Make Custer’s rightful honor bright
And clean, as youthful morning light!
To die! To die gives them the shame,
And me, I ask no word of fame,
Save this,—that ere I slept in dust.
He pauses, waves his lifted hand,
He’s beckoning toward the spirit land.”
In this reverie he pictured Custer as the idol of the Redman. The arrival of the herald from the enemy’s camp awakened him from his stupor. A council of war was hastily called. It was noon and after. The battle was on. The smoke rose in every direction. Soldiers and warriors appeared and disappeared. Echonka was seen. His gun failed to discharge. A bullet laid him low. Winona, Echonka’s lover, came running, looked at him with an agonized face, lifted her hands toward heaven, and shrieked. She knelt at his side and cried as if her heart would break. The fatal day soon ended. It was after sunset. Sitting Bull in searching among the dead found the body of Custer. The wailing for the dead could just be heard. He uttered a soliloquy, covered Custer’s face with a silk handkerchief, lifted his own face and hands in prayer, and was silent. The play ended.
The effect upon the three thousand persons who witnessed the Indian play was excellent.
Religious dramas, sometimes in prose and poetry and often in tableau and pantomime, are given. “The Evergreen Tree,” “The Nazarene in Song and Story,” and “The Man of Galilee” were especially well presented. Every year a series of one-act plays is produced for the sole purpose of training young men and women to be able to stage dramas in the districts where they expect to live. Programs containing features characteristic of the activities of a community are frequently given.