CHAPTER XVII. RED CLOUD. THE GREATEST INDIAN OF MODERN TIMES
He belonged to the Oglala division of Teton Sioux. He was born at the forks of the Platte River and died at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 1909.
It is said that he counted coups—that is, he touched the bodies of enemies—eighty times with his coup-stick.
The band of the Sioux to which he belonged is known as Iteshicha. As no comprehensive account of his life has ever been published, I intend to devote this entire chapter to him and his activities. He first comes into prominence in 1865, when the Government undertook to build a road from Fort Laramie, Wyoming, to the gold regions of Montana. Red Cloud captured a detachment of troops and held same prisoners for two weeks and then released them without injury. Commissioners were sent out from Washington that fall to treat with him, and he refused to meet with them.[[27]]
Of the individuals who exerted an influence upon the various bands of Sioux something can be learned by a search of the records. Perhaps Sitting Bull and Red Cloud are more popularly known than others. Every plainsman worthy of the name has had an encounter at some time during the past with Red Cloud’s warriors. Army officers stationed on the frontier in the ’60’s or ’70’s testify to the courage and dash of these sons of the Plains. The War Department records contain more frequent mention of Red Cloud than of any other American Indian; and the pictographic accounts made by the Sioux themselves upon tanned buffalo hides, many years ago, are filled with evidences of the prowess of this chief.
Makh-ṕiya-lúta, or Red Cloud, has said in his pictographic history of his life, that he was born in the year 1822.[[28]] His parents were not prominent among the tribe. He calls this year “Star-passed-by-with-a-loud-noise-winter.” The Sioux, in their winter-counts, designate each year by some particular or striking occurrence. For instance, in Red Cloud’s winter-counts, or census, one winter is called “Winter-in-which-many-died-of-smallpox”; another, “Winter-we-killed-one-hundred-white-men.” There are several of these winter-counts made by different chiefs in possession of the Government, which agree as to the naming of each year, and only vary in minor details. Two of them cover a surprisingly long period of time, from 1800 to 1877. Both have been carefully studied by ethnologists and interpreters, and accurate translations prove them of special value to history students.
Of the extreme youth of Red Cloud we know nothing. An old Indian, when asked at Pine Ridge, shrugged his shoulders and said, “All great men were once boys.” He was trained as became a young Lakota. All Indian children learn to ride when extremely young. General Dodge says that, whether men or boys, the Plains tribes, or, as most officers call them, “Horse Indians,” produced the finest horsemen in the world. Red Cloud was not a hereditary chief, but arose to distinction through merit.
Red Cloud was about sixteen when he became a leader among the other boys, signalizing himself in skirmishes and battles with the Crows, Pawnees, and other hereditary enemies of the Sioux. The various winter-counts tell us that many severe engagements occurred between the Crows and the Sioux, and it is doubtless true that he charged and yelled, scalped and tortured just as energetically as his companions.
Mr. C. W. Allen, who is well acquainted with Red Cloud, prepared a manuscript some years ago, before the chief’s memory failed. Because the chief presents his version of Plains history, the work is unique and merits publication. Heretofore we have had only the white man’s narratives.
Between 1840 and 1849 there were but few attacks against Whites on the Plains, and most of these occurred to the south, in Texas, or along the old Santa Fe trail. It was not until and during 1849 that extensive emigration set in towards California. As the wagon-trains increased, the hunting of the Indians was seriously interfered with. Expeditions, not only of United States troops but of adventurers, buffalo hunters, and miners, penetrated to various parts of the great West. Among these travelers were men who regarded an Indian no higher than a dog, and fired upon peaceful parties of hunting Indians without the slightest provocation. Wagon-trains were often in charge of men from the East who knew nothing whatever of Indians or their habits, and becoming insanely frightened at the approach of either friendly or hostile red men, opened fire without the slightest thought of consequences. It is therefore not surprising that all the Plains Indians soon assumed a hostile attitude toward any being with a white skin.
I have talked with many old Indians of Pine Ridge, Red Cloud’s home, and they have agreed that the destruction of the buffalo was the greatest calamity ever brought upon their race. They could forgive the Whites for attacking their villages, and for the disregard of treaty promises, and overlook the seizure of their lands, but they could not forget that the Americans made useless and unnecessary slaughter of that grand, majestic native animal, typical of the “spirit of the Plains.” But few men appreciate what the buffalo was to the Indian. Thousands of men flocked west to hunt buffalo solely for their hides. Most of them were inexperienced and destroyed many animals before they learned how to properly prepare a robe for sale. The great Platte valley, the Arkansas, the Niobrara and other Plains rivers, were in a few years lined with millions of skeletons a pitiful spectacle—wretched relics of a once noble creature. Complaints were made by the Indians, who depended solely upon the buffalo for existence, to the Government at Washington, but without avail. More butchers, attracted by the alluring and exciting life of the hunter, flocked to the West. They strained every nerve to make a “record” in destroying these animals. To be a buffalo-hunter became popular, and a number of persons have since carried through life names distinguishing them from their fellows because of the exceeding slaughter which they made. Col. Dodge, who spent from 1819 to 1884 on the frontier, blames the hunters, miners, and cowboys for the Indian wars. This class of people regarded the rights of no persons, save themselves. While our Government was supposed to protect, it did little save send out Peace Commissions and armies in rotation. The lawless white men were never controlled. But the day of retribution was at hand. The Sioux held a great council, which was attended by the dissatisfied element of other bands, and decided to drive out all the whites found in their hunting territory. They split up into small bands, attacked emigrant trains, killed hunters, and at the time of the Civil War were carrying on a general warfare from the Black Hills to the frontiers of Texas.
