Great Plains (29 page)

 

I first read about the medicine wheels in a column called “Helena's Heavens,” by Dorothy Starshine, in the Helena, Montana,
Independent Record.
More about the Sun River Medicine Wheel, including a drawing of it when it was in better shape, is in “Medicine Wheels and Plains Indian Astronomy,” by John A. Eddy, in
Technology Review,
December 1977, pp. 18–31.

My thanks to Dorothy Starshine for her help and information on this subject.

 

All the information on Doc Holliday comes from the very good biography,
Doc Holliday,
by John Myers Myers (Lincoln, Neb., 1973). Sample sentence: “As to some of [Doc Holliday's] bents, it might be conceded that they let criticism in at the front door.”

 

The Anti-Ballistic Missile command center was built by Peter Kiewit and Sons Co., of Omaha, which received a $110.9 million contract from the Army in 1972 for work on the ABM system in Montana (
Times,
February 25, 57:8). Under the conditions of SALT I, the U.S. had to get rid of all of its ABM sites under construction except one; it continued work on the site at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and abandoned the western Montana site. Later, SALT II put further limitations on the ABM, but by then the development of missiles with multiple warheads made the ABM less practical—building additional warheads was cheaper than building missiles to intercept them. In 1975, the Defense Department abandoned the Safeguard ABM program altogether. See
The New York Times,
November 25, 1975, 1:1;
Missiles and Rockets,
by Kenneth Gatland (New York, 1975), pp. 147, 151.

 

Information about strip-mining comes from
The Rape of the Great Plains: Northwest America, Cattle, and Coal,
by K. Ross Toole; from a tour of the mining operations at Colstrip, Montana; and from conversations with members of the Northern Plains Resource Council in Billings, Montana.

 

A description of the archaeology boom of the 1940s on the plains is in Wedel, p. 158, and in
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water,
by Marc Reisner (New York, 1986), pp. 194 et seq. The more recent surge in Great Plains archaeology I learned about from ranger Eric Holland, at the Knife River Indian Villages, just down the road from the strip mines of the Consolidation Coal Company in Stanton, North Dakota.

Chapter 6

 

Most of the questions about Crazy Horse which I asked Le War Lance are based on statements made by Indians in
To Kill an Eagle: Indian Views on the Death of Crazy Horse,
by Edward and Mabell Kadlecek (Boulder, Colo., 1981). The question about whether he always dismounted to shoot comes from “Oglala Sources on the Life of Crazy Horse: Interviews Given to Eleanor H. Hinman,” in
Nebraska History,
Vol. 57, no. 1 (Spring 1976). This work has been reprinted by the Nebraska State Historical Society as a pamphlet. It is one of the best sources on the life and death of Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse's friend and comrade in battle, He Dog, told Eleanor Hinman, “All the time I was in fights with Crazy Horse in critical moments of the fight, Crazy Horse would always jump off his horse to fire. He is the only Indian I ever knew who did that often. He wanted to be sure he hit what he aimed at. That is the kind of fighter he was. He didn't like to start a battle unless he had it all planned out in his head and knew he was going to win.”

Another important source of information about Crazy Horse is the so-called Ricker Tablets—a collection of lined school-exercise tablets containing interviews done by Judge Eli S. Ricker in the early 1900s with old plainsmen (and women) who remembered the frontier. Judge Ricker intended to write a novel about the West, but, as one historian put it, “he became lost in his research.” Which is an easy thing to do, I can tell you. Microfilms of the Ricker interviews are on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln. The Sioux medicine man Chipps, or Encouraging Bear, told Ricker that Crazy Horse painted his face with “a zig-zag streak with red earth from the top of his forehead downward and to one side of the nose at the base to the point of his chin” (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 18, p. 5). But the Miniconjou chief Joseph White Bull, in Vestal's
New Sources of Indian History 1850–1891
(p. 320), says that Crazy Horse painted his face with white spots, which would seem to support Le War Lance.

 

Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Chief Joseph, Spotted Tail, and many other plains Indians visited New York City, usually as guests of the government, who believed that it would be good for them to see the numbers and the power of white men. In 1870, Red Cloud gave a speech (via a translator) to a packed hall at Cooper Union which made him a media celebrity and which was a victory for advocates of a “Peace Policy” toward the Sioux. For several years after Red Cloud's speech, the government gave the Sioux presents and more or less let them do as they liked. This phase ended with the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in '74, and the Indian war which followed. See
Red Cloud's Folk,
by George Hyde, pp. 179 et seq.

