Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer
Encyclopedia
Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer is a book about the life of a Northern Cheyenne Indian, Wooden Leg
, who fought in several historic battles between US forces and the Plains Indians
, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn
. The book is of great value to historians, not only for its eye-witness accounts of battles, but also for its detailed description of the way of life of 19th-century Plains Indians.
First published in 1931 under the title A Warrior Who Fought Custer, it was later reprinted with its current title by the University of Nebraska Press. The book was written by Thomas Bailey Marquis, who went on to write several other books on the participants and events of those times. Marquis relates the story as it was told to him by Wooden Leg, merely placing the narrative in historical order. The book could therefore properly be called an autobiography with Marquis the editor and translator. The 2003 edition bills Marquis as interpreter; however, he describes himself as author in the book's original preface.
. His initial aim was to collect first-hand accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
since there had been no white survivors and obtaining the Indian accounts was thus all the more important for writing the historical record. However, it took him many years to fully gain the trust of the Indians and he did not complete the task until 1930. In the meantime the project grew from recording the events at the Little Bighorn
to the broader conflict and from there slowly metamorphosed into the biography of Wooden Leg, his principal informant.
The issue of trust was difficult to overcome. Wooden Leg himself relates the attitudes of the Cheyenne at a peace feast organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary (1906) of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In the presence of many US soldiers the Cheyennes were questioned about the battle. It is clear they answered with extreme caution and many facts, particularly the deaths of soldiers, were avoided. Despite the long passage of time since the battle, they feared that they were being trapped into incriminating admissions. They also chose not to reveal many soldiers had died through suicide or at the hands of their comrades, an issue the Cheyennes knew to have made soldiers angry in the past. They left most of the talking to one boastful IndianThe "boastful Indian" was Two Moons
. who gave a colourful, but entirely inaccurate, account. The others elected not to contradict him since this allowed them to remain silent. Marquis slowly broke down the barriers and eventually persuaded all the Cheyenne survivors, not just Wooden Leg, to open up to him.
Some sixteen hundred Northern Cheyenne were at the battle of the Little Big Horn. For all of the intervening period of more than fifty years between the battle and Marquis' interviews, the Cheyenne had lived in Montana overlooking the sites of the battle. In Marquis' view, this made them the most reliable of witnesses because their continual retelling of the stories was always anchored in the visible reality of the locations before them.
Wooden Leg spoke little English and Marquis spoke no Cheyenne. They communicated mainly through Plains Indian Sign Language
and only occasionally used an interpreter. Wooden Leg provided maps and sketches as well as narrative. The book is an amalgam of material from Wooden Leg along with support and corroboration from many contributors. Amongst these contributors were most of the seventeen Northern Cheyenne participants of the Battle of the Little Big Horn still alive at the time of the interviews. From these, Marquis gives specific credits to Limpy, Pine, Bobtail Horse, Sun Bear, Black Horse, Two Feathers, Wolf Chief, Little Sun, Blackbird, Big Beaver, White Moon, White Wolf, Big Crow, Medicine Bull, and the younger Little Wolf. The last is a different person from the more well known Chief Little Wolf
who led the escape from Oklahoma
.
Wooden Leg was born in 1858 in the Black Hills
. His father was previously known as Many Bullet Wounds. Warfare was common and the narrative is soon describing a conflict with the Crow
. Wooden Leg took his own name from an admired uncle of the same name who was a tireless walker, an ability which Wooden Leg shared. The meaning is that his legs must be made of wood since they feel no pain no matter what the exertion.
Many other conflicts, both with other Indian tribes, most especially the neighbouring Crows, but also the Shoshone
, and US soldiers are documented in which Wooden Leg took part from a very young age. His elder brother was killed in the fight at Fort Phil Kearny during Red Cloud
's attempt to clear the Bozeman Trail
of US forts.
The hardships of hunting in the snow as a boy with minimal clothing are described as are the unique Indian methods of transport during camp moves. In his young life Wooden Leg travelled all around the Black Hills region, and the Tongue
and Powder River
s.