RED CLOUD AND PROFESSOR MARSH
The illustration is reproduced from a photograph in the possession of Miss Fannie Brown, of Andover. The date is uncertain, but supposed to be 1874 or ’75
After the terrible massacre of 1862 in Minnesota[[29]] the Indians became bolder, and having received recruits from the bands who had fled from Minnesota they held up several large wagon-trains, killed or captured the escorts and appropriated the goods. When the news of this affair reached Washington, Colonels Carrington and Fetterman were ordered to subdue the Plains Indians, and were sent to Wyoming, where they established Fort Phil. Kearny on the Piney fork of the Powder River. Not only was this movement necessary on the part of the Government because of the hostility of the Sioux, but it was desired to open a road through the Powder River country to Virginia City and other mining towns in the mountains, and also to the coast. Part of the territory was owned by the Crows, but the Dakotas had usurped most of it as hunting-grounds for themselves. Several conferences between the authorities and the Indians were held, but as dissatisfaction among the Indians was manifest, no settlement could be effected. “We will lose,” said they, “all our best hunting territory if this route is established.” Red Cloud and other chiefs (Crazy Horse, American Horse, etc.) saw opportunity for war and openly urged hostilities. Clouds of warriors flocked to his standard. During the long and tedious struggle he won great reputation as a leader. General Dodge said:[[30]] “Several forts were established, but they only protected what was inside the palisades. A load of wood for fuel could not be cut outside without a conflict.”
During these troublous times Fort Laramie was the center of importance, peace conferences, Indians coming and going, troops and supplies arriving from the East. When Colonel Carrington and his troops left Laramie, June, 1866, they were constantly watched by Red Cloud, and a reliable report states that upon the visit of some Indians at headquarters the commander was informed of his movements, in detail, during the entire journey. With the troops was Capt. Frederick H. Brown, noted for his bravery and contempt of Indians, and after the establishment of the post he infused in Col. William J. Fetterman some of his own spirit. Both officers declared that a nervy White could put to flight a hundred Sioux. When calling one evening, Brown told Colonel Carrington’s wife that he must have Red Cloud’s scalp before he returned East, but, instead, Red Cloud took his scalp on the day of the Fetterman fight, December 21, 1866.
The warriors harassed the garrison of Fort Phil. Kearny constantly, killing small parties of wood-cutters. It became necessary to send out a guard of fifty to eighty men with every wood-train. Red Cloud drilled his warriors daily, seeming to possess a system of signals equally as good as those in use at the fort. Colonel Carrington, in his description of the events at the post, says on one occasion Red Cloud’s signals covered a line of seven miles, and were rapidly and accurately displayed. Again, on December 6, a number of soldiers were killed. On the 21st the picket signaled that the wagon-train was surrounded, and ninety-seven men were sent to its relief. Afterward it was ascertained that the train was threatened but not attacked; in fact, the teams and escort came in safely that night. Red Cloud had made a feint to draw troops some distance from the post that he might engage them successfully. The world knows the result, and it is not necessary for me to enter into details here. The entire command under Fetterman and Brown was killed, including several citizens accompanying it. Col. H. B. Carrington, in his official report, says: “The officers who fell believed that no Indian force could overwhelm that number of troops well held in hand.”
Red Cloud’s name was heard throughout the land, and among his own people he arose to be supreme chief; hundreds of recruits joined his camp, and he was given an immense medicine dance and heralded as invincible.
