the confidence installed with these victories, but also knew an overall plan needed to be prepared in case the soldiers decided to avenge the deaths of the fallen soldiers. One side felt that the Long Knives would have figured out how dangerous the Lakota were and therefore stay away, while another side felt the soldiers would indeed see how powerful they were, but they should wait to hear from the white peace talkers who would surely come. Crazy Horse had a plan that he presented to the council of old men so that they could attack all three forts on the same day. If different groups attacked Fort Caspar, Fort Fetterman, and Fort Laramie on the same day, the effect could be devastating. The old men, however, did not take this plan seriously. It was bold thinking, but someone asked the question as to if all the fighting men were away, then who would protect the women and children while they were away.

As time wore on, the largest gathering of Lakota separated into several small encampments. Crazy Horse, like Sitting Bull was deeply disappointed by the decrease in numbers and loss of strength. Staying together longer would have been safer. Crazy Horse decided to take his people east toward the Black Hills. From there he led raids into the Black Hills and their strategies were overall successful. On one of the raids, they encountered a large settlement with men, women, and children. They were not planning on just passing through; instead they were planning on staying and building more square box houses and planting crops. He had also taken to raiding the miners by himself and came at them after a long days work or at dawn when the miners were groggy with sleep and their judgment was impaired. As he saw it, the Black Hills belonged to the Lakota and the miners were invaders.

His father and his best friend He Dog scolded him for being so reckless and reminded him that he wasn’t just living to provide for himself, but also for his family and for his people. He later moved his people closer to Bear Butte and news came of an attack against the Slim Buttes. Iron Plume and his people had always been friendly with the whites, but this fact did not help them. The soldiers killed men, women, and children. This news came along with news that another thousand soldiers from Fort Fetterman were in the area. Three Stars was the commanding officer stationed at Fort Fetterman and he would be anxious to make amends for the Rosebud fight and for Long Hair along the Greasy Grass. A messenger sent by Sitting Bull brought news of a new fort that was built and how his people had attacked the supply train to cut them off. Bear Coat, the commanding officer arranged for a meeting with Sitting Bull and while he was there talking, his people were attacked destroying their winter meat stores and driving off some of their horses. The threat of the Long Knife soldiers was becoming more and more of a threat. Crazy Horse seriously debated taking his people to an agency to prevent further bloodshed. Sitting Bull headed to Canada to evade the soldiers since they could not keep after them there. Crazy Horse arranged for a meeting with peace talkers about an agency devoted solely for his people, but they were attacked by Crows who were helping the white soldiers at the fort.


Assignment 19
Chp 20 and 21
Crazy Horse went with his friends and family to Camp Robinson to turn themselves in to find life amongst the whites for a time before they could be moved to their own agency close to the Black Hills. Their journey was full of doubts and Crazy Horse decided to do what was best for his people since they could no longer run and hide. He took a new wife at the insistence of some elders and in the meantime, there was a lot of politics involved in the agency upon arrival. Crazy Horse was the first out of all of his people to turn over his rifle to the soldiers and dismount permanently from his horse. He had traveled and left his first wife with his relatives at Spotted Tail’s agency, and his second wife still had relatives that she could stay with.

While at the agency, many of the Lakota turned against Crazy Horse. They spread rumors that he was going to lead some of the young warriors in a resistance against the soldiers. He battled his own people as much as he did the whites in terms that no one seemed to be on his side anymore. Red Cloud was one of his biggest foes and sought to make Crazy Horse less of a powerful figure. With rumors and politics working against him, the soldier chiefs decided it was time to have him completely subdued and went to arrest him. He was pushed from a huge crowd and then grabbed by Little Big Man, who had at one time been one of his most trusted allies. He was able to manage to free himself, only to be grabbed by another couple of soldiers and as he struggled to find his knife, a soldier drove his knifed rifle through Crazy Horse’s chest. After several hours, the famed Lakota warrior was dead.

