THE WILD WEST

COWBOY WAGES –  A cowboy on the Chisholm Trail in the 1860’s was paid $30/month plus expenses and given another $30 for the return trip.  Whitcomb p. 147

BUFFALO FACTS –  The bull buffalo weighs a ton and stands six feet tall.  It is the largest mammal in North America.  It can reach a speed of 35 miles per hour.  By the mid-19th Century, there were more buffalo than Americans and it was the most numerous land mammal on Earth.  Buffalo liked to scratch against telegraph poles and sometimes knocked them down.  At their peak, the herds were so big, it could take five days for it to pass a point.  The animal we know as the buffalo is actually the American bison.  Buffalo manure, called buffalo chips, were used as fuel on the treeless prairies.  Whitcomb p. 302

CUSTER MYTHS –  Here are some little known facts about George Armstrong Custer:

                1.  He finished last in his class at West Point.  If the Civil War had not come along, his career would have probably been a bust.

                2.   He was a Lieutenant Colonel, not a General.  He had temporarily been bumped up to a General during the Civil War, making him the youngest general in the Army.

                3.  He was court-martialed for leaving his men in the field to rush back to be in the arms of his wife.  He was suspended for a year for this.

                4.  He was in trouble with President Grant because he had accused the President’s brother of corruption.

                5.  He violated orders in the Battle of Little Big Horn.  He was supposed to wait for the main body of the army before attacking the village.

                6.  Not all of his men were killed.  All the men with him were killed.  He had divided the 7th Cavalry into three parts and the other two parts took refuge on a hill where most of them survived until the main part of the army arrived.

                7.  He had cut his long hair before the campaign so the Indians did not recognize the body of “Long Hair”.

                8.  Sitting Bull did not fight in the battle.  At this stage of his life, he was a medicine man and more of a spiritual leader.  Crazy Horse and Gall led the attacks.

                9.  Custer was most likely wounded early in the battle in an attempt to cross the river.  He was not the last man standing.

COWBOY LINGO – 

                –  “crooked enough to sleep on a corkscrew” – dishonest

                –  “raised on prunes and proverbs”  –  a preacher

                –  “coffin varnish” –  whiskey

                –  “fat as a well-fed needle” – poor

                –  “got a pill in his stomach that he can’t digest” – he was shot

                –  “she’s like a turkey gobbler in a hen pen” –  she’s proud

                –  “he’s like a breeding jackass in a tin barn” –  he’s noisy

                –  “quicker than you can spit and yell ‘howdy’” –  very fast

                –  “studying to be a half-wit”  – stupid

                –  “built like a snake on stilts” –  tall

                –  “shy on melody, but strong on noise” – bad singer

                –  “weasel smart” – very crafty

                –  “scarce as bird dung in a cuckoo clock” –  rare

                –  “in the lead when tongues were handed out” – talkative

                –  “If he closed one eye he’d look like a needle” – very skinny

                –  “he died of throat trouble” – he was hanged  Uncle Lost p. 133

BLACK COWBOYS –  In the 1958-59 TV season, seven of the top ten programs were Westerns – Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Maverick, Tales of Wells Fargo, and Wyatt Earp.  None had blacks in their casts.  In reality, one out of three cowboys in the Old West were African-Americans.  Some became famous.  Bill Pickett was a rodeo star billed as “Will Pickett the Dusty Demon”.  He appeared in several silent movies.  He perfected the rodeo event called “bull-dogging”.  In this event, the cowboy would wrestle a bull down by its horns.  Pickett became famous for his technique of biting the bull’s lip in the process.  Nat Love was another rodeo star who boasted of 14 bullet wounds in his checkered past.  Cherokee Bill was a Billy the Kid type outlaw who was hanged at age 19.  Uncle Lost pp. 517-518

COWBOY MYTHS – 

1.  Wagons usually did not travel in a straight line.  The ones behind the leader would eat a lot of dust that way.  Normally they fanned out.

2.  Pioneers did not circle the wagons if Indians attacked.  They did circle for night partly to corral the animals.  Plus,  Indians seldom attacked wagon trains, they were more likely to try to trade for items like sugar.

3.  Conestoga wagons were not used because they were too heavy for animals to pull them for long distances.  The most popular wagons were called “prairie schooners” (or covered wagons) and were smaller and were pulled by mules or oxen, not horses. 

Uncle Great Big pp. 202-3

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL –  The most famous shootout in the Old West took place in 1881 in the town of Tombstone in the Arizona Territory.  Virgil Earp was the town marshal and he was assisted by his brothers Wyatt and Morgan.  They were in conflict with a group of cowboys/cattle rustlers called unoriginally “The Cowboys”.  The Cowboys were led by a pair of brothers – Ike and Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury.  The blood got so bad that Ike openly threatened the Earps’ lives.  Something was bound to happen.  On Oct. 26, the Earps were told that some of the Cowboys had been seen in town with guns.  There was a law against carrying guns in the city limits and this seemed like a good opportunity to settle things once and for all.  The Earps were joined by a friend named Doc Holliday who was supposedly a dentist, but was more of a gambler and stone-cold killer.  The confrontation actually took place in a vacant lot near the corral.  The McLaury’s and the Clanton’s were there with their horses.  Virgil ordered them to raise their arms, but Frank and Billy pulled their pistols.  Virgil yelled that he did not want violence, but shots were fired instead.  In thirty seconds, thirty shots were exchanged.  Billy and Wyatt fired first. Billy firing at Wyatt and missing, Wyatt hitting Frank.  Tom McLaury tried using his horse as a shield, but Holliday maneuvered to give him both barrels of his shot gun in his chest.  Tom stumbled into the street and died.  Meanwhile, shots were flying between Frank and Billy and the Earps.  Frank was hit three times and Billy caught six bullets. Both died.   Morgan was hit in the shoulder and Virgil in the leg.  Wyatt was amazingly bullet proof.  Ike Clanton also avoided bullets by running away.  It was not over with the clearing of the gun smoke.  Five months later, Virgil’s arm was maimed by an assailant in an alley.  Then Morgan was shot in the back while shooting pool and killed.  Wyatt went on a revenge spree eliminating some of the Cowboys on his own.  Lawrence 119 and Wikipedia

BARBED WIRE –  In 1873, Henry Rose was having trouble with a “breachy cow” so he invented a strip of wood with nails on it that he attached to his fence.  It had metal points that would prick the cow if it tried to breach the fence.  When he showed it off at the county fair, it got other inventors thinking of bettering it.  Joseph Glidden used a hand-cranked coffee mill to twist two wires together and he added barbs to the wire.  In the woodless Great Plains, it was a cheap solution to cattle trampling crops.  Glidden received a patent in 1874.  He sold 10,000 pounds of wire in 1874.  In 1880, 80 million pounds were sold.  Farmers loved it and cattlemen hated it because the open range was soon closed to cattle drives.  Range wars erupted with cattlemen attempting to cut the wires and reopen the plains.  Progress could not be stopped, however.  Barbed wire helped bring an end to the open range by closing a lot of it.  Amazing 48-50  /  Strange 203

