Saga of the Sioux

by Dee Brown

  Before the next day’s treaty proceedings, every Indian at Fort Laramie knew why the regiment of Bluecoats was there. When Carrington rode into the fort the next morning, Commissioner Taylor decided to introduce him to the chiefs and quietly inform them of what they already knew—that the United States government intended to open a road through the Powder River country regardless of the treaty.

  Colonel Henry B. Carrington in a photograph taken between 1860 and 1870. During the Civil War and for a number of years afterward, it was popular for officers to put their right hand inside their uniform jacket, in imitation of French Emperor Napoleon I. [LOC, DIG-cwpb-06857]

  Carrington’s first remarks were drowned out by a chorus of disapproving Indian voices. When he resumed speaking, the Indians continued muttering among themselves and began moving about restlessly. Carrington’s interpreter suggested in a whisper that perhaps he should allow the chiefs to speak first.

  Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses took the platform. He made it clear that if the soldiers marched into Sioux country, his people would fight them.

  Then it was Red Cloud’s turn. His lean figure, clad in a light blanket and moccasins, moved to the center of the platform. His straight black hair, parted in the middle, was draped over his shoulders to his waist. His wide mouth was fixed in a determined slit beneath his hawk-like nose. His eyes flashed as he began scolding the peace commissioners for treating the Indians like children. He accused them of pretending to negotiate for a country while they prepared to take it by conquest.

  “The white men have crowded the Indians back year by year,” he said, “until we are forced to live in a small country north of the Platte, and now our last hunting ground, the home of the People, is to be taken from us. Our women and children will starve, but for my part, I prefer to die fighting rather than by starvation…. ​Great Father sends us presents and wants new road. But [Carrington] goes with soldiers to steal road before Indian says yes or no!”

  While the interpreter was still trying to translate the Sioux words into English, the listening Indians became so disorderly that Commissioner Taylor abruptly ended the day’s session. Red Cloud strode past Carrington as if he were not there and continued on across the parade ground toward the Oglala camp. Before the next dawn, the Oglalas were gone from Fort Laramie.

  SIX

  The Fetterman Massacre

  It has been our wish to live here in our country peaceably, and do such things as may be for the welfare and good of our people, but the Great Father has filled it with soldiers who think only of death.

  —SPOTTED TAIL OF THE BRULÉ SIOUX

  DURING THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, as Carrington’s wagon train moved north along the Bozeman Trail, the Indians had an opportunity to appraise its size and strength. The 200 wagons were loaded with all manner of goods from vegetable seeds to musical instruments for a 25-piece band, as well as the usual military supplies. A number of Bluecoats had also brought their wives and children along, with an assortment of pets and servants.

  By June 28, 1866, Carrington’s regiment of about 720 men reached Fort Reno, relieving the survivors of the two companies, who were happy to return to Fort Laramie. Carrington left about one-fourth of his regiment, approximately 180 men, to guard Fort Reno and then moved on north, searching for a site for his headquarters post. From Indian camps along the Powder and Tongue rivers, hundreds of warriors now began gathering.

  On July 13, the military column halted between the forks of the Little Piney and Big Piney creeks. There in the heart of the best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians, the Bluecoats pitched their army tents and began building Fort Phil Kearny.

  Three days later, a large party of Cheyenne arrived. Two Moon, Black Horse, and Dull Knife were among the leaders. Through an interpreter, they sent a message asking if Carrington wanted peace or war. Carrington replied that if they wished to parley, no one would be harmed. A meeting under the flag of truce was arranged, and Carrington allowed 40 chiefs and warriors to enter the fort. What Carrington did not realize was that the meeting was a cover for a secret scouting mission of the fort. The chiefs needed to know how many soldiers there were before they attacked.

  A map of Fort Philip Kearney, commonly known as Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory.

  The meeting lasted more than four hours. When it ended, nothing had been decided, though Carrington had learned that there were many more Sioux and Cheyenne warriors in the area than he originally thought. As the Cheyenne prepared to leave, Little White Chief gave them pieces of paper saying that they had agreed to a “lasting peace with the whites and all travelers on the road,” and they departed. Within a few hours, villages along the Tongue and Powder rivers heard from the Cheyenne that the new fort was too strong to be captured without great loss. They would have to lure the soldiers out into the open, where they could be more easily attacked.

  The next morning at dawn, a band of Red Cloud’s Oglalas caused 175 horses and mules from Carrington’s herd to stampede. When the soldiers came riding in pursuit, the Indians strung them out in a 15-mile chase and inflicted the first casualties upon Carrington’s Bluecoat invaders of the Powder River country.

  From that day all through the summer of 1866, Little White Chief Carrington was engaged in a guerrilla war. The Indians’ strategy was to make travel on the road difficult and dangerous and to cut off supplies for Carrington’s troops, isolate them, and attack. None of the numerous wagon trains, civilian or military, that moved along the Bozeman Trail was safe from surprise attacks. The soldiers soon learned to expect deadly ambushes. Men assigned to cut logs a few miles from Fort Phil Kearny were under constant and deadly harassment.

  Red Cloud was everywhere, and his allies increased daily. Black Bear, the Arapaho chief whose village had been destroyed by General Connor the previous summer, notified Red Cloud that his warriors were eager to join the fighting. Sorrel Horse, another Arapaho, also brought his warriors into the alliance. Spotted Tail, still believing in peace, had gone to hunt buffalo, but many of his Brulé warriors came north to join Red Cloud. Sitting Bull was there during the summer. Gall, a younger Hunkpapa, was also there. With a Minneconjou known as Hump and a young Oglala warrior named Thasunke Witko, Gall invented clever decoy tricks to taunt, infuriate, and then lure soldiers or settlers into traps. Thasunke Witko would later become more famous than Red Cloud. White men would know him by the name of Crazy Horse.

  A 1910 Edward Curtis photograph of Sioux chief Two Moon. [LOC, USZ62-47002]

  Early in August, Carrington decided that Fort Phil Kearny was strong enough that he could risk dividing his force again. Therefore, in accordance with his instructions from the War Department, he detached 150 men and sent them north 90 miles to build a third fort on the Bozeman Trail—Fort C. F. Smith.

  Sioux chief Gall, in a photograph taken in 1896. [LOC, USZ62-117645]

  In late summer, Red Cloud had a force of 3,000 warriors. Through their friends the Laramie Loafers, they managed to assemble a small arsenal of rifles and ammunition, but the majority of warriors still had only bows and arrows. During the early autumn, Red Cloud and the other chiefs agreed that they must concentrate their power against Little White Chief and the hated fort on the Pineys. Before the weather turned cold and made travel difficult, they moved toward the Bighorn Mountains and made their camps along the headwaters of the Tongue River in what is now north-central Wyoming. From there they were within easy striking distance of Fort Phil Kearny.

  During the summer raiding, two Oglalas—High Back Bone and Yellow Eagle—had made names for themselves with their carefully planned stratagems for tricking the soldiers, as well as for reckless horsemanship and daring hand-to-hand attacks after the soldiers fell into their traps. High Back Bone and Yellow Eagle sometimes worked with young Crazy Horse in planning their elaborate decoys. Early in the Moon of Popping Trees (December), they began taunting the woodcutters in the pine forest near Fort Phil Kearny and the soldiers guarding the wagons that brought wood to the fort.

  O
n December 6, when cold air flowed down the slopes of the Bighorns, High Back Bone and Yellow Eagle took about 100 warriors and dispersed them at various points along the road that connected the pine forest to the fort. Red Cloud was with another group of warriors who took positions along the ridgetops. They flashed mirrors and waved flags to signal the movements of the troops to High Back Bone and his decoys. Before the day was over, the Indians had the Bluecoats dashing about in all directions. At one time Little White Chief Carrington came out and gave chase. Choosing just the right moment, Crazy Horse dismounted and showed himself on the trail in front of one of Carrington’s hot-blooded young cavalry officers, who immediately led a file of soldiers galloping in pursuit. As soon as the soldiers were strung out along the narrow trail, Yellow Eagle and his warriors sprang from concealment behind them. In a matter of seconds, the Indians swarmed over the soldiers.

  In their camps that night and for several days following, the chiefs and warriors talked of how foolishly the Bluecoats had acted. Red Cloud was sure that if they could entice a large number of troops out of the fort, a thousand Indians armed with only bows and arrows could kill them all. The chiefs agreed that after the next full moon they would prepare a great trap for Little White Chief and his soldiers.

  By the third week of December, everything was in readiness, and about 2,000 warriors began moving south along the Tongue River. The weather was very cold. Most of them rode packhorses, leading their fast-footed war ponies by ropes. Some had rifles, but most were armed with bows and arrows, knives, and lances.

  About 10 miles north of Fort Phil Kearny, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho made a temporary camp. Between the camp and the fort was the place selected for the ambush—the little valley of Peno Creek.

  On the morning of December 21, the chiefs and medicine men decided the day was favorable for a victory. In the first gray light of dawn, a party of warriors started off in a wide circuit toward Wood Cutter's Road, where they were to make a fake attack against the wagons. Ten young men had already been chosen for the dangerous duty of decoying the soldiers—two Cheyenne, two Arapaho, and two from each of the three Sioux divisions, Oglala, Minneconjou, and Brulé. Crazy Horse, Hump, and the Cheyenne Little Wolf were the leaders. While the decoys mounted and started off toward Lodge Trail Ridge, the main body of warriors moved down the Bozeman Trail. Patches of snow and ice lay along the shady sides of the ridges, but the day was bright, the air cold and dry. About three miles from the fort, where the road ran along a narrow ridge and descended to Peno Creek, they began laying a great ambush. The Cheyenne and Arapaho took the west side. Some of the Sioux hid in a grassy flat on the opposite side; others remained mounted and concealed themselves behind two rocky ridges. By midmorning almost 2,000 warriors were waiting there for the decoys to bring the Bluecoats into the trap.

  While the war party was making its fake attack against the wagon train, which was loaded with freshly cut wood, Crazy Horse and the decoys dismounted and hid on a slope facing the fort. At the first sound of gunfire, a company of soldiers dashed out of the fort and galloped off to rescue the woodcutters. As soon as the Bluecoats were out of sight, the decoys showed themselves on the slope and moved closer to the fort. Crazy Horse waved his red blanket and darted in and out of the brush that fringed the frozen Little Piney Creek. After a few minutes of this, Carrington in the fort fired off his big twice-shooting gun. The decoys scattered along the slope, jumping, zigzagging, and yelling to make the soldiers believe they were frightened. By this time the war party had withdrawn from the woodcutters’ wagon train and doubled back toward Lodge Trail Ridge. In a few minutes, a mixed cavalry and infantry command led by Captain William J. Fetterman arrived. Fetterman had orders not to pursue the warriors beyond Lodge Trail Ridge.

  This map of the Fetterman Massacre shows the movement of troops and warriors and where Captain Fetterman's force was wiped out.

  Crazy Horse and the other decoys jumped on their ponies and began riding back and forth along Lodge Trail Ridge, taunting the soldiers and angering them so that they fired recklessly. Bullets ricocheted off the rocks, and the decoys moved back slowly. Whenever the cavalry slowed its advance or halted to allow the infantry to catch up, Crazy Horse would dismount and pretend to adjust his pony’s bridle or examine its hooves. The soldiers had seen such tricks in the past. But Crazy Horse was such a skillful actor that this time the soldiers thought he was really having problems. Anxious to kill or capture Crazy Horse and the other decoys, the cavalry rushed forward, shooting wildly. But Crazy Horse and the others managed to keep just out of range as the Bluecoats entered the Peno Creek valley. The soldiers shouted with satisfaction. Because the creek was bordered on both sides by high ridges, they thought the Indians were trapped. The cavalry spurred their horses on. The infantrymen followed as fast as they could on foot.

  But once both groups of soldiers, totaling 81 men, reached the valley, they realized they were the ones who had fallen into a trap. As soon as the decoys saw this, they divided into two parties and quickly rode across each other’s trail. This was the signal for the warriors to attack.

  Both cavalry and infantry were stunned to find themselves suddenly surrounded by warriors. The infantrymen were quickly killed, but the cavalrymen retreated to a rocky height near the end of a ridge. They turned their horses loose and tried to take cover among the ice-encrusted boulders.

  Toward the end of the fighting, the Cheyenne and Arapaho on one side and the Sioux on the other were so close that they began hitting each other with their showers of arrows. Then it was all over. Not a soldier was left alive. This was the fight the white men called the Fetterman Massacre. The Indians called it the Battle of the Hundred Slain.

  An 1867 Harper’s Weekly woodcut illustrating a scene from the Fetterman Massacre on December 21, 1866. [LOC, USZ62-130184]

  Two weeks later, the Moon of Strong Cold (January) began. There would be no more fighting for a while. The soldiers who were left alive in the fort would have a bitter taste of defeat in their mouths. If they had not learned their lesson and were still there when the grass greened in the spring, the war would continue.

  SEVEN

  A Treaty Is Signed

  When people come to trouble, it is better for both parties to come together without arms and talk it over and find some peaceful way to settle it.

  —SPOTTED TAIL OF THE BRULÉ SIOUX

  The Fetterman Massacre made a profound impression upon the United States government. It was the worst defeat the army had yet suffered in Indian warfare. Carrington was recalled from command, reinforcements were sent to the forts in the Powder River country, and a new peace commission was dispatched from Washington to Fort Laramie in 1867.

  The new commission was headed by John Sanborn, an experienced negotiator with Indians and known to them as Black Whiskers. Sanborn and General Alfred Sully arrived at Fort Laramie in the Geese Laying Moon (April). Their mission was to persuade Red Cloud and the Sioux to give up their hunting grounds on the Powder River country and live on a reservation. As in the previous year, the Brulés were the first to arrive—Spotted Tail, Swift Bear, Standing Elk, and Iron Shell.

  Little Wound and Pawnee Killer, Oglala leaders who had brought their bands down to the Platte River in hopes of finding buffalo, came to see what gifts the commissioners might be handing out. Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses arrived as a representative for Red Cloud. When the commissioners asked him if Red Cloud was coming to talk peace, Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses replied that the Oglala leader would not talk about peace until all soldiers were removed from the Powder River country.

  A steam locomotive. [LOC, DIG-stereo-1s00612]

  During these parleys, Sanborn asked Spotted Tail to address the assembled Indians. Spotted Tail advised his listeners to abandon warfare with the white men and live in peace and happiness. For this, he and the Brulés received enough ammunition to go on a buffalo hunt. The hostile Oglalas received nothing. Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses returned to join Red Cloud, who had already res
umed raiding along the Bozeman Trail. Little Wound and Pawnee Killer followed the Brulés to the buffalo ranges. Black Whiskers Sanborn’s peace commission had accomplished nothing.

  In their search for buffalo and antelope, the Oglalas and Cheyenne crossed railroad tracks several times that summer. Sometimes they saw Iron Horses (locomotives) dragging wooden houses on wheels at great speed along the tracks. They puzzled over what could be inside the houses, and one day a Cheyenne decided to rope one of the Iron Horses and pull it from the tracks. Instead, the Iron Horse jerked him off his pony and dragged him unmercifully before he could get loose.

  An 1867 Harper’s Weekly woodcut illustrating an attack by Cheyenne warriors on a work crew building a railroad track. Though war parties repeatedly attacked railroad work crews, they were unable to stop the construction of railroad lines through their land. [LOC, USZ62-115324]

  One of the warriors in the group, Sleeping Rabbit, suggested they try another way to catch one of the Iron Horses. “If we could bend the track up and spread it out, the Iron Horse might fall off,” he said. “Then we could see what is in the wooden houses on wheels.” They did this and waited for the train. Eventually one arrived and, as Sleeping Rabbit said, once the locomotive ran over the section where the rails had been removed, it tumbled over onto its side. Huge clouds of smoke and steam poured out of the wrecked locomotive. Men came running from the train, and the Indians killed all but two, who escaped. Then the Indians broke open the houses on wheels and found sacks of flour, sugar, and coffee; boxes of shoes; and other items. After a while the Indians took hot coals from the wrecked engine and set the boxcars on fire. Then they rode away.