Mochi's War

by Enss, Chris

  Chapter 5

  The Missing

  A Cheyenne storyteller sat cross-legged in front of an open fire in Black Kettle’s lodge near Cherry Creek, Colorado. Black Kettle and several warriors and elders were spread out across the room watching the smoke rise from the fire and disappear through a hole in the top of the tepee into the night sky. Mochi was with them, seated behind the old men, listening to them talk and to the sounds beyond the lodge.[1]

  Black Kettle filled a pipe and lit it. He then pointed the pipe stem to the sky, then to the ground, and then to the four directions: north, south, east, and west. Before handing the pipe to the storyteller sitting on his left, he called upon the “Listeners-Above-the-Ground, Listeners-Under-the-Ground, and the Spirits Who Live in the Four Parts of the Earth.” After saying a prayer, the storyteller took the pipe from Black Kettle, smoked it, and began to talk. He told the story of what had happened at Sand Creek, of the brave dead that lay under the cold, dark sky the evening after the massacre. He told about the white army that slaughtered women and children and of the blood spilled that would forever be remembered.[2]

  Tales generally told by the storyteller were his alone to share. Cheyenne history and sacred beliefs were kept alive by storytellers and could not be told by others. If the storyteller wanted he could give the story away in the same way he might give away a blanket or some other gift. Black Kettle’s lodge was filled with Indians who had no use for such a gift. They had their own stories about the Sand Creek Massacre. Tales of what they witnessed would be passed on by them from generation to generation. It would haunt their dreams and drive them, and their own stories of the horror would never cease.[3]

  Mochi, along with the others on hand to hear what the storyteller had to share, said nothing while he was speaking. It was believed that any noise or moving about while the sacred stories were being relayed would bring great misfortune upon the camp. When the ceremony ended Mochi walked out of the lodge with the others. For the time being her home was with her cousins. When she wasn’t helping with meals and caring for children she was learning the ways of the Dog Soldiers and preparing for more attacks on white settlers.[4] Colonel Chivington’s attack on Sand Creek was meant to destroy the Indians’ will to fight, but it didn’t work. According to George Bent, who became a Dog Soldier after the massacre, many warriors refused to accept the United States government’s plan for the native people and banded together to retaliate.[5]

  A number of Cheyenne, including Black Kettle, refused to take up arms against the United States, however. They separated themselves from those braves who chose to stand their ground. Black Kettle didn’t want any more bloodshed. Bands of Southern Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne moved south of the Arkansas River, eventually making peace with the white man and signing a treaty promising to end the conflict.[6]

  In late 1865, more than one hundred Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and six hundred Sioux and Arapaho warriors attacked the Valley Stage Station, Moore’s American Ranch, and Harlow’s Ranch, all near Julesburg. They drove off herds of cattle belonging to settlers and hundreds of cavalry horses and left in their wake burned homes, stores, and corrals. They shot and killed soldiers and captured and kidnapped women.[7] The reputation of the Dog Soldiers for being particularly ruthless and savage spread from one army post to another. Descriptions of how they dressed, the way they painted their faces, and their revenge raids made members of wagon train parties heading west fearful for their lives.[8]

  In the August 9, 1886, edition of the Galveston Daily News, one witness recalled:

  I was at the Julesburg massacre in January and at Moore’s Ranch when more than a hundred soldiers and forty-two citizens from both places were made to bite the dust. These Dog Soldiers wore long belts made of tanned skins and they painted themselves red, black and yellow. I was wounded in three places in my first tangle with them. I was shot in my side and through my leg and my head was cut open. The Indians pillaged Julesburg and the storehouse at the ranch. While they were pillaging in Julesburg we crossed the river on the ice to get to safety. The Indians engaged in the massacre were Sioux and Cheyenne under the control of Bad Wound. They rode up around us on three sides and poured a dreadful fire upon us at short range.[9]

