Killing Crazy Horse

by Bill O'Reilly

  This, of course, infuriates the Indians.

  Red Cloud puts it directly to President Grant: “I have two mountains in [my] country—the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountain. I want the Great Father to make no roads through them.”

  But that is exactly what is now occurring.

  Thus, as the American presence on Sioux land grows quickly, U. S. Grant becomes aggressive in confronting Red Cloud and the Sioux. The Great White Father wants to renege on the Fort Laramie treaty, even if that means extortion. Grant informs Red Cloud during their White House meeting that the rations his tribe were promised in exchange for moving onto the reservation were a gift of the White Father’s “that could be taken from them at any time.” The president adds that “white people now outnumber the Indians 200 to one.” Grant then demands that Red Cloud cede the Black Hills to the United States or his rations will be withheld. In addition, the president requests that the Sioux move to Oklahoma.

  In what is a colossal insult, Grant offers to pay the Sioux the paltry sum of $25,000.

  It is not the great orator Red Cloud who offers the Sioux response. Instead, it is his friend Spotted Tail of the Brulé band: “You speak of another country, but it is not my country; it does not concern me, and I want nothing to do with it. I was not born there,” says Spotted Tail.

  “If it is such a good country, you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone.”

  But Spotted Tail does not have the final word. As the Indian delegation leaves Washington for a return to the reservation, Red Cloud and the other chiefs reluctantly agree that selling the Black Hills is the best plan of action for the Sioux nation. But that sale cannot take place without the approval of the Hunkpapa and Oglala bands.

  And that means the approval of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

  * * *

  Now in his prime, Crazy Horse is a lean and quick-thinking man of just thirty-four. His leadership is beyond question, and his calm, collected behavior on the battlefield is legendary.

  A visible reminder of Crazy Horse’s warlike ways is the creased flesh wound disfiguring his face, the result of a pistol shot that very nearly killed him. However, the accident did not occur in battle but when Crazy Horse stole the wife of a fellow tribe member. The lady in question is named Black Buffalo Woman. Crazy Horse courted her before she married and considers the woman to be the love of his life. So it was a triumph when he convinced her to run away with him. But when the vengeful husband, a warrior named No Water, found the lovers, he took aim and fired from point-blank range. Amazingly, Crazy Horse escaped with his life. However, a shaken Black Buffalo Woman returned to her husband in order to end the hostilities.

  Crazy Horse has since married, to a woman named Black Shawl. Their daughter, They Are Afraid of Her, recently died of cholera. She was just three years old.

  Crazy Horse and his good friend He Dog have been ordered by tribal elders to closely monitor the comings and goings of miners and soldiers in the Black Hills. They are mandated to guard the Indian food supply. It has been a year of famine for the Sioux bands of the Northern Plains. The two warriors, both the same age and lifelong brothers in battle, stand watch. A small band of younger Indians works for them, spying on the whites and reporting back with any news.

  One bit of information arrives from the north. The army officer “Long Hair” has returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln. In addition to overseeing last year’s violation of Sioux rights by leading the Seventh Cavalry into Indian land, George Custer is well known among the Sioux for his massacre of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne band on the Southern Plains six years ago. Crazy Horse does not know why Long Hair left Fort Abraham Lincoln last autumn, or where the white general traveled. He only knows that this enemy of the Sioux nation has now returned.

  Despite the dwindling number of buffalo, Crazy Horse has chosen not to live on a reservation and receive free food from the U.S. government. He has heard many tales of the feuding and petty arguments on the reservation, in addition to the obvious lack of daily freedom. If Crazy Horse needs further proof of malevolence, he need only look at Red Cloud. The once-proud chief now takes orders from the white man.

  Crazy Horse was asked to accompany Red Cloud on the journey to see the Great White Father, and even gave the matter some thought. But in the end, he turned down the invitation. When messengers were sent to Crazy Horse from the reservation asking why he chose not to make the journey, the warrior’s response was brusque. He had “concluded to remain behind to guard the Black Hills.”

