THE HOSTILES SURRENDER
The winter successes of the Crook-Mackenzie and Miles campaigns foreshadowed the end of the Sioux War. In April one thousand Sioux hostiles led by Touch the Clouds surrendered at Spotted Tail Agency and Dull Knife brought his Cheyenne in to Camp Robinson. The final total of hostiles who surrendered at Camps Robinson and Sheridan reached almost 4,500 people.[21]
Emissaries to the hostile camps brought back word that Crazy Horse was on the way in and on May 6, 1877 he and his followers, 889 men, women and children, surrendered at Camp Robinson. They gave up some 2,000 ponies, and the 217 men turned in 117 guns and pistols. The impressive surrender march of Crazy Horse’s band was described by the officer who met the hostiles:
When the Sioux Chief Crazy Horse came in and surrendered in 1877, he formed all of his warriors in line, in advance of the women and children; then, in front of this line, also mounted, he had some ten of his headmen; and then in front of these he rode alone. I had been sent with Indian scouts to meet him. He sent me word requesting a similar formation on our part, and asked that I should ride on in advance alone. Then we were to dismount and first shake hands, while seated on the ground, that the peace might be solid. After all this had been done his headmen came up, the peacepipe was produced, and we solemnly smoked. One of his headmen put a scalp-jacket and war-bonnet on me, and presented me the pipe with which peace had been made.[22]
What to do with the surrendering hostiles was a problem. Crazy Horse and some of the other warriors were enrolled as scouts, and a grand review was held for General Crook. Nevertheless, in General Sheridan’s opinion these hostiles should be given the same treatment as troublesome Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors who had been imprisoned at Fort Marion, near St. Augustine, Florida, following previous campaigns.
Too, Crazy Horse acted in a manner which aroused suspicion on the part of the military authorities at Camp Robinson. The soldiers described his attitude as sullen and restless despite his expressed desire to live peacefully. Some chiefs of the agency bands also found his increasing popularity among their followers a threat to their positions.
Indian opposition to Crazy Horse was intensified after a council with seventy leaders was held at Red Cloud Agency on July 27, 1877. General Crook sent word that the Indians were free to go on the forty day buffalo hunt he had promised them, and they in turn were to give their word to return to the agency after the hunt. A delegation to Washington, D. C. was also discussed. A feast was a usual part of such an important meeting, and when Young Man Afraid of His Horses suggested that the feast be held at the camp of Crazy Horse and Little Big Man no one objected, but Red Cloud and his followers left the council room. Later that night the Red Cloud faction voiced their objections to feasting at Crazy Horse’s camp to Agent Irwin. They said Crazy Horse was unreconstructed, tricky, unfaithful and waiting for his chance to escape from the agency. Because the possibility that the hostiles would flee, rejoin Sitting Bull in Canada, and begin the war anew was not a pleasant prospect, the buffalo hunt was cancelled as a precautionary measure.
Crazy Horse had continued to speak in favor of the new northern agency for his people once promised by General Crook. This was contrary to the 1877 government plan to move the agencies to the Missouri River where supplies could be more economically delivered by river boat, an arrangement favored by army officers.
Crazy Horse further alienated the Army, now involved in a new Indian campaign, this time the outbreak of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe. Efforts were made to obtain Indian scouts for the new campaign from among the former hostiles at Red Cloud Agency. At first Crazy Horse opposed their enlistment on the grounds that they would be used to fight Sitting Bull and their Sioux friends rather than Chief Joseph’s people. Finally Crazy Horse consented to fight the Nez Perce but Frank Grouard, acting as interpreter, made an error in translation and reported that Crazy Horse said he would fight until not a white man was left. Whether this error was an honest mistake or a deliberate one,[23] the mistranslation reinforced the rumors that Crazy Horse planned to murder Crook and other officers and that he planned to go on the warpath again. General Crook directed that the famed warrior be apprehended and “sent out of harms way.”[24]
A cavalry battalion from Camp Robinson and a large party of Indians (including Crazy Horse’s personal enemy, No Water, with whom he had had a squabble over a woman) rode to Crazy Horse’s camp nearby to arrest him. They succeeded in capturing many of his band, but Crazy Horse escaped and fled to Spotted Tail Agency, seeking refuge in the camp of his friend Touch the Clouds. His arrival caused considerable excitement in that camp, but loyal Brules interceded and restored order. Touch the Clouds and about 300 warriors then escorted Crazy Horse towards Camp Sheridan. Halfway there they were met by Lt. J. M. Lee, acting agent at Spotted Tail Agency, two other officials, and an interpreter. Just as this group reached the post parade ground Chief Spotted Tail arrived with an equally large number of his Brule warriors. This support for the small Camp Sheridan garrison turned the balance in their favor. With Spotted Tail backing the Americans, Crazy Horse apparently realized his position was not a strong one.
The crowd finally was dispersed and Lee and a few others had a conference with Crazy Horse who explained his desire to transfer to the Spotted Tail Agency. An attempt was made by interpreter Louis Bordeaux to correct Grouard’s mistranslation of Crazy Horse’s statement about fighting the Nez Perce. Lieutenant Lee and Major Burke assured Crazy Horse that he would not be harmed. In response to Lee’s persuasion Crazy Horse agreed to return to Camp Robinson the next day on condition that he be allowed to explain how he had been misunderstood and misinterpreted and that he wanted peace, not trouble. By this time, however, most officers, particularly those at Camp Robinson, completely distrusted him.
On their arrival at Camp Robinson, the post commander, Colonel Bradley, refused to hold a council with Crazy Horse despite Lee’s efforts to arrange one. Bradley’s orders gave him no alternative except to imprison Crazy Horse, and an effort was made to put him in the guardhouse. When he saw the cells inside Crazy Horse drew a knife and attempted to free himself but he was bayoneted by one of the guards during the struggle. Little Big Man was injured while trying to restrain Crazy Horse. Both friendly and hostile Indians were in the excited crowd of witnesses, and the friendly Indians prevented Crazy Horse’s friends from firing at the guard. When another attempt to put the mortally wounded warrior into the guardhouse was made, the Indians seemed so close to an outbreak that Colonel Bradley reluctantly agreed to Surgeon McGillycuddy’s suggested compromise and Crazy Horse was taken next door to the adjutant’s office where he died shortly before midnight on September 5, 1877.[25]
Great excitement developed among the Indians around Camp Robinson as a result of the killing of Crazy Horse and serious trouble was threatened, but the efforts of Indian leaders prevented a violent outbreak. In a report of the incident Lt. W. P. Clarke listed the Arapaho, Black Coal and Sharp Nose, and the Sioux leaders Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, American Horse, Yellow Bear, Little Big Man, Big Road, No Water, Three Bears, and No Flesh as the men who prevented an outbreak by controlling their people. That so important a man as Crazy Horse could be killed in such a way without any more serious consequences than a few days uproar was an indication that the war with the Sioux was about over.
After Crazy Horse was killed the plan to relocate Red Cloud Agency on the Missouri River went ahead rapidly. On October 25, 1877 the move was begun, with troops from Camp Robinson escorting the Red Cloud Indians and those from Camp Sheridan escorting the Spotted Tail Indians and the hostiles of the late Crazy Horse’s camp. Although seemingly subdued, the hostiles still managed to embarrass the soldiers. Before the two columns had proceeded very far the northern Indians broke away from the Spotted Tail column and joined the Red Cloud group. Then they broke away from that column, and, carrying Crazy Horse’s bones, fled north to join Sitting Bull in Canada, pausing on the way to raid in the Black Hills and along the Bismarck stage line. The first report was that some 1,700 Indians had escaped, but a recheck cut the figure to 800.
The soldiers from Camp Robinson who escorted the Indians built and formed the garrison of a military post at New Red Cloud Agency,[26] but the new location was used for only a short time. The Oglala refused to go to the new agency site and set up their camp seventy-five miles away. In 1878 the government gave up the Missouri River plan and the agency was moved west again to become the present Pine Ridge Agency about fifty miles northeast of Fort Robinson in South Dakota.