  Dog Soldiers participated in a second raid on Julesburg on February 2, 1865.[10] According to George Bent’s account of the attack, a small band of Indians first tried to lure the soldiers out of their stockade. The plan was to get the troops in the open, overtake them, and ride into the unguarded stage station. The soldiers did not fall for the Indians’ ploy. The warriors regrouped and descended on the stockade together. George Bent noted in his memoirs that the Dog Soldiers rode past eighteen graves of men killed in the first attack on Julesburg. Six hundred Indians fought their way to the warehouse at the stage station and broke into the store onsite.[11] Mochi was one of the Cheyenne who helped gather the food and other provisions together and herded the horses away from the war-torn stockade. When there was nothing left to plunder, the Indians set fire to the buildings.[12]

  Mochi and the other Indians left Julesburg and headed across the Great Divide between the South Platte and North Platte Rivers. Telegraph poles lining the path they followed were destroyed. They were either burned or chopped down, and the wires were cut and carried away or tangled up and tossed into the brush. Regiments of cavalry troops from Mud Springs, Nebraska, and Camp Mitchell, Wyoming, rallied and pursued the Indians, but the warriors would not allow themselves to be easily driven from the valley.[13] Because of the Sand Creek Massacre, raid upon raid was carried out on soldiers and settlers from February to October 1865. Many warriors and white men lost their lives. Like other Dog Soldiers, Mochi would have taken part in the killing and the ritual mutilation of her enemies.[14]

  Somewhere in the midst of the fighting and retreating and fighting again, Mochi met a warrior named Mihuh-heuimup or Medicine Water. He had lost his wife at Sand Creek and was raising his young daughter Tahnea alone. Medicine Water and Mochi shared a strong desire to eliminate the white man from their homeland and to preserve the traditions and lifestyles of the Cheyenne people. If not for the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, Mochi and Medicine Water might not have considered marriage. They would have continued their attacks on United States troops and buffalo hunters until one or the other were killed, but a remission in the weekly fighting gave them the chance to rest and consider life beyond the battle.[15]

  The United States government grew weary and annoyed fighting the Indians. It wanted peace. It wanted settlers to travel on the Santa Fe Trail unchallenged, and it wanted the Indians to be relegated to a limited section of earth. In exchange the major Plains Indian tribes demanded to be allowed to hunt in the region and asked for reparations for the Sand Creek Massacre. The parties met at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River to discuss the contract. The terms were agreed upon and the treaty between government commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and associated tribes was signed on October 15, 1865.[16]

  Mochi, Medicine Water, and several other Indians did not believe the government would honor the treaty they signed. They were right. In less than two weeks’ time the treaty was broken. White buffalo hunters poached on the ground which the treaty had made sacred to the Indians. Mochi, along with other warriors, again took up arms against the white man. The fact that she was now a new mother did not stop her from going to war. Mochi and Medicine Water’s newborn daughter and Tahnea stayed at the lodge with the other women and children whenever there was a battle to be fought.[17]

  Another cease-fire between the Northern Plains Indians and United States government came about in October 1867 with another treaty signed on the banks of the Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas.* The Indians were to be provided food, clothing, and farming equipment, schools and churches, a resident agent, doctors, and other such services.[18]

  In turn the Indians agreed not to molest whites, interfere with travel, hamper railroad construction, or raid any forts in
the western country. According to the October 31, 1867, edition of the New Albany Daily Leader, the Cheyenne Indians were hesitant to enter into any other agreements with the United States government. The Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa assembled together to meet with the Indian Affairs Commission, but the Cheyenne were slow to arrive on the scene. According to the article:

  Dispatches from Medicine Lodge Creek say a treaty with a portion of the hostile Indians may be all government officials can hope for. All the tribes are to be sent to the same reservation in the Oklahoma Territory. They are to receive $5,000 per annum as well as clothing, etc. All the tribes here except the Cheyenne held a council on the 28th and agreed to renew friendly relations with the United States and return any stolen horses.