  Crazy Horse knows that Red Cloud and many other Sioux living on the reservation are seriously considering the Great White Chief’s offer to purchase the Black Hills. But the Oglala war chief does not see the logic: “One does not sell the earth on which people walk.”

  In truth, Crazy Horse knows that the coming of the white people into the Black Hills cannot be stopped. And he is also well aware that there may come a day when his people are forced onto the reservation. But for now he is encouraged by the actions and words of his friend, the charismatic chief Sitting Bull.

  “We want no white men here.” Sitting Bull has made it clear. “The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight.”

  The supreme Sioux chief is now forty-seven years old. Time has not diminished his superior skills as a warrior and charismatic leader. His courage on the battlefield was proven two years ago when General George Custer and his expedition traveled up the Yellowstone River. Sioux legend has it not only that warriors under Sitting Bull confronted the American soldiers but that he boldly walked the battlefield during a short firefight, indifferent to the bullets flying all around him. This bravery, plus Sitting Bull’s defiant refusal to accept any help from the whites or entertain offers of settling people on a reservation, has emboldened the Sioux tribe. Of all the great chiefs in America, Sitting Bull holds an unparalleled level of power and influence.

  Now, as Crazy Horse stealthily observes the influx of miners into the sacred lands, Sitting Bull is assembling a coalition of tribes far to the north on the Rosebud River. In addition to Hunkpapa and Oglala Sioux, Sitting Bull has asked the Northern Cheyenne to take part. Clearly, the time has come to respond in force to the white man’s incursion into the Black Hills.

  * * *

  Preparing for war, Sitting Bull is in a trance.

  The chief is nearly naked as he dances before the seven hundred assembled warriors, elders, and families, wearing just a breechcloth and war bonnet. His body is painted bright yellow to show the spirits working within him, with black bands painted on his face, chest, shoulders, and ankles. Sitting Bull’s coal-black war pony, walking slowly behind him, is also painted down its hindquarters and right leg in white clay depicting holy wakan imagery. Dots painted on the animal’s neck depict hail.1

  The Sun Dance lodge is packed, and Sitting Bull dances from the center pole all the way to the back of the crowd, then once more back to the center. His stocky figure limps slightly from a long-ago bullet wound. Hunkpapa, Oglala, and Miniconjou Sioux share the tent with the Northern Cheyenne led by Little Wolf and the holy man known as Ice.

  In the past, the Hunkpapa under Sitting Bull have kept their distance from the Cheyenne. But now, the Sioux will need the Cheyenne in order to wage effective war. To that end, Sitting Bull will not perform the traditional Sun Dance, with its acts of self-torture and fasting. That is for another time. Instead, he will knit the fate of tribes together by seeing the future.

  “I wish my friends to fill one pipe and I wish my people to fill one pipe,” Sitting Bull shouts, demanding a display of unity. Taking the pipes, one in each hand, the chief continues his dance, leading his horse the whole while and bringing the ceremony to a crescendo.

  “We have them!” Sitting Bull roars, raising his clenched fists to the sky. “Wakan Tanka has given our enemies into our power,” he tells the crowd. “We are to wipe them out.”

  The Indians roar! Cries of “how, how” echo across the
Northern Plains. At a time of despair and confusion, with members of their own tribe traveling to Washington to sell their lands to the Great White Father, these words of victory are a source of supreme joy.

  The groups closest to Sitting Bull are the tribal elders. Then warriors. And in the back, women and children. The identity of their enemies is not clear. But Sitting Bull has brought the crowd together to reignite the power of the Sioux and reinforce their long-standing alliance with the Northern Cheyenne.

  The Indians well know the hunger that comes from the decimation of buffalo herds and the increasing scarcity of game. Sitting Bull now talks about the one place on earth specifically set aside for the Sioux so that they will never go hungry: the Black Hills.