Wooden Leg joined the Elk society at the age of 14, a big event in the young boy's life. By the rules of Cheyenne society, the currently "on duty" warrior society had sole prerogative in the task at hand. Nobody else was allowed to get in front of their scouts in a camp move, nor to approach the buffalo in a hunt. Of course, teenage boys are wont to push the boundaries and Wooden Leg was no exception. Several episodes are related where he and his friends are reprimanded and narrowly avoid serious punishment.
Sport events and betting were usually between the warrior societies and there were a great many contests of all kinds. If the Cheyenne happened to be travelling with Sioux, then their warrior societies would take part also. Chief Little Wolf
, who had been a great distance runner in his youth, was once jokingly challenged by an Ogallala Sioux when he was in his fifties. Little Wolf accepted this challenge and won by intelligent pacing of the distance despite being behind for most of the race.
Many mythological or magical stories are found in the book. This includes a Cheyenne version of the great bear which is supposed to have put the claw marks in the side of Devils Tower
, the feature later seen in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind
. Much else of Cheyenne life is documented, a guide to arrow recognition, marriage customs, the entitlement to wear warbonnets amongst many others. Wooden Leg puts all this in perspective by comparison with other Plains tribes. In the process, the reader also learns much about other tribes, especially the Sioux.
The Cheyenne deity is called by Wooden Leg The Great Medicine. A sacred tepee in the camp holds the tribal medicine object, in the case of The Northern Cheyenne, a Buffalo Head. Because of this, buffalo heads often appear in Cheyenne myths and ceremonies. Wooden Leg first "made medicine", an important event for him, at the age of seventeen under the supervision of an experienced old medicine man.
. Wooden Leg's family chose not to live on the reservation, but instead took advantage of the Fort Laramie treaty
provision of hunting grounds for the Indians between the Black Hills and the Bighorn River
. They decided to live permanently in the hunting grounds, as far as possible staying out of contact with the white man. Other Cheyenne and Sioux also took this attitude, but most spent at least the winter on their reservations. When "reservation" Indians arrived in camp with rare goods such as tobacco and sugar it was a cause for celebration.
In February 1876 they received news that the US intended to make war on all Indians who did not return to their reservations. In the subsequent fighting
Wooden Leg took part in nearly every major engagement. The report was initially not believed; they were not fighting the white man and were only acting within the treaty. However, after similar information was brought by respected chiefs, the Cheyenne started keeping good lookouts and it was not long before Wooden Leg and his friends were in a skirmish with a party of soldiers.
Towards the end of winter, the Cheyenne camp on Powder River was attacked and destroyed; however, most of the Indians escaped.Troops commanded by Colonel Joseph Reynolds
. Marquis (q.v., p.168) has his rank as General but other sources (Cozzens, p.xxxiii; Bourke, p.465) have him as a Colonel under Brigadier General Crook's command. Reynolds believed he was attacking Crazy Horse's camp rather than the Cheyenne. Because they now had no possessions during winter, the Cheyenne moved to join their allies, the Ogallala Sioux led by Crazy Horse
. Together, they moved North-East to join the Uncpapa Sioux led by Sitting Bull
at Chalk Butte. At some time the camp was also joined by the Minneconjoux Sioux under Lame Deer
. The Indians had to continually move camp to find enough game and grazing for the large numbers of people and horses. Arrows all Gone SiouxMarquis' rendering of Sans Arcs. then joined and then the Blackfeet Sioux. Small groups of other tribes also joined, such as the Waist and Skirt Indians
The Waist and Skirt Indians were the Wahpeton band
of the Santee Sioux, a division of the Dakota. They had been living as refugees in Canada since the Dakota War of 1862
. They were so called by Wooden Leg's people because of their extreme poverty, lacking even most clothing. Marquis, q.v., p.182., the Assiniboines and Burned Thigh Sioux. Even Chief Lame White Man
was there with a small group of Southern Cheyenne.