  The Cheyenne have not arrived yet, and some suspect bad motive on their part while others think all will come out all right. They claim they have not yet finished their medicine ceremonies and ask two days longer time. The commission has already waited thirteen days on this tribe and is now tired. They will remain until Monday the 30th when they will leave if the Cheyenne are not here.[19]

  The Cheyenne arrived at the peace accord on January 27, 1867. The Dog Soldiers were at the head of the peace party. Black Kettle and the other members of the tribe followed closely behind them.[20] Before signing the treaty, Black Kettle reiterated a statement he had made to the commission at the Little Arkansas River in 1865. “I have always been friendly to the whites, but since the killing of my people at Sand Creek I find it hard to trust a white man,” he told the commissioners. To further emphasize his point he had his wife stand before the group and show the commission the injuries she sustained at the Sand Creek Massacre. Soldiers had shot her several times during the battle. The nine bullet wounds she received were evidence of the cruelty visited upon the Indians at Sand Creek. The commissioners were sympathetic with Black Kettle’s position and after much discussion encouraged him that signing the peace treaty was in the best interests of the Indian people.[21]

  Congress was slow in ratifying the treaty. It would be more than a year before some of its provisions were carried out. The Plains Indians were angered by the delay. They interpreted Congress’s actions as further proof of the white man’s bad faith. War parties from some of the tribes banded together again. Mochi and the Dog Soldiers were eager to join in the fight.[22] Men such as George Bird Grinnell, a student of Native American life who spent time with the Indian tribes during the Plains Wars, never had faith in the Medicine Lodge Treaty. According to his recollections in the book The Fighting Cheyenne, the offer of a “few presents and the signing of treaties by a few chiefs would not appease the Indians whose livelihood, the buffalo, was being destroyed and driven away.” The clash of conflicting interests was inevitable.[23]

  Dog Soldiers didn’t agree with Black Kettle’s decision to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty. They disagreed with the idea that the only peace they would find would be in the treaties made with the whites. Mochi and the other Dog Soldiers reminded the chief that the treaty signed in September 1864, before the Sand Creek Massacre, had not brought peace. He was also reminded of the Little Arkansas pact. Among the many things the government promised the Indians were supplies and peace in exchange for any white prisoners held hostage. The government did not deliver on its promises.[24]

  While waiting for the best time to take action against the Unites States government, Mochi and Medicine Water concentrated on raising their children. The couple would eventually have two more daughters of their own. Mochi and her adopted daughter Tahnea were extremely close. The little girl idolized Mochi, never wanting to leave her side. Stories of their profound bond were told for generations.[25]

  By the winter of 1868, the Cheyenne were camped at the bank of the Washita River in the Oklahoma Territory. The region was hospitable to the Indians. There was plenty of water and firewood and an abundance of grass for their horses to eat. A bitter, cold northern wind scattered snow over the camp, but its 250 inhabitants were safe inside their lodges with fires burning to keep them warm. For a time all was quiet.[26]

  On the morning of November 27, 1868, the stillness in the camp was broken by rifle shots and cavalrymen that descended upon the lodges from all directions, and the unfamiliar strains of “Garry Owen” blasted through the early dawn. When the sun made its full appearance Black Kettle got his first look at the chaos in and around the camp. Riding at the lead of the main column was General George Custer. Confused tribesmen scurried in every direction; each sought refuge from the stinging, death-dealing fire of the soldiers’ guns. High-pitched screams of tiny children mingled with the dying groans of old men. Brave Indian youths sacrificed their lives so others might have a few minutes longer on earth. Grief-stricken mothers clutched the limp bodies of children as they, too, turned the white snow scarlet with their blood.

  Black Kettle’s wife ran into the battle leading her husband’s horse behind her. When she reached the chief he attempted to mount the horse. In mid-air, a well-aimed bullet found its mark and Black Kettle fell across the back of the horse, dead. His wife leaped upon the animal behind the chief. She never made it to the river and the scant protection she sought there. Both bodies fell from the frightened animal and slid into the snow.[27]

  This photograph, taken circa 1875, is said to be of Medicine Water and Mochi upon arriving at the prison where they would be held for eight years.

