Brother Van - Stella Wyatt Brummitt

INDIANS WERE EVERYWHERE STEALING HORSES AND TERRIFYING SETTLERS

The Indians objected so strongly to the intrusion of prospectors and others into their territory, that they sent Red Cloud and Spotted Tail to Washington to protest, because the coming of the white men into that region was a clear violation of existing treaties. The government promised to keep prospectors out, but failed to do so. The Indians then demanded payment for their lands. The government sent a commission which reported that force would be the only way to settle the dispute. The Indians also decided that this was their only method of protest. It had been seen that the first meetings worked no advantage to either side, but served only to anger both Indians and whites. A message was sent by the United States government to Sitting Bull, who had gathered all the warriors around him in the Big Horn country. He was ordered to returnto the Reservation, or the United States would make war on his people. He sent this reply: “When you come for me you need bring no guides. You will easily find me. I shall be right here. I shall not run away.”

He kept his promise. The Indians took their allowance from the United States government and bought bullets and guns. They gathered along the Rosebud and Little Big Horn rivers and among the hills and valleys between. They were led by Rain-in-the-Face while their real leader, Sitting Bull, was absent making medicine.

The United States troops in the western States had concentrated in their efforts to check the rebellion. General Custer was in command of the cavalry under General Terry. Scouts brought word that a band of Indians were riding rapidly to join the main body. They were supposed to be Pawnees, and numbering not more than twelve hundred. General Custer was sent to surround the camp. He divided his men into three companies as he prepared a well-planned attack. Major Reno was to ride directly across, but was to wait onehour to allow Major Benteen’s detachment to go up the river, cross it, and so be above the camp. The tactics did not allow for the hard traveling which Major Benteen found, nor for the great force of hostile Indians.

At the end of the hour of waiting, Major Reno attacked and was so completely overcome and dismayed at the strength of the Indians, that he fled to the bluffs. Major Benteen arrived at last, but saw that he could do nothing, so he joined the retreat. This left General Custer at the place which he had selected with two hundred men to face an infuriated band of Indians numbering five thousand. When Custer saw the size of the Indian army, he sent a scout to the retreating men in the hills, saying, “Come on, big village, be quick, bring packs.” He meant by packs the extra powder and bullets. With their horrible war-cry the Indians bore down on the little handful of men, who soon saw that there was nothing to do but to fight and die.

General Custer saw every one of his men mutilated and scalped, and he stood at last alone. He received seven wounds before hefell. The onrushing Indians were abashed and astonished at such bravery; not a rough hand was laid on Custer’s body, and no tomahawk tore into the hero’s scalp. On the next day Major Reno and Major Benteen were followed by the Indians and attacked as they prepared to make their last stand. But these enemies saw the rest of the white men approaching under Generals Terry and Gibbon and quickly fled.

On the twenty-seventh day of June, the bodies of General Custer and his brave men were buried. A monument marks the spot where they fell, and all America honors the courage that the handful of men displayed on that summer day. Another people honor those dead. The Sioux Indians look upon General Custer as a god because of his bravery. His memory is honored and loved among them, and they call him the “Evening Star.”

In Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs, N. B. Wood says that there were two survivors of Custer’s last stand, Curley, the Crow scout, who put on a Sioux blanket and escaped, and the horse Comanche, the famous war horse ofCaptain Keogh. He was found bleeding from seven wounds, and was carried back by soldiers on a litter of blankets and poles. Comanche recovered and lived to the age of forty-five, while few horses reach the age of thirty-five. His skin was stuffed and is now in the museum of the Kansas State University.

This massacre at Little Big Horn, now so memorable a part of American history, threw a gloom over the whole nation. The New York Tribune on July 3, 1876, said: “It is the eve of Independence Day, the Centennial Fourth. All the land is ablaze with enthusiasm. Alas! if the tidings of General Custer’s terrible disaster could be borne on the wings of the four winds, dirges, not anthems would be heard in the streets of Philadelphia, New York, and San Francisco.