In Wooden Leg's mind, there is no doubt that this gathering of the tribes into one place was intended by the tribal chiefs for defence, not as a preparation for attack on the Whites, despite many of the young men being keen to do just that. On the other hand they were making no attempt to hide. Wooden Leg says "our trail...could have been followed by a blind person" since it was between a quarter and half a mile wide. Wooden Leg, in a group on a scouting mission, spotted soldiers coming from the SouthBrigadier General George Crook
's column. towards their camp on the Rosebud River. Wooden Leg took part in the ensuing Battle of the Rosebud
in which the soldiers were driven off.
The Indians were not expecting further trouble from the soldiers; they were relaxing and recuperating. Wooden Leg was at an organised social dance the night before the Custer fight. On the day of the battle Wooden Leg was sleeping after bathing and was awoken by a commotion to find the camp in a panic because of an attack by soldiers.The frontal attack by Major Marcus Reno
. Wooden Leg was torn between the desire to join the battle quickly and the need to first put on his best clothes and paint his face (it was the Indian custom to always look one's best if there was any possibility of ending up in the afterlife) and was only stopped from oiling and braiding his hair as well at the urging of his father to hurry.
The Indians drove back these Reno soldiers and had them pinned down, but they then spotted other soldiersLed by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer. making their way along the hills to the side of the Indian camps. Most of the Indians broke off the current fight at this point to engage this new threat from the Custer soldiers. Wooden Leg went back through the camp in the river valley rather than directly towards the soldiers. When there, his father tried to dissuade him from further fighting on the grounds that he had already done enough, but Wooden Leg would not hear of it, even persuading others to rejoin the fight.
After the Custer fight Wooden Leg helped to save Little Wolf
from being killed by Sioux who were angry that he had arrived after the fight and accusing him of coming to help the soldiers, though it was the actions of Little Wolf's small band that had provoked Custer into a premature attack. Wooden Leg, who was a good Sioux speaker, presented Little Wolf's case for him as he could not speak Sioux.
Even though Custer's command had been wiped out, the Reno soldiers were still present. Wooden Leg returned to fight them that night, and again the next morning with a handful of comrades. Initially firing from high ground without success, Wooden Leg then descended to the gulch, where he could lie in wait for soldiers coming to fetch water and succeeded in killing a man.Private J. J. Tanner, Dustin, p.147.
Wooden Leg describes many objects recovered from dead soldiers which the Indians did not understand, such as a compass and a pocketwatch. Wooden Leg himself threw away paper money, not realising its value; he also gave away coins which he did realise were of value, because he had no wish to trade with white men. When a new column of soldiers was observed approaching,This was the main force of infantry under Brigadier General Alfred Terry
. the council of Chiefs decided not to fight these soldiers also. At this point the Indians disengaged and the entire camp was packed up and moved.
As winter approached, Wooden Leg joined a small war party on a raid into Crow territory. On the return journey they visited the site of the Little Bighorn battle, mainly looking for rifle cartridges but also whatever else they could scavenge. Wooden Leg remarks that there were a large number of soldier boot bottoms; this was because the tops had previously been taken by Indians, but they had no use for complete boots.
As they came down the Tongue River valley, the group was surprised by the sight of the entire Northern Cheyenne tribe on the move. They had been attacked at the Powder River camp by soldiers and Pawnee Indians, the camp had been destroyed and they had lost all their possessions. The tribe was searching for the Ogallala Sioux under Crazy Horse, who they eventually found at Beaver Creek. The Ogallala welcomed them and together they journeyed to Tongue River. At Hanging Woman Creek, at the beginning of 1877, they had decided to separate as the Cheyenne had now replenished sufficiently, but while they were in the process of doing so, they were attacked by soldiers.Under the command of Colonel Nelson Miles. Marquis gives his rank as general, (q.v., p.295) but Miles did not receive his promotion to Brigadier General until 1880. Miles, p.207. Wooden Leg's sister was captured in this engagement. Wooden Leg rode to attempt a rescue but was driven back by fire from the soldiers. Most of the Indians escaped down Tongue River; the soldiers did not follow and the Cheyenne hunted peacefully for several months.
at the mouth of Tongue River without yet committing to a surrender. At Powder River they stopped and waited for the result of negotiations with a delegation of chiefs sent to the fort. While negotiations were proceeding, Wooden Leg heard of the suicide of his sister, Crooked Nose, who was still a prisoner in the fort.
After some time in discussion, the tribal chiefs decided they would go to their agency and surrender there instead, which was the same agency as their friends the Ogallalas. Most of the tribe followed the chiefs, but everyone was left free to make their own decision. A few chose not to surrender at either place, and Wooden Leg and his brother, Yellow Hair, joined one such group led by the Fox warrior society chief Last Bull even though the rest of his family had gone to surrender at the agency. The small band, however, were not hunting sufficient food and slowly became weaker. Eventually, they too travelled to the agency to surrender.White River agency, Fort Robinson, Nebraka, Marquis, q.v., p.304. At first, they were satisfied with their situation, but then came the shocking news that they were to be moved south to Oklahoma. Wooden Leg, along with many others, was extremely angry about this. They had all expected to be able to continue to live on their homeland. However, there was nothing that could be done since they had all given up their guns and horses on entering the agency.
The journey to Oklahoma began in May 1877 and took 70 days. A few Indians fled the agency when the news was announced, amongst them Wooden Leg's brother Yellow Hair. While in Oklahoma he received news that Yellow Hair had been killed by white men while out hunting. Wooden Leg hunted on the reservation, but there was no large game to be had and the Indians were not allowed to go off. Nor were they being fed as promised and there was much sickness. Little Wolf campaigned for action. Finally, he and Dull Knife led a great part of the tribe off the reservation and fought their way back North.
Wooden Leg and his father stayed on the reservation hoping that food would eventually be provided. Wooden Leg had much contact with the Southern Cheyenne during this time. He learnt from them who Custer was (the Southern Cheyenne were familiar with him since he had previously fought a campaign against them) and of their attempt to come north to join them in the summer fighting of 1876. Finally, Wooden Leg took a wife from amongst the Southern Cheyennes.
After six years in the South, the Northern Cheyenne were given permission to leave, either to join Little Wolf or to go to the Pine Ridge agency (formerly White River agency). Wooden Leg's father had died in the South but he and the rest of his family went first to Pine Ridge and later to the Tongue River country where the main part of the tribe were living.
s. Little Wolf had had his chiefship revoked after a drunken killing. In 1889, at the age of 31, Wooden Leg himself joined the army scouts at Fort Keogh. There was not much to do; he spent most of his time learning to drink whisky. The following year the Cheyenne scouts were involved in a campaign against rebellious Sioux. Wooden Leg was present at Wounded Knee
. The Cheyenne scouts had prepared themselves to fight (on the US side) but were not called upon to do so.
Wooden Leg befriended the exiled Little Wolf towards the end of that great chief's life. Wooden Leg says that no-one had bad hearts against Little Wolf; even the dead man's brother, Bald Eagle, said "Little Wolf did not kill my brother, it was the white man whisky that did it". Little Wolf was interred standing upright in a pile of stones overlooking the Rosebud valley.
Wooden Leg attended a "peace feast" at the Little Bighorn to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the battle. Some Cheyenne veterans would not go, fearful of retribution from the soldiers present. As late as 1926 there were still Cheyennes who would not go to the 50th anniversary. Wooden Leg himself did not attend the 50th anniversary, not out of fear, but because the site was now on Crow land, to whom he still felt much animosity. He resolved "never again to go to any place where I might be called upon to shake hands with a Crow". This was very different to his attitude to other former enemies, the Shoshones for instance, to whom he travelled on a friendly visit. In 1913 Wooden Leg was part of a Cheyenne delegation to Washington. He also visited New York and Philadelphia during this trip.
Around 1908 he was baptised a Christian. However, he still privately prayed to the Great Medicine, feeling more comfortable praying this way. From 1927, the Cheyenne were again allowed to hold their annual Great Medicine dance. Other customs were still forbidden: practising Indian medicine could end in jail. Wooden Leg was appointed a judge on the agency by Washington. In this capacity he was obliged to enforce a ruling against multiple wives. He found this difficult, not least because he had two wives himself and felt obliged to set an example by being the first to send away a wife. After ten years, clearly struggling with his conscience, Wooden Leg resigned the post, but was later persuaded to take it on again by a new Indian agent.
Wooden Leg had two daughters and had hopes that they would have a more comfortable life than his own. The younger, however, died unexpectedly of an illness. Later the other also died. Wooden Leg then adopted his grand nephew, Joseph White Wolf, and brought him up as his own. The story ends with Wooden Leg an old man becoming increasingly unable to farm his land, but still well off in relation to most Cheyennes as he had a pension from his scouting days and his pay as a judge. He appreciates the comfortable life he now has but thinks much about the old days when "every man had to be brave".
Wooden Leg is also regularly cited in papers in academic journals. Those addressing social and educational issues are found just as often as those in historical journals. Again, a selection of such papers is given at the foot of this article.
As well as source information for Cheyenne military and social history, the book is also a rich source of anecdotes. There is the incident where Wooden Leg and Little Bird are chasing a fleeing Reno soldier. Neither Indian was willing to shoot a fleeing man as it "seemed not brave" to do so. This did not prevent the soldier from shooting Little Bird, after which Wooden Leg clubbed the soldier off his horse; there are the screams of his mother when presented with a scalp as a present; Wooden Leg sitting in the lodge with his friend, Noisy Walking, dying of his battle wounds, wanting to support his friend but not knowing what to say; and many more equally memorable.
Despite the only surviving eyewitnesses to these events being from the Indian side, and the passage of time since the battle, it is clear that many of the details given by the Indian participants were still controversial and not believed (Custer's widow Libbie
, who had dedicated her life to enshrining the memory of her husband as a hero and who attacked anyone offering a different point of view, was still alive). Special exception is taken to the claim that many of Custer's men committed suicide when defeat seemed inevitable. The claim that Tom Custer's body was decapitated by the Indians is also disputed for reasons that are not clear. It should be noted that the identification of the headless body as Tom Custer is not from Wooden Leg himself, who at the time of the battle knew nothing of either George Armstrong Custer
or his brother Tom, but rather, it is a footnote from Marquis. Wooden Leg had merely described the markings he saw on the body. Tom Custer's biography, on the other hand, describes the decapitation as a fact without dispute, saying that the body was identified from tattoos.
and an educator writing on Indian culture and language. He describes how he read an earlier edition of the book while an undergraduate and was inspired in his career by it.
Littlebear is most struck by the rapid transition of a free and independent people to a society restricted to reservations and dependent on the federal government. He expresses bitterness against the US government and shows some expression of shame at the part played by Cheyenne scouts after their surrender, for instance their role in locating the position of Chief Joseph
during his epic, but ultimately futile, attempt to escape from US government control. He identifies this sense of shame in the words of Wooden Leg himself when Wooden Leg is writing about the later part of his life.
Littlebear believes that the book can help explain how modern attitudes amongst the Northern Cheyenne to other tribes originated in their history. For instance the Crow
are traditionally enemies of the Cheyenne and the Sioux
are traditional allies. Littlebear says that although he knew of these prejudices, he did not understand the underlying reasons until he read this book. Ted Rising Sun's humorous claim that the alliance with the Sioux was only because the Cheyenne "needed someone to hold the horses" only emphasises their friendship. This claim, repeated by others, may possibly have originated as a reference to the Sioux having originally obtained horses from the Cheyenne after the Sioux's migration into the Black Hills
region. Ted Rising Sun is a descendant of Chief Dull Knife, a major figure in Cheyenne history and a contemporary of Wooden Leg.
Marquis has many critics saying either that he has exaggerated the role played by suicide or is entirely mistaken; Hardorff says that his theory is discounted by most academics. Hardorff suggests that Marquis may have made errors due to the use of sign language which, he claims, cannot convey the nuances of language. There can be no doubt, however, that Wooden Leg is indeed relating a tale of mass suicide. In the book he discusses at length what may be the cause of the soldiers' suicide.The idea of suicide to avoid capture was unknown to the Indians. Marquis, q.v., p.246. The effects of whisky was a common theory amongst the Indians, but Wooden Leg believed the prayers of medicine men to have been the cause. Wooden Leg's only taste of whisky up to the time of the battle had been a mouthful from a captured bottle which he had immediately spat out. In later life Wooden Leg changed his mind and subscribed to the whisky theory after experiencing the effects alcohol could have. Despite this criticism, Hardorff still maintains that Marquis' work is of great importance.