KILL MY WIVES –  Quanah Parker was a Comanche war chief who eventually surrendered and went on a reservation.  He adopted the ways of the white man, except he refused to give up on polygamy.  He was friends with Teddy Roosevelt and one day the President visited him on the reservation.  Noticing Parker’s five wives he took him to task for retaining the uncivilized tradition.  Parker responded:  “Okay, Great White Father, I will live with one wife.  But you have to choose which one and then kill the other four.”  Fuller 167

FACTS ABOUT BILLY THE KID

  1. He was born Henry McCarty on Nov. 23, 1859 in the Irish tenements of New York City. As a teenager, his family moved to Wichita and eventually New Mexico.  After his mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14, his life took a turn for the worse.  He went from a nice, honest boy to a juvenile delinquent.  He start hanging out with the wrong crowd.
  2. In 1875, at age 16, he was arrested for stealing some food and ten days later for stealing from a Chinese laundry. Put in the local jail, he escaped by shimmying up the chimney. 
  3. He took up the life of a ranch hand, gambler, and gang member. He was not against thievery, but limited his career to horse stealing and cattle rustling.  No bank or train robbing.
  4. He committed his first killing in 1877 in a dispute over a card game in a saloon. The victim was bigger and in the ensuing scuffle, young Henry resorted to his pistol.  This was the first of probably nine deaths that he was involved in.  This was far short of the legendary 21 that he was credited with.   
  5. At this point he adopted the name William Bonney, but became more famous as “Billy the Kid” or simply “The Kid”. He had a reputation as a gun slinger and became involved in the Lincoln County War.  He found employment as a ranch hand for British rancher John Tunstall who was in a feud with Irish ranchers James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy.  The war began when Tunstall was murdered by a posse led by Sheriff William Brady.  Tunstall’s men formed a vigilante group called The Regulators and sought revenge.  Billy was in the thick of it.  He was involved in the assassination of Brady, for which an arrest warrant was put out on him.  He also participated in the Battle of Lincoln where the Regulators battled the Dolan/Murphy gang for five days in the town of Lincoln.  The battle ended with Billy fleeing a burning building and going on the lam.
  6. One of his most famous killings was of a drunk named Joe Grant. Grant was in a saloon making threatening remarks, including aimed at Billy.  Billy asked to admire his pistol and secretly spun the cylinder so it was on an empty chamber.  Later, when Grant tried to shoot Billy in the back, Billy heard the click and turned and shot Grant.
  7. Billy was good at escaping, but not at hiding. In 1880, Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett (an outlaw turned law man who may have worked with Billy in the past) captured Billy without a fight in an isolated cabin.  He was found guilty of the murder of Brady and sentenced to death.  In an episode that the newspapers made famous, he escaped.  He asked to go to the outhouse and on returning he slipped out of his hand cuffs, ambushed his guard, and shot him with his own pistol.  He armed himself with a shotgun and killed another guard.  He cut his leg shackles with an axe and rode out of town on a stolen horse, supposedly singing.
  8. Billy went to live with friends in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, but he made no secret of his identity. It did not take long for Garrett to discover where he was.  On July 14, 1881 Garrett was questioning Peter Marshall in his home about Billy’s whereabouts.  It was dark in the room when Billy entered warily and saw silhouettes.  He asked “Who’s that?” and Garrett recognized his voice.  The sheriff fired two shots and one hit Billy near the heart, killing him instantly.  He was 21.
  9. The first movie about Billy was a silent “Billy the Kid”. Since then, he has been a character in more than 50 movies.

https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-billy-the-kid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_Kid

https://www.irishpost.com/news/billy-the-kid-9-facts-172738

BATTLE OR MASSACRE?  WASHITA

                In 1868, Gen. Philip Sheridan was determined to end the Native American raids on American settlements on the Great Plains.  He decided a winter campaign would catch the Indians hunkered down in their camps.  He decided George Custer was the right man for the job.  Unfortunately, the “Boy General” was under suspension for mistreatment of his men and deserting his unit (to rush home to the loving arms of his wife).  Sheridan lifted the one-year suspension so Custer could resume command of the 7th Cavalry.  The target was Indian villages along the Washita River in Oklahoma.  Those villages harbored young warriors who had been doing the raiding.  This was despite the effort of the chiefs to maintain peace.  Fearing army retaliation, Black Kettle of the Southern Cheyenne came in to Fort Cobb to ask to be allowed to camp near the fort.  Undoubtedly he was hoping to avoid another Sand Creek Massacre.  Gen. William Hazen refused, despite Gen. Sherman’s policy of allowing peaceful Indians to camp in safe areas.  Hazen did promise that nothing would happen to Black Kettle’s village.  When Custer’s command was reported to be approaching the village, Black Kettle and the other elders disregarded the warning.  After all, they had a white flag flying, so they were in no danger, right?  Osage Indian scouts found the village for the whites.  Custer planned a four-pronged attack.  In the early morning of Nov. 27, 1868 the cavalry came charging at the village.  The unit’s band took up their song “Garry Owens” but soon the instruments froze up due to the freezing temperature.  Contrary to myth, Indians were not good with security and the village was taken completely by surprise.  The soldiers rode into the camp and there was little resistance.  Although there was no wanton shooting (like at Sand Creek), some women and children were killed, as well as a number of warriors.  Black Kettle and his wife were shot in the back trying to flee.  Black Kettle, whose village had been the victim of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, did not survive this time.  The attack was not a total success because one of the prongs was wiped out.  20 men under Maj. Joel Elliott rode upriver and ran into warriors from other villages coming to the aid of Black Kettle.  Elliott had led with the cry “Here’s for a brevet (promotion) or a coffin!”  He and his men got the coffins.  Except they didn’t get a decent burial because Custer decided it was too dangerous to try to find out what happened to the missing men.  (This decision caused a lot of bad blood in the unit, especially with Capt. Frederick Benteen.  Benteen never forgave Custer for not searching for his friend Elliott and it may have affected his performance at the Little Big Horn.)  It was time to vamoose before the Indians counterattacked.  The 7th took with them 53 captives (partly to be human shields to discourage attacks) and destroyed the village.  This included shooting over 600 horses.  Custer got away clean, except for the loss of Elliott’s twenty and one death in the village – Capt. Louis McLane Hamilton, a grandson of Alexander.  The number of Indians killed is disputed.  Custer reported the clearly inflated figure of 103 warriors.  Most likely about 16 warriors were killed and somewhere over 20 women and children.  Was it a battle or a massacre?  Let’s just call it a one-sided battle.  There were definitely hostile Indians in the village, although the village itself was peaceful.  Can you see the reason why the Indian Wars were marked by confusion?   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Washita_River

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/custer-massacres-cheyenne-on-washita-river

WILLIAM FETTERMAN:  JERK OR SCAPEGOAT?