  Energy hums through the tent as unity fills the crowd. But as the dance comes to an end, and the people return to their tepees, one thing remains uncertain about Sitting Bull’s remarkable act of diplomacy.

  Exactly who will the Indians destroy?

  The answer will arrive soon.

  * * *

  It is September 4, 1875. President Grant is redoubling his efforts to purchase the Black Hills. More gold has recently been found in an area known as Deadwood Gulch, and miners have begun felling lodgepole pines to build winter cabins and sluices to filter gold from gravel. Even as the army continues to try to prevent the influx of miners, the practice of staking personal ownership to claims along riverbanks is happening so quickly that every creek and stream in the Black Hills will soon be occupied.

  So it is that the five-man Commission Appointed to Treat with the Sioux Indians for the Relinquishment of the Black Hills has traveled to Nebraska to sit down with Red Cloud and other Sioux leaders to negotiate the land purchase. William B. Allison, leader of the delegation on behalf of President Grant, proposes to the tribes that in lieu of an outright purchase, the United States will lease the mineral rights of the Black Hills. The money would be paid to the Sioux people over the course of the next seven generations. In addition, the commission proposes to also buy outright the Big Horn Territory in Wyoming in order to take ownership of the lands the government still hopes to utilize in building a Northern Pacific railroad.

  Hoping to avoid war, Red Cloud agrees. The Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, who are also affected by the agreement, approve as well.

  Neither Crazy Horse nor Sitting Bull is in attendance. The delegation from Washington knows that these leaders are opposed to the deal. So the government increases the offer—$400,000 per year to lease the Black Hills, or $6 million to purchase the lands outright. A messenger is sent to Sitting Bull, who listens for a moment before bending down to pick up a pinch of dirt from the ground.

  “I do not want to sell or lease any land to the government—not even as much as this,” Sitting Bull says, letting the dirt fall from his fingertips.

  Crazy Horse prefers to seek guidance on the matter through a vision quest. He marches alone into the wilderness to pray and fast. He then returns to his encampment two days later and purifies himself in a sweat lodge. In his dreams, he has seen a vision of the buffalo leaving the hunting grounds forever, and his people starving to death on a reservation. This confirms to Crazy Horse that the lands must not be sold and that he must do whatever he can to protect his people. Crazy Horse travels once again into the Black Hills to see the intrusion for himself. After more than a year of doing nothing to stop miners from entering the Black Hills, the war chief finally receives approval from his tribal council of elders to attack wagon trains and individual miners.

  But it is too late. Already, there are fifteen hundred miners in the Black Hills. By winter’s end, with no deal in sight, that number will rise to fifteen thousand. There is no summer or winter to the gold-mining world; these men work in all seasons. The little mining camp in Deadwood Gulch soon becomes a town, complete with saloons and whorehouses where the miners can pay for services by handing over a pinch of gold instead of cash.

  It is clear the Black Hills will never be the same, yet Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull refuse to sell.

  The commission from Washington concludes their business on September 29, 1875. In his final report, Senator William B. Allison of Iowa, who is also chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, writes that the commission agreed to offer “a much larger sum than they believed the hills to be worth. This offer, regarded by the commission as ample and liberal, met with derisive laughter from the Indians assembled.”

  Senator Allison goes on to conclude: “We do not believe their temper or spirit can or will be changed until they are made to feel the power as well as the magnanimity of the Government.… If the Government will interpose its power and authority, they are not in the condition to resist.… They never can be civilized except by the mild exercise, at least, of force.”2

  * * *

  President Grant spends the month of October ruminating over the situation. It is his belief that chiefs like Red Cloud who are in favor of the Black Hills sale are being intimidated by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

  On November 3, in Washington, Grant convenes a meeting to solve the Sioux problem. This is no mere gathering of officials. Instead, it is a secret cabinet gathering to discuss undeclared war.3

  On December 3, the Bureau of Indian Affairs orders that Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other bands have until January 31, 1876, to report to a reservation.

  The tribes failing to do so will be labeled as “hostile” and considered enemies of the United States of America.