His mother and father along with several other trusted friends and warriors set out to honor and bury their son. A bounty had been set on bringing back his head of $200 and so they had to be very careful. They took him into the heart of their country on a pony drag and honored him on a scaffold and made a sacred bundle of things precious to him. They painted his body according to his vision and his war path. Then the next day, they took him alone to an important place that only they knew to bury him. The deed was done and the warrior was dead.

Assignment 17

Assignment 17
Tribal people across the world have been affected by encroaching industrial civilizations throughout the ages. It has happened in the past and it is still taking place today. The Native Americans struggled with the white expansion across the United States and were nearly exterminated due to violence, disease, harsh conditions, and famine. While the Bushmen, also known as the San in South Africa continue to strive for the rights to stay in their homelands and keep their way of life. They are thought to be one of the longest surviving hunter-gatherer societies to have ever existed. These days they are in danger of completely losing their culture due to corrupt governments, overhunting, and loss of their ancestral lands.

Genocide and European diseases are a few of the reasons the population of San number only 85,000 today. Living in remote regions of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, they have made a life where few others could survive. Nearly 150 years after the Dutch arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, thousands of Bushmen (San) were shot and killed and many more were forced to work for their captors as virtual slaves. The same happened to the Native Americans in a lot of situations. By 1840 all of the eastern tribes had been exterminated or had moved west. From 1860 to 1890 the Native Americans fought diligently to keep their lands in the Great Plains and their culture, but many were hunted down and killed in the process. Innocent women and children were slaughtered in several acts of genocide like Wounded Knee Creek. Similar to the Native Americans, the San were thought of as inferior by the whites. Europeans deemed the Bushmen untamable and killed them off in large numbers because they thought they were a threat to livestock. Native Americans were killed off because they resisted conforming and sometimes they resisted violently.

Acculturation is massive, disruptive change that is forced upon a society by contact with a more powerful, “advanced” society. The San have been affected by acculturation in similar ways the Native Americans were in the 1800s. Native Americans like the Lakota Sioux were encroached upon by whites in search of land and gold and fought to keep their lands and freedoms. However, the San are more pacifists and were moved off ancestral lands to provide settlers with land and in some circumstances; they are being moved from their lands for companies and governments in search of diamond prospecting. These two groups are widely different, but they have been persecuted for similar reasons, ultimately, the profit of the advanced more powerful society. It is interesting to note that both tribal units, the Lakota Sioux and the San, were sought to move because the advanced society thought it had rights to minerals (gold or diamonds) on the others’ ancestral land.

The Sioux responded to acculturation through a variety of means, mainly violent resistance at first, but some groups eventually assimilated into the dominant culture. Another form of resistance for the Native Americans was one of religious revitalization through the Ghost Dance. Through the Ghost Dance, they were creating a sense of hope in a desperate situation. They responded to the abrupt changes by creating a new set of religious beliefs to help them cope with the pressures. Interestingly, Bushmen tribes participate in a comparable dance called the Giraffe Dance which causes them to drift into an altered state where they can get visions. In the Giraffe Dance, an older man or shaman leads it and while performing the dance, one can communicate with dead or absent relatives. The Lakota Sioux’s Ghost Dance had similar components and they would dance and receive visions, believed they could cure the sick, and could communicate with the dead.

Both Native American tribes in the 1800s and the Bushmen have depended on a hunter-gatherer existence. For the Native Americans, that existence was nearly impossible to continue after all the buffalo and game had been extinguished. Not to mention that when most of them had been moved to reservations, they were disarmed and were no longer allowed to hunt what game they could find. In most circumstances, they were forced to give up their entire culture in order to learn and live as the white’s did. They were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and live in a permanent home, and they had to give up their Indian garments for traditional clothing and they were taught English and Christianity. Fewer than 10,000 Bushmen live in the traditional hunter-gatherer way dressed in loin cloths and hunting with bows and arrows on foot.