            A few months ago, I got into an argument coinciding with the push to remove Confederate monuments.  The argument was over historical revisionism.  While not usually a historical revisionist, I do see the need to adjust history to new historical research.  As a high school American History teacher, it was always hard to change my lessons because I learned something that I taught for years was not true.  How are you going to go back to all those students to correct the error?  But it would be worse to continue to perpetuate the falsehood.  In my Settling the West unit, I covered the Fetterman Massacre.  But I also had read extensively about Red Cloud’s War as it was a particular interest of mine.  In all the books I read, Fetterman was the arrogant glory-hound who bragged he could lick any number of Indians and was looking for the chance to prove it.  That chance came on Dec. 21, 1866.  Fetterman led 80 men into an ambush that cost all of them their lives.  And to make matters worse, he disobeyed orders to boot.  Until Custer made his last stand, Fetterman was the poster boy for underestimating Indians.  That’s how I taught it.  But recent scholarship has pointed to my possibly tainting the reputation of William Fetterman.

            There are two parts to the revision of Fetterman.  The first involves his famous boast:  “With 80 men, I could ride through the whole Sioux nation.”  This quote did not appear until 1904 in Cyrus Brady’s book “Indian Fights and Fighters”.  Henry Carrington (the commander of Fort Phil Kearny) was interviewed for the book and read the manuscript.  Since Carrington had saved his career by blaming the disaster on Fetterman, he would have approved the quote, even if he had never heard it said.  If you think about it, it is a bit suspicious for Fetterman to have used the exact number of men that he would eventually lead to their deaths.  What Fetterman apparently did say, as reported by Margaret Carrington in her book “Ab-Sa-Ra-Ka:  Home of the Crows”, was that “a company of regulars could whip a thousand and a regiment could whip the whole array of hostile tribes.”  This sounds like typical soldier boasting and would not have been unusual for an officer on the Plains.  So, we can probably discount that Fetterman was an unusually arrogant braggart who predicted his own demise.

            As to the disobeying orders, there seems little doubt that he did.  The situation that day was that the wood-cutting detail (the fort had to send out groups of woodcutters to a distant woods to cut the necessary wood for the fort) had come under attack.  This was not unusual.  Carrington ordered Fetterman to take 53 men from his 18th Infantry Regiment to protect the detail.  He insisted that Fetterman only save the detail and under no circumstances chase the Indians, especially over Lodge Trail Ridge.  Carrington repeated the order to Lt. George Grummond who led 27 cavalrymen from the 2nd Cavalry.  The 81 men proceeded toward the woodcutters, but soon it was apparent the Indian threat was over and the Indians were withdrawing toward Lodge Trail Ridge.  At this point, Fetterman decided to seize the initiative and try to cut off the Indians.  This disobeying of orders would not have been unusual.  The unwritten rule in the Civil War and Indian Wars was that you could use your own initiative, as long as you won.  Carrington could clearly see the change of plans and could have sent a courier to turn him back, but he didn’t.  When Fetterman failed to cut off the Indians, he proceeded over the ridge chasing several Indian decoys (led by Crazy Horse).  Actually, he followed Grummond’s men over the ridge as the cavalry was in the lead.  It is possible that Grummond was the hot-head who rode into a trap and Fetterman was simply supporting his rash action.  Ironically, both had been in a similar decoyed ambush on Dec. 6.  Grummond had almost been killed.  Upon returning to the fort that day, Fetterman had admitted to Carrington that he had underestimated the Indians and would be more cautious next time.  Apparently, Grummond had not gotten the same lesson.  And maybe Fetterman had forgotten the lesson in the heat of pursuit.  

            When Carrington and the rest of the fort heard gunfire from beyond the ridge, there was no immediate concern. The soldiers had never encountered Indian war parties much larger than 100 warriors.  81 men should be able to handle whatever was on the other side of the ridge.  No one could have anticipated 1,500-2,000 enraged Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne.  It was only after the battle that the number was used to make Fetterman look like a lunatic who marched into an unwinnable fight.  (As a bonus revision, it appears that although Capt. Frederick Brown shot himself, Fetterman most likely was killed by American Horse.  They did not shoot each other in a suicide pact.)

            I am not totally convinced by the recent scholarship, but I am willing to concede that what I taught about the Fetterman Massacre was likely off in some of the long-accepted facts.  I still believe Fetterman was overconfident and should not have disobeyed the order.  There is no dispute that he was suckered by a decoy tactic that he had seen before, so there was no excuse for crossing the ridge, even if he thought there would not be very many Indians.  Why would Crazy Horse have decoyed the whites if the Indians were not prepared for a fight?  However, it does appear that the Carringtons laid the besmirching on thick.  Fetterman does not deserve to be considered a more arrogant fool than Custer.

https://www.historynet.com/the-falsehoods-of-fettermans-fight

FACTS ABOUT WOUNDED KNEE

  1. On Jan. 1, 1889, the Pauite prophet Wovoka claimed to have a dream brought on by a solar eclipse. He dreamed that Jesus would return as an Indian and bring back the good old days.  The dead Indian ancestors would return as would the buffalo.  Whites would disappear from the Earth.  To bring this on, he taught Indians the “Ghost Dance” and promised his disciples that if they did the dance and wore a special “Ghost Shirt”, they would be invulnerable to bullets. Because by this time almost all Indians were living depressing lives on reservations, the Ghost Dance Revival caught on, especially with the Sioux.
  2. Whites on and near the reservations reacted to the Ghost Dance in a paranoid way. Some thought it was a portend of an insurrection.  One victim of this paranoia was Sitting Bull, even though he was not part of the movement.  However, he refused to order his followers to desist, so the Indian agent on his reservation sent Indian police to arrest him.  In the turmoil of the arrest, a crowd of angry followers gathered outside his hut.  When the great chief was led out, an Indian shot one of the police, who responded by shooting Sitting Bull.  Another policeman finished him off with a bullet to the head.  Numerous gun shots followed and bizarrely Sitting Bull’s trick horse, who was a gift from Buffalo Bill, broke into his trick routine.
  3. The death of Sitting Bull naturally caused consternation among the Indians on his reservation. A band of 350 Miniconjou Indians, led by Spotted Tail (also known as Big Foot) decided to make their way to the Pine Ridge Reservation to come under the protection of Red Cloud.  They were intercepted by the Seventh Cavalry (Custer’s old unit) and escorted to Wounded Knee Creek.
  4. The next day, Col. James Forsyth ordered the disarming of the Indians. A few guns were turned over and then the troopers began to search for more.  At this point, a medicine man named Yellow Bird (or Sits Straight) went into the Ghost Dance which caused some anxiety among the soldiers.  There was a tussle with a brave named Black Coyote when he refused to give up his rifle.  A shot was fired and the “battle” was on.  Most historians agree with Indian accounts that Black Coyote was deaf and it was a misunderstanding.  Regardless, the cavalry was armed and ready for anything (and possibly hoping for any excuse to get revenge for “Custer’s Last Stand”), so the exchange of gunfire was decidedly one-sided.  Plus, the 7th had those Hotchkiss guns ready on the high ground.  These rapid-firing cannons did a lot of the damage as they indiscriminately fired on the valley. 
  5. It was indeed a massacre as 150-300 Indians (mostly older men, women, and children) were killed. One of the dead was Spotted Tail.  25 cavalrymen lost their lives, but many might have been victims of friendly fire due to the Hotchkiss fire and the fact that they were surrounding the Indians and thus firing at each other.
  6. The newspapers reported the event as a battle with the brave troopers victorious. 20 Medals of Honor were awarded. 
  7. In 1990, to coincide with the 100th anniversary, Congress passed a resolution expressing “deep regret” for the massacre.
  8. In 2019, the Remove the Stain Act was proposed to rescind the Medals of Honor. One of the cosponsors is Congresswoman Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman in Congress (and recently tabbed by Biden to head the Interior Department).  The main sponsor is Elizabeth Warren. Don’t hold your breath until it passes.  We can’t deal with Confederate base names and bogus Medals of Honor at the same time.