 

The only full-scale biography of Crazy Horse is
Crazy Horse,
by Mari Sandoz (Lincoln, Neb., 1961).

The year and the place of Crazy Horse's birth come from an article titled “The Oglala Lakota Crazy Horse: A Preliminary Geneological Study and an Annotated Listing of Primary Sources,” by Richard G. Hardorff, which I found in the Crazy Horse file at the library of the Fort Robinson Museum in Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

The statement that Crazy Horse was one of the decoys at the Fetterman fight appears in many sources, including Sandoz, p. 199, and
Red Cloud's Folk
(citing the Cheyenne chief Two Moon), pp. 146–47.

 

Short Buffalo's speech about Crazy Horse's fight with the Shoshone comes from Hinman, p. 32.

Details of Crazy Horse's military career can be found in the sources named, and in
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors,
by Stephen E. Ambrose (Garden City, N.Y., 1975).

The statement that Crazy Horse killed the ponies of Indians who wanted to go into the agency is in Ambrose, p. 457.

Crazy Horse's surrender was reported in
The New-York Times
of May 8, 1877 (1:5).

 

Much of the information about Crazy Horse's life and death at the Red Cloud Agency comes from these sources:

E. A. Brininstool, “Chief Crazy Horse, His Career and Death,”
Nebraska History,
Vol. XII, no. 1 (January—March 1929). I will call this Brininstool A.

Brininstool,
Crazy Horse, the Invincible Ogalalla Sioux Chief
(Los Angeles, 1949). I will call this Brininstool B. Both works contain the accounts of principals and eyewitnesses at the death of Crazy Horse. Brininstool is the most assiduous published collector of information on the subject.

Robert A. Clark, editor,
The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: Three Eyewitness Views by the Indian Chief He Dog, the Indian-White William Garnett, the White Doctor Valentine McGillycuddy
(Glendale, Calif., 1976). I will call this Clark.

William Garnett, “Report of William Garnett, Interpreter, to Gen'l H. L. Scott and Major J. McLaughlin.” This is a copy of a typescript, on file at the New York Public Library. (A version of it also appears in Clark.) I will call this Garnett.

Julia E. McGillycuddy,
McGillycuddy, Agent: A Biography of Dr. Valentine T. McGillycuddy
(Stanford, Calif., 1941). I will call this J. McGillycuddy.

Other sources include some already named: Sandoz, Hinman, Hyde, the Eli S. Ricker Collection, and Kadlecek.

A typescript in the Crazy Horse file at the Fort Robinson library gives the lieutenant's name as “J. Wesley Rosenquest,” but William Garnett says, “Red Cloud went after Crazy Horse, and couriers came in with Red Cloud and they wanted supplies, that is grub, and I went out with Lieutenant Rosencrans with some wagons loaded with rations and some beef cattle” (Garnett, p. 1). Other sources agree that the lieutenant's name was Rosencrans. An Indian interviewed by Hinman says that Crazy Horse was met about a day's journey from the fort (Hinman, p. 25).

Agent Jesse M. Lee describes how eagerly the Indians accepted General Crook's promise of a buffalo hunt (Brininstool A, p. 7). Crook offered such liberal surrender terms because he was competing with General Nelson O. Miles, who wanted Crazy Horse to surrender to him at Fort Keogh, at the mouth of the Tongue River in Montana (Clark, p. 23).

He Dog said, “When we started in, I thought we were coming to visit and to see whether we would receive an annuity, not to surrender. But when we got near Fort Robinson, I found we were coming in to surrender” (Hinman, p. 19).

Lieutenant Clark came out and met Crazy Horse about four miles northwest of the agency (Garnett, p. 1).

An account of the surrender also accompanied the story of Crazy Horse's death in the September 7, 1877,
Times
(1:4).

 

Indians signed treaties either by making their mark or by “touching the pen” when a white man signed for them. Agent Irwin of the Red Cloud Agency complained to his superiors in the Bureau of Indian Affairs that Crazy Horse refused to sign receipts for his annuity goods (Kadlecek, p. 50). I found no evidence of Crazy Horse ever putting his name to anything. Dr. McGillycuddy said, “He never registered or enrolled at any Indian agency” (Brininstool A, p. 41). The promise that Crazy Horse would be able to choose the place for his agency is in Hinman, p. 19 and note 20, and p. 31; also in Clark, p. 26. His choice of Beaver Creek is mentioned in Hinman, p. 24. The requirement that no Indian live farther than three miles from the agency is mentioned in Hyde,
Red Cloud's Folk,
p. 294; Agent Lee's wife, however, says that the Crazy Horse camp was six miles from Fort Robinson (Brininstool B, p. 63). Other sources agree with her. The place where the camp stood is described in Kadlecek, p. 36, and Brininstool A, p. 76.