August 2, 1867, Major James Powell was attacked by a large force under the command of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail. In this fight Red Cloud and his warriors exhibited, with scarcely an exception, the greatest bravery ever shown by Indians in the history of the West. Unknown to the Indians, special wagon-beds, constructed of iron, were mounted on wheels by the Government blacksmiths. As soon as the attack began, the troops removed these from the trucks and placed them in a small circle, the men concealing themselves beneath. The iron was sufficiently heavy to stop or deflect bullets, and the men were armed with the first repeating rifles brought on the Plains. They were thus better equipped than their adversaries. Red Cloud charged no less than eight or ten times, frequently coming within thirty or forty feet, many of his dead falling less than twenty or thirty yards from the improvised fortification. The Indians could not understand how so small a body of men could fire with such rapidity. Red Cloud said to Spotted Tail, as the two sat their horses on a little knoll a few hundred yards distant, that he believed the Americans had “medicine guns,” which never ceased firing. The entire force of the Sioux and Cheyennes was hurled against the enemy, Red Cloud’s nephew distinguishing himself by riding among the foremost and the two chiefs accompanying the charge. One Indian fell near enough to touch the beds with his coup-stick before he died. But for the protection, the Whites would have been wiped out of existence, for nearly every spot on the outer surface of the iron as large as one’s hand showed a bullet mark. An Indian chief told Colonel Dodge afterwards that they lost 1137 in the fight. A famous scout said to Major Powell that at least a thousand were struck, and the most conservative estimate places the number at three or four hundred. Not only was great bravery manifested in these charges, but after the battle many of the dead and wounded were recovered in spite of a heavy fire kept up by the troops. In the Fetterman fight Red Cloud had been victorious. In the Powell engagement he was badly defeated.
These two fights, and the series of peace treaties held by the Indian Peace Commissioners August 13 to September 13, 1867, brought about what the Sioux desired—the evacuation and destruction of several forts in favorite hunting territory, the promise of extra annuities and rations, and paved the way for the great Dakota treaty of 1868.
In 1868–’69 Hon. William Blackmore of London, visited the Plains tribes and made a lasting friendship with Red Cloud. At that time Red Cloud scorned the “white man’s road” and refused to have his photograph taken; but it is noteworthy that he made an exception in favor of Mr. Blackmore, and in the first portrait of this distinguished red man we see him standing side by side with the patron of the great South Kensington (Blackmore) museum. Why did he do this? Because he knew that the British treated the Indians well, and that for a century Indians in Canada lived unmolested, whereas just over the American border bloodshed and robbery were rampant.
After the treaty Red Cloud himself went to war no more, but instead became distinguished as a councilman and treaty maker. He was, with Spotted Trail, uncompromising, and insisted upon the fulfillment of every condition of the later treaties.
Sitting Bull, a shaman, had made “medicine” for most of the battles, and about the year 1870 came into prominence. To the Indian “medicine” means much. Upon going into action he places implicit confidence in the efficacy of his medicine first, in his own courage second. Sitting Bull, being very crafty, a schemer and a politician, became known as the “battle-medicine maker” of the Dakotas. Before the Custer fight he made several dozen medicine sacks, filled them with the “mystery,” and hastily distributed them among the chief warriors and subchiefs. After the fight he and his friends claimed the honor of the victory, saying that it was through his miraculous medicine alone that the Sioux prevailed over the soldiers. Sitting Bull seldom was a warrior, claimed little distinction as a fighter, and owes his reputation among the Whites as the leader of the forces on the Little Big Horn to the misdirected energy of the newspapers. Red Cloud was friendly with Sitting Bull, but was seldom associated with him either in councils or upon the field. The two present marked contrasts. The latter was very outspoken in his hatred of the Whites, lacked the tact and judgment displayed by Red Cloud in his later years, and appears decidedly the inferior man of the two. Sitting Bull’s temper was easily ruffled, and even as late as 1890 (he was killed December 15, 1890) he persisted in open censure of Government authorities. To give an idea of his language, he told General Miles, upon the occasion of their first meeting, that “God Almighty made me; God Almighty did not make me an agency Indian, and I’ll fight and die fighting before any white man can make me an agency Indian.” His prophecy was fulfilled.
So when Red Cloud settled down upon his reservation near Fort Robinson, Sitting Bull continued to range about the Plains and in the valleys of the Tongue, Powder, Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers. Some of the turbulent element in Red Cloud’s camp joined him, but by far the greater portion of those who followed Sitting Bull until after the Custer fight were not Oglalas. In 1874–’75, when Professor Marsh of Yale, passed through the agency, he noted that there were some 13,000 Indians under the care of the authorities. He reported that the provisions issued them were of poor quality and insufficient, and tardily delivered. Lieutenant Carpenter also complained that the Indians were compelled to eat ponies, dogs and wolves to avoid starvation. Professor Marsh stated that the goods purchased by the Government, carefully and honestly delivered and distributed, would prevent all suffering. Eastern newspapers published Marsh’s charges, and the “Indian ring” of politicians was defeated. Marsh was well received by Red Cloud, who accompanied him East. The two were photographed together, holding the peace-pipe in common. The Sioux called Professor Marsh the “Big Bone Chief,” because he hunted fossils in the Bad Lands. And while Bills and Dicks of frontier fame howled about the “hostile Injuns” and engaged in frequent fights with the Sioux, Marsh came and went in that wild country safe. The “murderers” knew he was to be trusted! (See page [176])
JACK RED CLOUD
Son of the War Chief of all the Sioux. Pine Ridge, 1909. Photographed by W. K. Moorehead. The older Indians say Jack looks exactly as did his father in the early seventies.