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre

THE DEATH OF SITTING BULL

On Jan. 1, 1889, the Pauite prophet Wovoka claimed to have a dream brought on by a solar eclipse.  He dreamed that Jesus would return as an Indian and bring back the good old days.  The dead Indian ancestors would return as would the buffalo.  Whites would disappear from the Earth.  To bring this on, he taught Indians the “Ghost Dance” and promised his disciples that if they did the dance and wore a special “Ghost Shirt”, they would be invulnerable to bullets. Because by this time almost all Indians were living depressing lives on reservations, the Ghost Dance Revival caught on, especially with the Sioux.

Whites on and near the reservations reacted to the Ghost Dance in a paranoid way.  Some thought it was a portent of an insurrection.  One victim of this paranoia was Sitting Bull, even though he was not part of the movement.  Sitting Bull’s days of fighting were long past.  After Little Big Horn, he and his people had fled to Canada.  The cold temperatures and the lack of food had forced them to return to America and go live on the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota in 1883.  He was now a pacifist, but he refused to order his followers to stop Ghost Dancing, so the Indian agent on his reservation sent 38 Indian police (called “Metal Breasts” because of their badges) to arrest him.  This occurred on Dec. 15, 1890 at 6 AM.  Sitting Bull was going quietly when his 14-year-old son Crowfoot taunted him:  “You always called yourself a brave chief, but now you are allowing yourself to be taken by the Metal Breasts”.  Sitting Bull pulled away from his captor Bull Head.  Someone in the crowd shot Bull Head and he reacted by firing point blank into Sitting Bull’s chest.  Another policeman fired into the chief’s head. In the turmoil of the arrest, a crowd of angry followers gathered outside his hut.  When the great chief was dragged to a horse, an Indian shot one of the police.  Two others responded by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head, killing him instantly.  He was 59-years-old.  Numerous gun shots followed and bizarrely Sitting Bull’s trick horse, who was a gift from Buffalo Bill, broke into his trick routine.  12 more Indians were killed, including Sitting Bull’s brother and his son Crowfoot.  The Indians called the incident “The Battle in the Dark”.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sitting-bull-killed-by-indian-police

https://www.historicamerica.org/journal/2014/12/15/the-death-of-sitting-bull

FACTS ABOUT BUFFALO BILL

William Frederick Cody was born on Feb. 26, 1846 in the Iowa Territory.  He went on to become the most famous person on Earth.  Here are some interesting facts about “Buffalo Bill”:

  1. His father was anti-slavery and did not hide it. When William was seven years old, his family moved to Kansas Territory around the time it was roiled by pro and anti-slavery forces.  Isaac attended a pro-slavery meeting and proceeded to give an anti-slavery speech that did not go over well.  He was stabbed twice in the chest with a Bowie knife.  He never fully recovered.  Not long after, his son rode 30 miles to warn his father of an ambush by slavery supporters.
  2. William went to work at age 11 after his father died. He was a “boy extra” for a wagon train.  He delivered messages to the cowboys on the trail.
  3. He supposedly went to work for the Pony Express at age 14. Although he probably worked for the parent company as a messenger, there is no proof to his claim of delivering the mail.
  4. After enlisting in the 7th Kansas Cavalry to serve in the Civil War, he went west to become a civilian scout for the Army. He had already, supposedly, killed his first Indian at age 12.  He scouted for various units, including for Custer.  In 1872, he rescued several soldiers during an Indian fight.  He was awarded the Medal of Honor.  In 1917, he was among the over 900 recipients who had their medals revoked.  In his case, it was because he was a civilian at the time.  In 1989, due to efforts by his descendants, Congress reinstated the medal.
  5. In 1869, when he was still just 23 years old, the writer Ned Buntline ghost-wrote his biography “Buffalo Bill: The King of the Bordermen”.  It was almost total fiction, but made him famous.  The name was a reference to his job as a hunter for the Kansas Pacific Railroad.  Over 18 months, he claimed to have killed 4,282 buffalo.  When another hunter named Bill Comstock claimed the nickname, they had a competition for it.  Over eight hours of hunting time, Cody killed 68 buffalo to Comstock’s 48 and won the nickname.  Cody used his Springfield Model 1866 which he had named “Lucretia Borgia”.
  6. Cody got into show business in 1872. He starred in Ned Buntline’s “The Scouts of the Prairie”.  His acting was terrible, but the show was a hit.  In 1874, Cody created the “Buffalo Bill Combination” which toured for ten years.  The highlight was him reenacting the killing and scalping of a Cheyenne warrior.
  7. In 1883, he formed the “Buffalo Bill Wild West” show. (In 1893, the name was changed to “Buffalo Bill Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World”.)  The show was like a circus/rodeo.  It reenacted a Pony Express ride, a stagecoach robbery, an attack by Indians on a cabin, and an attack on a wagon train.  The “Rough Riders” included horsemen from South America, Mongolia, Turkey, and the Middle East.  Some of the featured performers included Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane.  Sitting Bull traveled with it as a celebrity guest for a while.  The show toured Europe from 1887-1892 and 1902-1906.  Cody met Pope Leo XIII and performed for Queen Victoria.  By this time, he was the most famous person on Earth.
  8. Cody was an advocate for Indian treaty rights and pointed out that most of the Indian wars were caused by cheating the Indians in treaties. He was a supporter of women’s rights.  He paid his female workers the same as his male workers.  In his older age he became a conservationist who supported the idea of hunting seasons and a ban of the hunting of buffaloes for their hides.