  State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

  Some military leaders such as General Custer argued that the Cheyenne, and in particular Black Kettle and his warriors, were outside the fixed boundaries that had been designated in the treaty. The Indians understood that the treaty gave them the right to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas River as long as the buffalo in the area were in large numbers. The misunderstanding was lethal. General Custer ordered troops to burn the entire village, shoot most of the tribes’ nine hundred ponies, and take any surviving women and children hostage.

  Cavalry soldiers were injured in the dawn raid when the Indians fought back against their attackers. According to the June 29, 1868, edition of the Indianapolis Journal, Mochi and Medicine Water could have been with the warriors that battled with Custer’s men.

  A victim of Indian vengeance has returned to his home in upstate New York. His name is Delos G. Sandberton and he lost his scalp at the battle of Washita. He has been an inmate at Laramie Hospital since that event, and was discharged about ten days ago. He has allowed the curious to examine his head, and gave the following account of his experience.

  “I was in the infantry. Custer had command of the troops,” Sandberton shared. “There was quite a force of cavalry with us, but they were about a mile in the rear when we first discovered the reds. Some of the troops had been sent around so as to attack from the other side. Just in the grey of the morning, the firing commenced on both sides, and we had it all our own way for a few minutes, the cursed snakes being much confused and not knowing what was up. At length they rallied, and we could hear Black Kettle shouting and ordering. The vermin got into holes and behind rocks—anywhere they could find a place, and all began to fight back with a will. We fired whenever we could see a top-knot. When it was fully daylight we all gave a big yell and charged right down into the camp. The lodges were all standing and there were lots of Indians in them.

  “As we ran through the alleys, a big red jumped out at me from behind a tent and before I could shorten up enough to run him through with a bayonet, a squaw dressed as a Dog Soldier grabbed me around the legs and twisted me down.

  “The camp was full of men fighting and everyone seemed to be yelling as loudly as he could. When I fell, I went over backwards dropping my guns and I had just got part way up again, the squaw yanking me by the hair, when the Indians grabbed my gun and struck me around the neck. The blow stunned me and the squaw kept screaming and pulling my hair out by the handful. I heard some of our boys shouting close by. The Indian stepped one foot on my chest and with his hand gathered up the hair
near the crown of my head. He wasn’t very tender about it, but jerked my head this way and that, like Satan. My eyes were partially opened and I could see the beadwork and trimming on his leggings. Suddenly I felt the awful biting, cutting of flesh go around my head, and then it seemed to me just as if my whole head had just been jerked clean off. I never felt such pain in my life. If the boys killed the viper and his squaw they didn’t get back my scalp; perhaps it got lost in the snow.”[28]

  Cheyenne history notes that Mochi fought valiantly during the Battle at Washita, but, while defending her home and children from the soldiers, she was separated from her daughter, Tahnea. The five-year-old girl panicked when she saw the people in the village running for cover. Tahnea fell in with the others racing about and became disoriented by the screams and gunfire. She ran toward the river behind several women and children who plunged themselves into the icy water. Unable to swim, Tahnea stopped at the edge of the water to consider what to do next. A cavalry sharpshooter saw her, took aim, and fired.[29]

  When the fighting subsided Mochi began the desperate search for her daughter. Some Indians reported they saw Tahnea struck by a bullet and die. Others said she was only wounded and had stumbled back toward the camp. They speculated that she might have been killed in the blaze that consumed the lodges. Mochi sifted through the ashes of the bonfire but couldn’t find any trace of her child. In despair, she resolved Tahnea had fallen into the water and drowned and that her body was lying at the bottom of the Washita River.[30]

  *The Medicine Lodge Treaty consisted of three treaties in total. The first of the three was a treaty made with the Kiowa and Comanche Indians, the second was with the Plains Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche Indians, the third was negotiated with the Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians.