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| Did any of Custer's men escape? Did any white men fight for the Indians? Did any of Custer's men get across the river? Mysteries of the Little Bighorn THE BATTLE of the Little Bighorn sometimes seems like a Sea of Mysteries -- and like the sea, it doesn't give up its own easily. This is an ongoing inquiry into some of the flotsom thrown on the shore, in Question & Answer form...
A: This is a question that first arose during the battle because Americans like Peter Thompson, John Ryan, William O. Taylor and an anonymous wounded survivor heard bugle calls coming from the Indian side. Kill Eagle and John Stands In Timber said the buglers were Indians, and they probably were, but the question of whether a white man was among the Indians on June 25, 1876 still remains. Asked directly in September 1876 if there was a white among the Indians that day, Blackfeet Sioux war chief Kill Eagle replied, "There were no white men in the fight or on the field. One who had been with them went to Standing Rock Agency." Quized again one month later if their was a "Spaniard" with the Indians, Kill Eagle said, "There was once a white man in camp, but he went to Spotted Tail's [Agency] before the fight." Oglala Sioux war chief He Dog said he "did not see any white man among Sioux." But then He Dog added significantly, "In my camp there was a Canadian half breed who spoke very good English as well as Sioux." From He Dog's testimony, it appears that this individual was present on June 25, 1876.
The main eye-witness evidence that there may have been one or more white man fighting on the Indian side at the Battle of the Little Bighorn comes from the accounts of survivors who were on the burial detail after the battle. August De Voto said, "Afterwards we went over the ground where the Indian camp had been. There were two tepees left standing full of dead Indians. As we rode past I looked in. They were piled up like cordwood. One of them looked to me very much like a white man. I could not see his face, but his legs looked white. I had no chance to go in and make a close investigation." An Anonymous Sixth Infantry Sergeant said, "One of the Indians that was shot by [Major Marcus] Reno's men attracted peculiar attention, and upon going up to him he was found masked, and upon removing the mask the features of a white man were disclosed, with a long, gray, patriarchial beard." So who knows? Maybe there was one or more white men fighting on the Sioux and Cheyenne side, but the next question is, "did it matter?" and the answer is, "no, it didn't matter." As Short Bull observed of Crazy Horse as he turned from Reno to flank Custer's decapitated command, the Sioux and Cheyenne had their "business well in hand" that day. * * * Q: Did any of Custer's men manage to get across the Little Bighorn River into the Cheyenne camp when Custer attacked the village at Medicine Tail Coulee?
Crow scout Curley, who was an eye-witness to Custer's attack at Medicine Tail Coulee, said in 1916, "The bugler got killed in the camp. Some of them got killed in the river. They (the Sioux) would not let the soldiers cross the river." Brule Sioux warriors Hollow Horn Eagle and Brave Bird agreed, adding that the bugler was wounded on the Cheyenne side of the river, and killed there after the battle by Woman Who Walks With The Stars, the wife of Brule Sioux chief Crow Dog. "For some reason he was trying to get back across the river," Hollow Horn Eagle and Brave Bird observed dryly. * * * Q: Did any of Custer's men manage to escape the slaughter?
There is no evidence that any American got away, and lived, after this, although many seem to have tried, as noted by Two Moon, Wooden Leg, He Dog, Foolish Elk, Flying Hawk and others. There was also an American trooper who took his clothes off and dove in the river to hide there. The Sioux watched him breathing through his nose for a long time and then shot him dead. Another American played possom among the dead on the battlefield until after the battle when a squaw stripped him and started to hack up his supposed corpse, at which point he jumped up and ran around naked until he was killed. Based on the eye-witness record, it is impossible to say that any of Custer's men got away and lived, but there is evidence that one or more may have gotten away, and perished from their wounds before they could reach safety. Three or four weeks after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, some of General George Crook's troops found the remains of an American cavalry trooper identified by some as Nathan Short, who was with Custer on June 25, 1876. Daniel Kanipe, who carried Custer's last order to McDougal, said, "How I came to know it was Short of my company was that he had his stuff numbered 50, and General Crook reported that the man's number was 50. He was with the company [Custer's command] when I left it, on Reno's hill." However, there is some disagreement on how Short marked his gear (with the number 50 or the number 7), and the condition of the remains suggested they had been there longer than a month. Sioux warrior Lights also spoke of an American soldier whose corpse was found some distance from the battlefield several days after the battle. He had apparently been subsisting on frogs. The Sioux deduced this from the fact that the dead man's pockets were filled with frogs. -- B.B.
© Copyright 1973 - 2010 by Bruce Brown and BF Communications Inc. Astonisher, Astonisher.com, Conversations With Crazy Horse, 100 Voices and The Winter Count of Crazy Horse's Life are trademarks of BF Communications Inc. BF Communications Inc. Website by Running Dog |
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Q: Was there a white man among the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?