https://www.codyyellowstone.org/blog/top-10-things-you-dont-know-about-buffalo-bill/

https://www.factinate.com/people/42-rip-roaring-facts-buffalo-bill-cody/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill

THE SOLE SURVIVOR OF CUSTER’S LAST STAND

                If horses could talk.  In 1868, a horse was bought by the U.S. Army and assigned to Fort Leavenworth for the famous 7th Cavalry.  Capt. Myles Keogh picked the horse as his battle horse.  In one of his first encounters with Native Americans in Kansas, he took an arrow to his rear, but he carried Keogh to safety.  The would be more skirmishes with the Comanche Indians and since Keogh admired his foes, he named the horse “Comanche”.   He would receive other wounds before the fateful day of June 25, 1876.  On that day, he was part of Custer’s attack on the village along the Little Big Horn.  Keogh died in a last stand separate from Custer.  He would have died on foot, surrounded by his men.  Comanche would have been held with three other horses by a trooper during the fighting.  When the horse-holder was killed, Comanche probably wandered off, in pain from numerous wounds.  Two days later, he was discovered by a cavalryman searching the battle site.  He was transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln and nursed back to health.  He was retired and became a celebrity as “the sole survivor of Custer’s Last Stand” (which was technically not true because undoubtedly the Indians got all the other cavalry horses that had survived).  Comanche left a cushy life in retirement.  He led parades and drank beer.  He lived another 15 years.  When he died, he was given the first military funeral for a horse.  He was then stuffed and you can still see him in the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_(horse)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_(horse)

SMOKEY BEAR

                On August 9, 1944, the U.S. Forestry Service authorized the creation of a baby bear symbol for firefighting efforts by the public.  WWII was underway and there were fewer firefighters because many joined the military.  The public was enlisted to fight fires.  Part of it was war related as the Japanese had floated balloon bombs across the Pacific to start fires in the West.  Artist Albert Staehle was commissioned to do the poster, which came out on Oct. 10.  The original slogan was “Smokey Says –  Care Will Prevent 9 Out of 10 Forest Fires”.  The bear in the poster was named Smokey after “Smokey” Joe Martin who was a hero of the New York Fire Department for his leadership in fighting the huge “Greenwich Street Volcano” warehouse fire of 1922. The poster began the longest running public service campaign in American History.  In 1947, the slogan was changed to “Remember…Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires”.  The living embodiment of Smokey was a 5 pound, 3 month old black bear cub found in the Capitan Gap Fire in New Mexico in 1950.  The cub hid in a tree and was found by firefighters.  It had burnt paws and hind legs. It was taken to a hospital and ended up in the National Zoo of Washington, D.C.  Nicknamed “Hotfoot Teddy” at first, this was quickly changed to Smokey Bear to attach him to the poster campaign.  Publicity made the bear famous and he was a big tourist attraction at the zoo for the next 26 years. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Bear

https://smokeybear.com/en/smokeys-history/story-of-smokey

THE GRATTAN MASSACRE

                There were three battles between white soldiers and Indian warriors which resulted in the deaths of all the whites.  One was the Battle of the Little Big Horn where Custer and all the men with him perished (although other units in the 7th Cavalry survived).  Another was the Fetterman Massacre where Sioux warriors wiped out 80 soldiers led by Lt. William Fetterman.  But the first so-called massacre was the Grattan Massacre of 1854.  This battle was fought near Ft. Laramie on the Oregon Trail.  The fort was an outpost in Indian territory and thousands of covered wagons passed by it on the way to California and Oregon.  At this time, Indian/white relations were still cordial, but getting tense.  Indians would exact tolls of coffee, sugar, and tobacco on the wagon trains.  On August 17, a sick cow fell behind a Mormon wagon train.  A Sioux warrior named High Forehead played the Indian version of “finders keepers” and made a meal of the cow.  Fearing trouble, Chief Conquering Bear went to the fort the next day and offered a horse or mule.  The commanding officer said he would wait for the Indian agent to make a decision.  Lt. John Grattan, his second in command, argued for a show of force.  He was only one year out of West Point and was arrogant and overconfident.  On August 19, he was allowed to take 29 men and two cannons to the Indian village to arrest High Forehead.  Grattan lined up his men  (some of whom were drunk) and loaded up his cannons as negotiations took place.  Grattan’s interpreter Lucien Auguste was a jerk who taunted the Indians. Hundreds of warriors surrounded the soldiers as Conquering Bear tried to avoid a conflict, but High Forehead refused to surrender and the offer of compensation for the cow was turned down by Grattan.  As tensions peaked, some of the soldiers opened fire.  The cannons fired too, but too high.  They never fired again as the whites were overwhelmed by the Indians.  All were killed.  Grattan’s body was found with 24 arrows in it.  Unfortunately, the peace-making Conquering Bear was mortally wounded in the ten -minute battle.  He was the only Indian death.  The bad blood from the incident led to 23 years of warfare on the Plains.  The press reported it as a massacre and failed to tell the truth of how Grattan brought it upon himself and his men.

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/grattan-fight-prelude-generation-war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grattan_massacre

CATHAY WILLIAMS

            Cathay Williams was born in 1844.  Her father was a freed slave and her mother was enslaved.  She grew up to be a house slave on a plantation in Missouri. When the Civil War broke out, her area was taken by the Union Army and she became contraband.  This may have meant that she travelled with an army as a cook or laundress.  She may have joined the army as Finis Cathay.  Records show that a person of that name was in the 32nd Missouri Infantry Regiment.  The unit served in the Vicksburg Campaign and on Sherman’s March.  Regardless of what she was doing during the Civil War, it is documented that she enlisted on Nov. 15, 1866 under the name Cathay Williams.  Up until WWI, physical exams of recruits were cursory so it was easy for a woman disguised as a man to enlist.  She was in the 38th Infantry which served in the West protecting miners and emigrants from Indians like the Apaches.  Her health deteriorated and she was often hospitalized.  Finally, a post surgeon discovered her identity and she was discharged in 1868.

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/cathay-williams/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathay_Williams

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN

One of the most famous battles in American History occurred during the centennial year on June 25, 1876.  For a long time it was called “Custer’s Last Stand”, but today it is correctly titled the Battle of Little Bighorn.  Here are some interesting facts about the battle.