The largest groups of 47,500 Bushmen live in Botswana. Due to farmers fencing much of the land and over hunting by non natives, there is no more game to hunt and most make a living as ranch hands. However, some have managed to remain on their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The government initially decided they could remain there as long as they used traditional hunting methods and had no guns or horses. Despite this agreement, they were later encouraged to leave the reserve lured on promises of schools, clinics, fresh water, and a resettlement bonus of five cows or fifteen goats each. Removals from the communities started in 1997 and most have relocated outside the park in exchange for deeds to the lands appropriated for them and were given goats and cattle. About 1,645 individuals from the Gana and Gwi Bushmen tribes remain inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and continue their lives even though the government destructed the Bushmen’s water pump in the park. Botswana’s government insists their intentions are to preserve the integrity of the Game Reserve and to integrate the San into the country’s social and economic life.

The major question of dispute remains whether the government is truly trying to preserve the park’s integrity or whether they are clearing the way for diamond-prospecting companies. Looking back at the Native Americans, it is all too clear that history repeats itself. United States government officials coerced the Sioux for their lands in order to mine gold, even after they had written it in the treaty of 1868 that it should be forever Indian Territory. Through intimidation and threats, they were able to swindle the Sioux into giving up their lands. However, despite threats of legal action from diamond prospecting companies, Survival International, an advocate for tribal people’s rights, said “Survival has been threatened many times by companies and governments which put profits before tribal people’s rights. However, we have not the slightest intention of betraying the responsibility which, for many years, so many Gana and Gwi Bushmen have asked us to shoulder.” It is nice to see that even though these tribes are struggling, they have someone to help them fight for their rights. Survival also accuses the Botswana government of torture, beatings, and arrests for supposedly overhunting or hunting without a license. Harassment from the government led to the destruction of the Bushmens’ water pump and the draining of their existing water supplies in the desert and banning of hunting and gathering. Botswana’s government officials, in their defense, claimed the San had been engaging in income-generating projects which would enable them to live self-reliant sustainable livelihoods and therefore would no longer need to rely on government handouts. Possibly through interventions such as Survival International, the San people will be able to continue inhabiting their native lands with the culture of their ancestors. It is sad to think it has not been that long ago that the Native Americans were treated so poorly and now that kind of persecution is still taking place.

Assignment 16

Assignment 16
Option 1
Acculturation is massive, disruptive change that is forced upon a society by contact with a more powerful, “advanced” society. The history of the U.S., from the very beginning, consisted of a long series of examples of this process. When Christopher Columbus landed in the New World, he kidnapped ten of the friendly Taino people and sent them over to Spain, and the rest of the people were forced to give up their land and adopt the European’s religion as well as many villages were burned and looted. Even though these natives were some of the “nicest” people, they were thought of as inferior and ignorant because they were different. This ethnocentric attitude of the superiority of the “advanced” civilization continued as more and more Europeans immigrated to the Americas. By the 1800s, the process of acculturation was well under way for the Native Americans.

During the mid 1800s, Native Americans were responding to the white encroachment in different ways. Red Cloud and his group of Ogala Sioux responded by resisting and fighting until they came to an agreement with the treaty of 1868. Eventually, however, even Red Cloud gives in because he realizes his people are fighting a losing battle. He and many of his followers were known as some of the best fighters and were able to keep the whites from completely taking their lands, but as Black Elk described them later in life, they were “hang around the forts” people. They gave up their old lives in order to assimilate into the dominate culture. On the other hand, many other groups of Native Americans were nearly completely exterminated because they would not assimilate to the white man’s ways. Crazy Horse, unlike Red Cloud, resisted until the very end and was killed when he finally decided to surrender. He and his people were forced, not by battle, but by hunger to come to the agency.

One of the most interesting responses to acculturation is religious revitalization. This is when facing massive, disruptive domination by a stronger society, members of the weaker society respond by creating new religious beliefs to help the people cope with the pressures. A prime example of religious vitalization is the Ghost Dance of the Lakota Sioux in the 1880s. White suppression of their culture led to the birth of a new religious movement that incorporated elements of their former important Sundance Festival and Christian elements involving a Messiah and Revelation.