 

For a discussion of the intricacies of Indian agency administration, see Kadlecek, pp. 29–36 and notes. The distance from Fort Robinson to the site of the Red Cloud Agency headquarters I measured on my car odometer.
Red Cloud's Folk
is the source of information about Chief Red Cloud;
Spotted Tail's Folk,
also by George Hyde (Norman, Okla., 1961), is the main source on Spotted Tail. In 1909, Red Cloud gave an interviewer an account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn which purported to be firsthand (Tillett,
The Wind on the Buffalo Grass,
pp. 91–92), but all evidence points to the fact that neither he nor Spotted Tail was there (see also
Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
by James C. Olson [Lincoln, Neb., 1965], Chap. 12).

 

Of Clark's role at Fort Robinson, Agent Jesse Lee wrote, “Lieutenant Clark was stationed at Camp Robinson, near Red Cloud Agency, having a general oversight of the recent hostiles, especially Crazy Horse and his Oglalas, and it was his duty to keep General Crook informed as to anything of interest” (Brininstool A, p. 8).

Sherman's letter to Sheridan is in the National Archives Record Service, Office of the Adjutant General, Letters Received: M666 R281, Index 492. (My thanks to Ephriam Dickson III for telling me about it and sending me a copy.)

 

Dr. McGillycuddy later wrote to William Garnett, “You know his wife was very sick with consumption, and the Sunday the hostiles came in, I was sent for to come to the camp and give her medicine which was the first time I met Crazy Horse, and thus we became good friends” (Clark, p. 116). McGillycuddy's opinion of Crazy Horse is in Hinman, p. 43. Crazy Horse's refusal of the doctor's request for a photograph is in Brininstool A, p. 42. The failure of D. F. Barry to bribe Crazy Horse is in Brininstool B, p. 11. D. F. Barry later took perhaps the best-known photo of Sitting Bull. Red Feather's statement comes from Hinman, p. 25. Baptiste Pourier, who was an interpreter at Fort Robinson, told Judge Ricker that Lieutenant Clark was behind Crazy Horse's marriage to Nellie Larrabee (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 13, p. 24).

 

The Sun Dance of '77 is mentioned in
Spotted Tail's Folk,
p. 250. Irwin's report to his superiors about the ration situation, and a discussion of the Indians' unwillingness to move to the Missouri, are in Kadlecek, pp. 45–46. The hunger of the Indians in the summer of '77 is in Sandoz, p. 373. Accounts of the council in August where General Crook renewed the promise of the buffalo hunt are in Kadlecek, p. 46, and Brininstool A, p. 9. The warning which followers of Red Cloud gave to Agent Irwin about Crazy Horse is in Kadlecek, p. 47.

 

For more on the Nez Perce war, see
The Flight of the Nez Perce,
by Mark H. Brown (New York, 1967). In Brininstool A, pp. 9–11, Agent Lee talks about his strenuous efforts to get the Indians to give up the buffalo hunt. Irwin's cancellation of the ammunition issue for the hunt is in Clark, p. 28. Lieutenant Clark's idea of taking Crazy Horse north to fight the Nez Percé is in Garnett, pp. 1–2. The speech of Touch the Clouds is in Brininstool A, p. 15. The speech made by Crazy Horse is recounted by Dr. McGillycuddy in Brininstool A, p. 38.

 

Grouard made his autobiographical claims in
The Life of Frank Grouard,
by Joe De Barthes. Excerpts from that work appear in Brininstool A, pp. 62 et seq. In 1907, Mrs. Nettie Elizabeth Goings, of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, told Judge Ricker that she and Frank Grouard were children of the same father by different mothers (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 13, p. 107). Much evidence points to the conclusion that Frank Grouard was indeed the son of John Brazo or Brazeau—see Sandoz, p. 426. McGillycuddy's opinion of Grouard is in Clark, p. 119. “Gruard” is not a misspelling; for years Grouard himself spelled it without an “
0.
” Apparently, he was unsure how to spell his own alias.