  1. In 1868, at Fort Laramie, the Sioux Indians signed a treaty giving them the Black Hills forever. The Black Hills were considered sacred and were a plentiful hunting area.  The government promised to evict settlers.  However, in 1873, an expedition led by Lt. Col. (he had been temporarily made the youngest general in the Army during the Civil War) George Armstrong Custer had discovered gold in the Black Hills.  The ensuing publicity caused an influx of miners into the area.  The government decided to side with the white miners and the Indians were ordered to come into the reservations by Jan. 31, 1876.  The Indians were not given enough warning about the date, but they would not have given up the Black Hills without a fight anyway.
  2. When the date passed, the Army implemented a campaign to force the hostiles to come in or die. By this time, the “hostiles” had been joined by numerous “loafers” (Indians who lived on the reservations and depended on white supplies).  The Indians knew that the days of traditional life might be coming to an end and were determined to fight to keep their lands.  The Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho came together into a huge encampment.
  3. The Army plan was to use three forces to converge on the Indians. The column led by Gen. George Crook was turned back by a spirited Indian assault led by Crazy Horse in the Battle of the Rosebud.  Col. John Gibbon was to move from the north and Gen. Alfred Terry moved northward with a force including Custer and his 7th Cavalry. 
  4. The encampment consisted of around 7,000 Indians. It was located on what they called the Greasy Grass River.  There were as many as 3,000 warriors in the camp.
  5. Sitting Bull was a spiritual leader at this stage of his life. A few days before the battle he had participated in a Sun Dance where he had small patches of skin cut from his arms.  He had a vision of soldiers falling into the camp.  The Indians took this as a good sign for the upcoming battle.
  6. When Custer left Terry, he did not take three things. He turned down Gatling guns because they would slow him down.  The officers left behind their sabers.  And Custer turned down 4 companies of the 2nd Cavalry because he did not want to share the glory.  Custer felt his unit could handle any body of Indians.  His biggest fear was the Indians would not be brought to battle.  Some historians feel Custer had his eyes on the White House.
  7. Custer had about 600 men with him. 40% were immigrants, mostly Irish and Germans. 
  8. On June 25, Custer’s Crow scouts spotted a large Indian village. They warned Custer it was the largest village they had ever seen.  He thought they were exaggerating.   His plan was to rest his weary men and then attack at daybreak of June 26, but some of his men had been spotted by some Indians.  Custer decided to attack immediately before the Indians could run away.   Ironically, the Indians who saw Custer’s men were heading away from the camp and did not alert it.
  9. Custer divided his force into three columns. Capt. Frederick Benteen took three companies to scout westward.  Maj. Marcus Reno took three companies to attack the southern end of the village.  Custer took five companies to attack the northern end.
  10. The first shots were fired by Reno’s men. His attack surprised the Indians, but they quickly came boiling out like angry hornets.  Reno halted his charge and tried to fend off the Indians on foot.  He quickly ordered his men to retreat to a stand of trees.  And after losing more men and his composure, he ordered every man for himself in a retreat to a bluff.  Many of his men were killed by chasing Indians.  Some warriors counted coup (touching an enemy) on the panicked troopers.
  11. Benteen gave up his wild goose chase and joined Reno on the bluff. They were besieged there.
  12. No white survived Custer’s attack, so it is unclear what happened. Indian witnesses were unreliable.  Apparently, Custer paralleled the river with the village on the other side.  He may have been trying to get to the northern end.  He may have tried to cross at the midpoint of the village, but met resistance and retreated to several hills.  He may have been wounded at the river crossing, but most likely he was shot during the defense of the hill he stopped on.
  13. Custer men were scattered in small groups on the hills along the river. The Indians approached on foot and took few losses while picking off the whites.  The final Indian attack was by Crazy Horse and a large force of Indians on horseback.  The remaining troopers (and apparently Custer) were swamped.  Some of the troopers may have committed suicide.  The fighting was over in less than an hour.  209 men died with Custer. 
  14. Reno’s men were besieged through June 26. The Indians sniped at the whites.  Reno lost over 60 with another 60 or so wounded.  On June 27, the Indian village moved away.  Soon after they left, Gibbons’ force arrived and the bodies of Custer’s men were found.  All but Custer had been mutilated.  (Or so the public and Mrs. Custer were told.)  It is unlikely that the Indians knew it was the body of Long Hair.  (He had cut his famous hair short before the campaign.)  Custer’s corpse had a bullet wound in the chest and in the temple (possibly from suicide).  The only living thing on the battlefield was a horse named Comanche.
  15. Some 200 Indians had repeating rifles, but that was only 10%. The rest were armed with a variety of weapons including muzzle-loaders, clubs, and bows.  The whites were armed with the 1873 Springfield single-shot breechloader and Colt .45 pistols.  The rifles had a bad habit of jamming when fired repeatedly.  Historians believe the two sides were relatively even in firepower.
  16. Custer died with his brothers Thomas and Boston. Thomas was double Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War.
  17. The Indians lost between 36 to 130 dead.
  18. 24 Medals of Honor were awarded. Mostly to men who braved the gauntlet to get water for forces on Reno’s hill.
  19. In 1946, the name of the battlefield was changed to Custer Battlefield National Monument. In 1991, the name was changed to Little Bighorn National Monument.

https://www.historyanecdotesforteachers.com/interesting-facts-about-the-battle-of-little-bighorn/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

https://www.history.com/news/little-bighorn-battle-facts-causes

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/battle-of-the-little-bighorn

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-battle-of-little-bighorn-was-won-63880188/

THE WAGON BOX FIGHT

                The last of the three battles of Red Cloud’s War occurred on August 2, 1867.  The war was an attempt by the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians to force whites to abandon the Bozeman Trail, which crossed Indian lands to get to the gold fields of Montana.  Earlier, the Indians had wiped out a force of 81 soldiers in Fetterman’s Massacre.  They were hoping to pull off another ambush like that.  This time it would be the woodcutters working out of Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming.  Woodcutters were sent out to forest land a few miles from the fort.  They were protected by soldiers.  A camp was made by circling 14 wagon boxes.  There were 26 soldiers and 6 civilians.  The camp was attacked by around 1,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Red Cloud.  Earlier they had been riled up by a Sun Dance, so they had blood on their minds.  The plan was to pull off an ambush similar to Fetterman’s Massacre.  Once again, Crazy Horse would lead a decoy group that would get the whites to chase them into an ambush.  However, the plan was ruined by some Indians opening fire early and killing 3 soldiers.  This warned the whites to take cover in the camp.  In command there was Capt. James Powell.  At this point, the Indians changed the plan to an assault on the camp.  The Indian warriors charged on horseback, confident that each white would only get off one shot before the Indians overran them.  This would probably have worked, but for a new weapon.  The soldiers had been issued the Springfield Model 1866.  A breechloader, the rifle could be fired 3 times faster than the old muskets.  The Indians had a few muzzle-loaders, but most were armed with bows and arrows.  The Indians were shocked by the rapid fire and broke off the assault.  Subsequent attacks were on foot and were more stealthy.  The whites were well-protected by the wagon boxes.  Only 4 more whites were killed.  The estimates for Indian casualties vary greatly, but an assumption of between 20-100 seems right.  The fight lasted from 7:30 – 1:30.  The besieged were rescued by a force coming from the fort led by Maj. Benjamin Smith.  He brought a howitzer that convinced the Indians that the battle was over.  The battle turned out to be the last fight in Red Cloud’s War.  Although the whites won this battle, they lost the war as they agreed to abandon the Bozeman Trail and the three forts on it. Fort Phil Kearny was burned to the ground.  This was the only war the Indians won in American History.

THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING

                On August 17, 1862, four young Sioux warriors were returning from a frustrating hunt.  They stopped at a farm to steal some eggs when a dispute broke out that resulted in the deaths of five whites.  The Indians continued on to the home of Taoyateduta (Little Crow to whites) to inform the chief of what happened.  A council was held during which Little Crow (who had visited Washington) argued that the whites were thicker than locusts and could not be easily defeated.  However, when he was accused of cowardice, the war was on.  The Indians knew there was no time like the present since they were aware the whites were preoccupied with the Civil War.  At the time, the Minnesota Sioux were divided between the ”cut hairs” who wanted to accept white ways and the “blanket Indians” who wanted to hold onto Indian ways.  In the 1850’s, the Indians were forced to sign treaties giving up 24 million acres of prime farmland in exchange for money (called annuities) equivalent to a paltry 30 cents per acre.  The idea was the annuities would be used to buy food and supplies from white traders.  The annuities were usually months late and the promised amounts were cut into by corrupt Indian agents and traders.  The harvest of corn in 1862 was particularly bad and white hunters had killed a lot of the game the Indians relied on for meat, so frustration was high.  Traders refused to offer credit and the leading trader Andrew Myrick told them to “eat grass or their own dung”.  So, the initial killing unleashed great anger in Little Crow’s people.  Soon the prairies were aflame.  Myrick’s agency was attacked and he and 20 others were killed.  His body was shot full of arrows and his mouth stuffed with grass. The rebellion quickly spread and many farmsteads were wiped out.  On August 20, the main Indian force assaulted Fort Ridgely, which did not have a wall, but did have several cannons.  The garrison fought off several assaults with the help of cannon fire. The nearby town of New Ulm was next.  It was a juicy target with lots of goods and young women.  The townsfolk put up barricades and the fight was touch and go for a few days.  190 buildings were burned and the Indians almost took the town.  Fort Ridgely was relieved when a force under Col. Henry Sibley arrived.  By September, he was ready to go on the counteroffensive.  He marched on Wood Lake with 1,600 men (double the Indian force) and encamped.  Little Crow’s force prepared an ambush, but it was blown when some warriors attacked a foraging party.  Once again, cannon fire won out.  The rebellion was broken.  Over 800 whites had died.  Many Indians surrendered and they gave up their captives.  Over 300 warriors were sentenced to death.  Pres. Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but 39 (after reviewing all of them).  On Dec. 26, 1862, the largest single-day mass execution in American History was held.  The prisoners of war were all hanged at the same time.  Little Crow had escaped to Canada, but he returned a few months later and was killed while picking raspberries by a hunter who did not even know who he was.  It was not murder to shoot an Indian picking berries.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dakota-uprising-begins-in-minnesota

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/dakota-war-of-1862-what-caused-the-great-sioux-uprising/

THE NEZ PERCE WAR 

The Nez Perce had inhabited the Wallowa Valley in Oregon (and more) for generations.  They had remained peaceful despite white provocations that went unpunished by white authorities.  For example, a friend of Joseph named Wilhautyah was murdered.  The rancher, Alex Findley, was tried (a very rare outcome for white on Indian crime) and acquitted (surprise!).  Two Indian eye-witnesses refused to testify, for obvious reasons.  A treaty in 1855 gave up half of their land.  After gold was discovered in the area in 1863, they were forced to give up ¾ of the remainder.  Chief Joseph, the father of the famous son, was one of the nontreaty Indians.  Although forbidden by the treaty, white settlers poured into the Wallowa Valley.  In 1871, Chief Joseph died and Young Joseph took over as chief.  In 1875, Pres. Grant bowed to white pressure and reality.  The Nez Perce were ordered to a reservation.  After several meetings with Howard, Joseph and the other chiefs agreed that it would be suicidal to defy the Army.  600 Indians headed for the reservation.  Two days from their destination, three Indians went seeking revenge for the death of Wahlitits’ father.  They killed several whites and this set off a series of raids by other young men.  The match had been struck.  Howard sent Capt. David Perry with 130 soldiers plus eleven volunteers (and 13 Nez Perce scouts!) to arrest the perpetrators.  At White Bird Canyon, negotiations were underway when someone on the white side opened fire.  The Indians responded with alacrity and routed the whites, although outnumbered and armed only with bows and a few muzzle-loaders.  They acquired many rifles from the battle.  Looking Glass joined after his village was attacked for no good reason.  He was appointed war chief.  At the Clearwater River camp, Howard caught up with them.  Although he had a howitzer and two Gatling guns, his assault was blunted by the elderly warrior Toohoolhoolzote and two dozen warriors.  Other warriors joined and Howard was surrounded.  The Indians pinned down the troopers with sniping while Joseph organized the retreat of the camp.  They crossed the Bitterroot Mountains, bypassed a blocking force, peacefully bought supplies in Stevensville, and then camped in the Big Hole Valley.  Thinking themselves safe, they were surprised by Col. John Gibbon.  His 200 men stormed into the sleeping camp, killing women, children, and the elderly.  It was similar to the Sand Creek Massacre, except that the warriors, led by White Bird, were able to fight back.  The marksmanship the Nez Perce was famous and it took a heavy toll on Gibbons’ men.  Once again, Joseph organized the flight of the noncombatants.  The warriors broke away when Howard arrived with reinforcements.  Howard allowed his Bannock Indian scouts to disinter Indian bodies to be scalped and mutilated.  Contrast the barbarism of Gibbons and Howard to that of the Nez Perce who did nothing to Perry’s bodies.  Because of the surprise, Looking Glass was deposed and replaced by Lean Elk.  They passed through Yellowstone National Park.  The Crow Indians refused them refuge, so they moved on toward Canada.  The warriors held off a cavalry charge by elements of the 7th Cavalry under Col. Sturgis in a canyon.  They moved on to the Bear Paw Mountains where they camped thirty miles from the border.  It was here that Gen. Miles attacked with 600 men and a large number of Cheyenne warriors.  White Bird blunted the charge and the cavalry went to ground.  A siege ensued.  Toolhoolhoolzote and Ollikut (Joseph’s brother) were killed.  When Howard arrived, the situation was hopeless.  At a council with Looking Glass and White Bird, Joseph argued for fighting to the end.  Soon after, on Oct. 5, 1877,  Looking Glass was killed.  Joseph realized the end was nigh and made his famous speech, which included “I will fight no more forever”. (below) White Bird and a few warriors made it to Canada.  Even before the oration, the newspapers had chosen Joseph (because you can’t complicate things with more than one leader) to lionize.  He was referred to as the “Napoleon of the West” because of his brilliant strategy and tactics.  In reality, the victories were not his and the Nez Perce won at places like White Bird Canyon and Big Hole because they were able to seize the initiative when surprised.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CRAZY HORSE