During the winter of 1890, a mystic named Kicking Bear, a former intimate of Crazy Horse, journeyed west to hear the gospel of Wavoka and carried news back to his people. The Ghost Dance took on the importance of the former Sundance. They believed that if they were honest, virtuous, non- violent, prayed, sang, and danced that all of their dead ancestors would come back to life as well as the game would return to the prairies, and all the whites would die from a massive flood. Exhaustion from dancing and singing would bring on visions similar to those of the Sundance ceremonies. Dancers became so enthralled with it that the store houses, school houses, and trading stores would be empty.

Black Elk remembered hunger being prevalent with his people before he journeyed to Europe to tour with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, but after his return three years later in 1889, he recalls the need being much worse. By August, Black Elk’s people were pitiful and starving because of failed crops and lack of cattle provided by the agencies. Originally in the treaty of 1868, the Lakota people were supposed to receive more than double the amount of cattle they were receiving and the ones they were given were skinny and in poor condition. All of the bison had been killed off by the Wasichus (whites) and therefore the Lakota’s and other Plains Indians had no way to feed, clothe, or shelter their families. In the summer of 1889, news of the Ghost Dance came to the Ogalas and from there, the Shoshones and Blue Clouds (Arapahoes) brought news of it to Black Elk’s people. Many people believed it, but many were also skeptical at first. Black Elk recalled thinking it was foolish talk that someone had started somewhere.

Shortly after hearing news of the Ghost Dance, a meeting was called not far from Pine Ridge Agency and at least three good men had gone to hear the message and were there to tell about it. They returned and told the others all they had learned and seen while visiting the Wanekia (One Who Makes Live), Wovoka, the son of the Great Spirit, and how he had told of how a new world was coming to take them all away to where their ancestors were all alive, the bison and game were plentiful again, and the Wasichus would all disappear. Black Elk heard the news and knew all of these men to be honorable good men and began to wonder if this could be real. Wovoka had given Good Thunder sacred red paint and two eagle feathers for the people to apply when they did the ghost dance. When Black Elk learned of the sacred red paint and the eagle feathers, he began to equate Wovoka’s vision with his own. His vision was to bring the people back into the nation’s hoop and he thought Wovoka’s was the same because it would lead the people back to the red road.

That winter, Black Elk’s father passed away and many others passed from sickness too. More people were interested in hearing the message from the sacred man so they sent more men to learn what they could. When the men returned, all the people were so interested and enthralled with the man claiming to be the son of the Great Spirit. They brought back news that all he said was true in that he could make animals talk, and he had spirit visions and some of them claimed to have also seen the visions. News of his ghost dance spread far and wide and soon those on Cheyenne Creek, north or Pine Ridge, were holding ghost dances and rumors told that the people were able to speak to their dead relatives and then people were said to be dancing at Wounded Knee Creek. Black Elk was still somewhat of a skeptic and wanted to hear more, so he journeyed on horseback to Wounded Knee Creek to see the ghost dance for himself. As it turns out, he was so surprised by what he saw because so much of his vision was being displayed. All the dancers, both men and women, were holding hands in a big circle, and in the center of the circle they had a tree painted red with most of its branches cut off and some dead leaves on it. It was exactly like his vision with all the people holding hands to create a circle for the sacred hoop to be restored and the sacred tree to bloom again. The people had painted their faces red and they used the pipe and eagles feathers like in his vision. All the pieces were coming together and suddenly Black Elk believed like all the others in the power of the ghost dance.