  On February 8, 1876, General Phil Sheridan orders U.S. Army forces in Montana and the Dakota Territory to find and punish the tribes of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

  But the landscape of the Northern Plains is vast, and finding the defiant tribes will be a monumental feat. Not until spring of 1876, as the ponies of the Sioux grow fat and strong on new spring grass, are the “hostiles” finally located.

  Better for the U.S. Army had they not been found.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  JUNE 24, 1876

  LITTLE BIGHORN RIVER, MONTANA

  DUSK

  Crazy Horse is uneasy.

  A vast Indian campsite echoes with the joyful sounds of song and dance, but the evening feels ominous to the war chief. Dry lightning crackles along a nearby ridge, followed by the boom of prairie thunder. Crazy Horse enjoys a feast of pronghorn antelope with several other tribal leaders. Nearby, a thin ribbon of tall green cottonwood trees marks the steep and winding banks of the Little Bighorn River. In the distance, a lonely Sitting Bull chants to the Wakan Tanka for help in assuring victory in battle. Sitting Bull recently received one hundred small knife cuts on his arms as part of a Sun Dance ritual. He also danced while staring into the sun for hours. Now, the chief is partially blinded and still weak from loss of blood. Knowing he is unfit to wage war because of his wounds, Sitting Bull, as the chief and spiritual leader of the entire Sioux nation, walks alone into the hills to pray aloud.

  Crazy Horse ponders what tomorrow morning will bring. This is the largest tribal reunion anyone can remember. Many Indian nations fill the Montana valley. Each band has been assigned a specific campsite and has arranged their tepees in tribal circles. They have come at the behest of Sitting Bull. “It is war,” decreed an invitation several months ago to all Indians living on the reservations. The message was carried by couriers on horseback and transmitted verbally to the Northern Plains tribes. By the thousands, Indians left the government lands to join with their brethren from the Northern Bands of Oglala and Hunkpapa Sioux. The Cheyenne are also here, as are a few Arapaho warriors.

  Crazy Horse knows the unity cannot last forever. It is here, surrounding the Little Bighorn, that the last great buffalo herds now reside. But there is not enough game to support the enormous tribal gathering for very long. Soon the tribes will disperse into smaller bands. On this night, they celebrate, if only because it feels so powerful to be together.

  The great Red Cloud has not made the journey, but his eighteen-year-old son Jack Red Clou
d is here, armed with the Winchester rifle President Grant, the Great White Father, gifted to his father last year. The weapon saw action one week ago, when an Indian force under Crazy Horse nearly overran an invading column of U.S. soldiers under the command of General George Crook.

  The Battle of the Rosebud, as it became known, was the U.S. Army’s first major strike into Indian lands since the “hostile” designation was applied to nonreservation bands five months ago. The campaign led by Crook featured a fighting force of more than a thousand soldiers, miners, and journalists and 250 Indian scouts from the Crow and Shoshone bands. Their aim was to catch or kill Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and their warriors. Crook has long specialized in waging war against Native Americans, having successfully engaged tribes in the Pacific Northwest and in Arizona. With his expertise and the massive fighting force, General Crook’s success seemed all but assured.

  But one week ago, on June 17, Crazy Horse boldly moved to stop the incursion. After leading a thousand warriors on a nighttime ride, the war chief launched a surprise dawn attack on Crook’s campsite. The general’s men were exhausted, having marched thirty-five grueling miles the day before. Were it not for the vigilance of Crook’s Indian scouts, the entire column of U.S. soldiers would have been slaughtered. Instead, in a battle stretching from early morning into the afternoon, Crazy Horse and Crook engaged in a tactical chess match. Unable to utilize decoy riders to lure the whites into difficult terrain, Crazy Horse executed a series of feints, strikes, and well-timed retreats to confuse the soldiers. The growing number of Indians fighting with Winchester repeating rifles allowed the warriors to fire from their horses without the need to reload after every shot. That greatly enhanced their ability to kill U.S. soldiers.