  1. Crazy Horse was born around 1840 in the Black Hills, in what is today South Dakota. As a boy he was called Curly because of his hair.  His light complexion led to the rumor that he might be part white, but there is no evidence that this is true.  He was given his father’s name after he behaved bravely in a raid on the Arapahos in 1858.  Crazy Horse was called Tashunke Witco in the Oglala Sioux language.
  2. He was a loner who did not have a lot of friends. When he was 14 years old, he snuck away and went into the wilderness away from his camp.  He kept himself awake several days until he had a vision (whites would say he hallucinated).  In the vision, an Indian is simply dressed with a single feather.  He is riding a horse.   Lightning flashes.  Arrows whiz by, but none of them hit him.  Other Indians are trying to hold him back.  Crazy Horse’s father, who was considered a mystic, interpreted the dream.  Crazy Horse should dress like the warrior.  He should paint a lightning bolt on his cheek.  He should wear one feather.  If he did these things he would not be hurt in battle.
  3. A young Crazy Horse, witnessed the Grattan Massacre. A Mormon in a wagon train complained at the nearby fort that the Indians took a decrepit cow that had fallen behind the wagon train.  Lt. Grattan brought 30 soldiers to the Indian camp to demand the cow (which had been eaten). The whites were looking for a fight and they got it.  All of the whites were killed in a blizzard of arrows.
  4. He fell in love with Black Buffalo Woman, but one day he went hunting and when he got back she had married No Water. Later, Crazy Horse eloped with her when No Water was away.  One day, No Water barged into Crazy Horse’s tipi and shot him in the jaw.  Black Buffalo woman returned to No Water.  Crazy Horse recovered from the serious wound. 
  5. Crazy Horse later married Black Shawl (who had helped nurse him back to health) and she was good for him. They had a daughter who died young of a white man’s disease.  Crazy Horse was crushed.
  6. His first noteworthy act was when he decoyed Capt. Fetterman and his 80 men into an ambush in which all the whites were killed. This battle was part of Red Cloud’s War, the only war the Indians won.  The whites were forced to abandon their forts in the Powder River country.  They would be back.
  7. In 1876, he was part of the hostiles who refused to abandon the sacred Black Hills (that they had been promised would be theirs forever) and go live on a reservation. The whites sent two armies to punish the hostiles.  Crazy Horse led the onslaught that forced Gen. Crook to retreat in the Battle of the Rosebud.  Soon, after his and Sitting Bull’s village was attacked by the other army led by Custer.
  8. Crazy Horse led the final assault on Custer’s men in the Battle of the Greasy Grass (what whites called Custer’s Last Stand or the Battle of the Little Big Horn). The surviving whites were wiped out by angry, numerous Indians defending their families.
  9. Crazy Horse and his followers were on the run after the battle as vengeance-minded soldiers tracked down the victors. The winter was harsh and starvation plagued his people.  Crazy Horse had no choice but to go into the reservation where food would be available.
  10. In 1877, Crazy Horse was living a boring life on the reservation. When the Nez Perce began their epic trek, whites came to Crazy Horse and asked him to join the whites as a scout.  The translator either maliciously or erroneously translated that Crazy Horse said he was going on the warpath.  Or it may have just been a rumor that he was going to leave the reservation.  He was arrested and brought to the fort’s jail. When he realized he was to be put behind bars, he tried to escape.  He was held by some of the Indian police (remember the vision) and a white soldier bayoneted him in the back.  He died the next day.  His body was taken onto the prairie to a secret burial place.
  11. There are no pictures of him.
  12. In 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski (who had worked on Mount Rushmore) started a memorial to Crazy Horse that will dwarf Mount Rushmore. It is still incomplete.

https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-crazy-horse/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/553397/facts-about-crazy-horse

THE NORTHERN CHEYENNE EXODUS

                Dull Knife and his band of Northern Cheyenne had participated in the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), but they did not go on the run after the defeat of Custer.  Big mistake.  That winter of 1876, his village was surprised by vengeance-minded soldiers and badly beaten.  They lost all their lodges and 700 horses.  Later, Dull Knife and his starving, freezing people came in to Fort Robinson.  Although he begged to be put close to their traditional hunting grounds, they were instead relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  After a depressing year away from buffalo and marked by lack of food and diseases like measles and malaria, Dull Knife and Little Wolf led their people off the reservation to return to Wyoming.  353 Northern Cheyenne started the Northern Cheyenne Exodus in Sept., 1878.  They were chased by and had engagements with soldiers and citizens.  Along the way, they raided for supplies and horses.  They killed at least 40 settlers.  The fugitives broke into two groups with Little Wolf leading his band to Wyoming to join other Northern Cheyenne there.  This worked and his people were allowed to stay there.  Looking back on it, Dull Knife’s decision to go to the Red Cloud Agency was a poor one.  Especially since that reservation had been moved.  The Army finally captured them and brought them to Fort Robinson, Nebraska.  They had traveled 620 miles in 44 days.  The 149 Indians (including 46 warriors) were disarmed and placed in a barracks.  At first, they were treated well, but when they refused to be sent back to Oklahoma, their food, water, and wood for heat was cut off.  On Jan. 9, 1878, the Indians broke out using a few guns they had hidden.  A five warrior rear guard gave the others time to get away.  They paid with their lives.  The escape occurred in conditions were incredibly harsh, especially when you consider the women and children.  Plus, they were being chased by an enemy that would not give up.  70 were recaptured and 60 were killed.  Most of the killing occurred when Dull Knife and the group with him were run to ground in a buffalo wallow.  When the white commander demanded they surrender, the Indians opened fire killing three soldiers.  The gloves were off now (not literally because it was extremely cold) and the troopers assaulted.  They reached the lip of the wallow and poured fire into the Indians huddled there.  28 were killed with only 9 surviving.  Dull Knife got away, but when he reached the Pine River Agency, he was arrested.  Most of his people ended up in Oklahoma.  A good movie about this is John Ford’s “Cheyenne Autumn”.  It is based on the novel by Mari Sandoz.  It was Ford’s last western and it reflected the more sympathetic treatment of Native Americans that began in the 1960s. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Robinson_breakout

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/chief-dull-knife-makes-last-fight-for-freedom