The next day, Black Elk painted himself in the sacred manner and set forth to dance with the people. Ghost Dances became more prevalent because Wovoka predicted the new world would come after the next winter during the spring. In the summer of 1890, tensions rose between the Wasichus and the Lakotas. Kicking Bear and Good Thunder were put in prison briefly because they were leaders of Ghost Dances. The whites saw the Ghost Dance with a sense of paranoia and thought it was dangerous. Army soldiers were called in at the request of the whites on the reservations, and anxieties on both sides were on the rise. Black Elk receives two different visions while dancing, one from the dancing at Wounded Knee Creek and one from dancing with the Brules along Cut Meat Creek. When he returns to Wounded Knee after dancing with the Brules, he joined the Ogalas and heard there were soldiers at Pine Ridge. Black Elk and his group broke camp and moved according to where they thought might be the safest since the added soldiers caused an uneasy tension. It was around the time when they were camped on Cheyenne Creek, north of Pine Ridge, that Black Elk and other Ogalas received the bad news about Sitting Bull’s death at the hands of Indian policemen. Sitting Bull had been the target of some controversy because he was an advocate for the Ghost Dance. He did not participate, but only watched, because he didn’t necessarily believe in it, rather, he thought it united his people. After Sitting Bull’s death, many of his followers had run away to be with Big Foot’s band, which was on the move just days later. Soldiers were sent to find Big Foot and his band because they were thought of as trouble makers.

After Sitting Bull’s assassination, the Ghost Dance was the only driving force keeping the Indians from retaliating. Instead, many of his Hunkpapa Sioux fled the Standing Rock reservation to seek refuge in Red Cloud’s Pine Ridge agency. December 17, about a hundred of the fleeing Hunkpapas reached Big Foot’s Minneconjou camp near Cherry Creek. As soon as Big Foot learned of Sitting Bull being killed, he started with his people toward Pine Ridge in hopes that Red Cloud could protect them from the soldiers. En route, Big Foot becomes ill with pneumonia, and is no longer able to walk and has to travel by wagon. On December 28, the Minneconjous first sighted the four troops of soldiers and luckily Big Foot has a white flag flying above his wagon. Big Foot’s band included some of Sitting Bull’s followers, but there were only about a hundred warriors and the rest were women, children, and old men. They were all starving and freezing from running away on such short notice when they were found by the soldiers December 28, 1890. Black Elk and his band found out later that evening that Big Foot’s band was camped with the soldiers about fifteen miles down the road from where they were. The next morning, Black Elk was out with his horses when he heard cannons and guns going off. He rode back to camp and grabbed his sacred bow and rode in the direction of the gun fire. It was a bloody scene when he and several other warriors arrived. The Wasichus soldiers were firing on everyone. Many had already been killed including women, children, and babies. Later he learned exactly what happened there by a few eye witnesses.

The morning of December 29, 1890, all of the Indians did as they were told and brought their rifles out and laid them down in a pile along with their knives and other weapons. Not satisfied with the number of weapons, the soldiers searched all the tepees and emptied bundles as well as ordered the chiefs to remove their blankets in order to be searched. With this, Yellow Bird put up a fuss, and Black Coyote raised his Winchester rifle to exclaim it was his and he had paid a lot of money for it. Seeing Black Coyote raise his gun, the soldiers grabbed him, spun him around, and grabbed his gun. As this happened, the gun fired and the soldiers took the sound as the signal for them to fire. They killed Big Foot as he attempted to rise out of his blankets and they killed anything and everything that moved. Since most of the Indians had no arms, they began to flee and the big guns on the hills opened fire on them. When the firing ended, Big Foot and half of his people were dead or seriously wounded. There were 153 known dead, but many of the wounded crawled away to die afterward. The final total of dead was nearly 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children. Black Elk recalled seeing the scene and noticing a baby in the arms of his mother as he was still trying to nurse when his mother lie dead and bloody. He was more ready for revenge than ever, but after a while, he knew he was fighting a losing battle and was forced to retreat. After the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, the Ghost Dances were over and so were the Lakota people. When the Ghost Dances ended, the Lakota people gave in as Black Elk eventually did and assimilated into the dominate culture.

Assignment 15

Assignment 15 Chp 18
In 1877, after the government drove the Sioux out of Nebraska, the Sioux were settled in several different reservations. Red Cloud and his Ogalas were settled in the southwest corner of the reservation Pine Ridge, while east of Pine Ridge, Spotted Tail and his Brules were settled along the Little White River at an agency called Rosebud, and the remaining Sioux tribes four other agencies: Lower Brule; Crow Creek; Cheyenne River; and Standing Rock. During this time, there was outrage by the white pioneers and settlers who wanted railroads, roads, and more settlements to go through Sioux reservation lands. In the old days, the Sioux would have fought to keep the whites off their lands, but now they were disarmed and dismounted and had no way of feeding themselves let alone pushing back against further encroachment.
Sitting Bull and his followers had escaped to Canada and lived there for four years following the battle at Little Bighorn. The army was displeased with allowing a force as powerful as Sitting Bull to remain free, but Canada would offer little help in the capture of the Indians as long as they presented no real threat. In the meantime, Canada allowed no assistance to the Indians either because they were not true Canadians, but had just escaped over the border to avoid capture. During the winter of 1880 a blizzard struck and many Sioux horses froze to death and in the spring many of Sitting Bull’s exiles made the southward trek to Dakota Territory. Alas, in July of 1881, Sitting Bull and 186 of his remaining followers crossed border and rode into Fort Buford. Officials had made promises that if Sitting Bull turned himself in, he would have a full pardon, but they ignored the old promise and took him as a military prisoner. Late in the same summer, Spotted Tail was assassinated by one of his own people, Crow Dog. Plans from the government backfired slightly in detaining Sitting Bull; they only made him grow in popularity. Chiefs, sub chiefs, newspapermen, and more came to visit with the old chief and instead of being forgotten, he became famous.
Despite resistance from the Sioux, they came very close to losing nearly 14,000 square miles of their land in 1882. Commissions were sent out to the agencies to coerce the Sioux into signing documents to give over their lands. They thought they were signing a paper that would give them cattle and bulls, but the commissioners had tricked them by actually signing over their lands. If it hadn’t been for a separate party sent from Washington to investigate, the Sioux would have forfeited much of their lands. Sitting Bull was released from prison shortly before the investigating party was sent from Washington. He was a driving force urging the Sioux not to sell. In the summer of 1883, the transcontinental railroad was completed, and because Sitting Bull was so famous, they asked him to come and make a speech at its inauguration. He did not make the typical speech for such a big celebration, but made insulting remarks and told of how he hated whites, but the interpreter changed his words to make the crowd cheer, applaud, and they gave him a standing ovation. His popularity grew even more after that and he toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show through much of the U.S. and Canada. After the season ended, he returned to Standing Rock with two farewell presents being a huge white sombrero and a trained performing horse. In 1887 Buffalo Bill invited Sitting Bull to rejoin the company for a tour of Europe, but he passed stating that he was needed because “there is more talk to taking our lands.”
There are more attempts by the U.S. government to convince the Sioux to give up their lands without completely throwing out the treaty of 1868. Most of the attempts fail until General Crook is convinced to help the commission under the understanding that if the Sioux wouldn’t sell their lands, the government would take them by force. Sitting Bull is not invited to the last council and fights his way in, however, the papers get signed and the Sioux give up the rights to most of their lands. About a year after the breakup of the Great Sioux Reservation, Sitting Bull hears rumors of a great Messiah and of the Ghost Dance ritual that is taking place in other reservations. He convinces Kicking Bear to come to Standing Rock to teach his people the Ghost Dance, even though Sitting Bull himself does not participate or believe in the Ghost Dance. Agent James McClaughlin accused Sitting Bull of being a high priest or leading apostle of latest Indian absurdity, but he only superintended it in order for his people to have a future.
The Ghost Dance took on the importance of the former Sundance. They believed that if they were honest, virtuous, non- violent, prayed, sang, and danced that all of their dead ancestors would come back to life as well as the game would return to the prairies, and all the whites would die from a massive flood. Dancers became so enthralled with it that the store houses, school houses, and trading stores would be empty. The whites saw the Ghost Dance with a sense of paranoia and thought it was dangerous. Army soldiers were called in at the request of the whites on the reservations, and the tensions grew. McClaughlin thought Sitting Bull was the force behind the Ghost Dance and ordered him to be arrested. Just before day break on December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was arrested by forty-three Indian police. He was going quietly, until the arresting officer Bull Head and Red Tomahawk started to push the old man towards his horse and Sitting Bull started to push back. When this happened, Catch-the-Bear threw off his blanket and fired his rifle at Bull Head wounding him in the side. As Bull head fell, he shot Sitting Bull, and Red Tomahawk shot Sitting Bull in the head and killed him.



Assignment 15 Chp 19
After Sitting Bull’s assassination, the Ghost Dance was the only driving force keeping the Indians from retaliating. Instead, many of his Hunkpapa Sioux fled the Standing Rock reservation to seek refuge in Red Cloud’s Pine Ridge agency. December 17, about a hundred of the fleeing Hunkpapas reached Big Foot’s Minneconjou camp near Cherry Creek. As soon as Big Foot learned of Sitting Bull being killed, he started with his people toward Pine Ridge in hopes that Red Cloud could protect them from the soldiers. En route, Big Foot becomes ill with pneumonia, and is no longer able to walk and has to travel by wagon. On December 28, the Minneconjous first sighted the four troops of soldiers and luckily Big Foot has a white flag flying above his wagon. Major Samuel Whitside of the Seventh Cavalry stops them and informs them he has orders to take them to a cavalry camp at Wounded Knee Creek. Whitside wishes to disarm them as soon as he stops the Indians, but one of his scouts, John Shangreau, warns him that to do this would mean bloodshed. Hearing this, Whitside finally agrees to take them to Wounded Knee first and then disarm and dismount them.
Upon arrival at Wounded Knee Creek, Whitside knew it would be dark soon so he decides to disarm the Indians in the morning. They get a full headcount of 120 men and 230 women and children. To make sure the Indians did not try to escape, he stationed two troops of cavalry around the Sioux tepees and then posted two Hotchkiss guns on top of a rise overlooking the camp. In the middle of the night, the rest of the Seventh Cavalry joins the group and Colonel James W. Forsyth takes charge of the operations and placed two more Hotchkiss guns on another hill. Their new mission is to bring Big Foot’s band to the Union Pacific Railroad for shipment to a military prison in Omaha. Even though the Indians have their ghost shirts that are supposed to protect them from harm, they are nervous and scared throughout the night.
The next morning, Colonel Forsyth informed the Indians that they had to be disarmed. All of the Indians did as they were told and brought their rifles out and laid them down, and even though they were angry, they did as they were told. Not satisfied with the number of weapons, the soldiers searched all the tepees and emptied bundles as well as ordered the chiefs to remove their blankets in order to be searched. With this, Yellow Bird put up a fuss, and Black Coyote raised his Winchester rifle to exclaim it was his and he had paid a lot of money for it. Seeing Black Coyote raise his gun, the soldiers grabbed him, spun him around, and grabbed his gun. As this happened, the gun fired and the soldiers took the sound as the signal for them to fire. They killed Big Foot as he attempted to rise out of his blankets and they killed anything and everything that moved. Since most of the Indians had no arms, they began to flee and the big guns on the hills opened fire on them. When the firing ended, Big Foot and half of his people were dead or seriously wounded. There were 153 known dead, but many of the wounded crawled away to die afterward. The final total of dead was nearly 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children. The soldiers lost twenty-five and thirty-nine were wounded. Most of them had been hit by their own cavalrymen or by sharp from the guns on the hill.
With an impending blizzard approaching, the soldiers gathered up Indians who were still alive and loaded them into wagons. The dead Indians were left lying where they had fallen. Upon arrival at Pine Ridge, the Episcopal church in was turned into a make shift hospital for the wounded Indians. When the blizzard had subsided five days later, a burial party returned to Wounded Knee Creek and found the bodies including Big Foot’s in contorted and grotesque shapes.