Fox and others note that while Wooden Leg's version is corroborated by the oral tradition of other Cheyenne witnesses, notably that of Kate Bighead, there is no corroboration in the oral tradition of the Sioux. Fox concludes that "quite simply, the contention is nonsense. A few troopers undoubtedly took their own lives, but it is hard to know what factors fostered the idea of wholesale suicide". Fox in his turn has been criticised for selectively using Indian oral tradition when it suits him, but discarding it as nonsense when he finds it disagreeable.
Another suggestion is that the Cheyenne warriors were still reluctant to admit to killing soldiers for fear of punishment, but at the same time were being pressed to recount details of the Custer battle. A simple way out of this dilemma was to say when questioned by non-Indians that most of the soldiers died at their own hands. Wooden Leg is said to have retracted the claim in later life; this would have been in extreme old age, as he had still not recanted at the age of 73 when the book was written, other than recanting his original theory in favour of the whiskey theory.
Archaeologists have attempted to test the theory, particularly by the examination of the remains of skulls, but have been unable to reach any definite conclusion. The suicide theory cannot be ruled out by the archaeological evidence, but there is no evidence to support it either.
Wooden Leg
Wooden Leg was a Northern Cheyenne warrior who fought against Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.-Biography:...
, who fought in several historic battles between US forces and the Plains Indians
Plains Indians
The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...
, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
. The book is of great value to historians, not only for its eye-witness accounts of battles, but also for its detailed description of the way of life of 19th-century Plains Indians.
First published in 1931 under the title A Warrior Who Fought Custer, it was later reprinted with its current title by the University of Nebraska Press. The book was written by Thomas Bailey Marquis, who went on to write several other books on the participants and events of those times. Marquis relates the story as it was told to him by Wooden Leg, merely placing the narrative in historical order. The book could therefore properly be called an autobiography with Marquis the editor and translator. The 2003 edition bills Marquis as interpreter; however, he describes himself as author in the book's original preface.
Researching the book
Marquis wrote the book in 1930 at the age of 61, but had begun researching it in 1922. In this year Marquis, as an M.D., came into contact with the Northern Cheyenne when appointed agency physician on their reservation in MontanaMontana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. His initial aim was to collect first-hand accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
since there had been no white survivors and obtaining the Indian accounts was thus all the more important for writing the historical record. However, it took him many years to fully gain the trust of the Indians and he did not complete the task until 1930. In the meantime the project grew from recording the events at the Little Bighorn
Little Bighorn River
The Little Bighorn River is a tributary of the Bighorn River in the United States in the states of Wyoming and Montana. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought on its banks in 1876, as well as the Battle of Crow Agency in 1887....
to the broader conflict and from there slowly metamorphosed into the biography of Wooden Leg, his principal informant.
The issue of trust was difficult to overcome. Wooden Leg himself relates the attitudes of the Cheyenne at a peace feast organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary (1906) of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In the presence of many US soldiers the Cheyennes were questioned about the battle. It is clear they answered with extreme caution and many facts, particularly the deaths of soldiers, were avoided. Despite the long passage of time since the battle, they feared that they were being trapped into incriminating admissions. They also chose not to reveal many soldiers had died through suicide or at the hands of their comrades, an issue the Cheyennes knew to have made soldiers angry in the past. They left most of the talking to one boastful IndianThe "boastful Indian" was Two Moons
Two Moons
Two Moons , pronounced ‘Ishaynishus’ was the son of Carries the Otter, an Arikara captive who married into the Cheyenne tribe...
. who gave a colourful, but entirely inaccurate, account. The others elected not to contradict him since this allowed them to remain silent. Marquis slowly broke down the barriers and eventually persuaded all the Cheyenne survivors, not just Wooden Leg, to open up to him.
Some sixteen hundred Northern Cheyenne were at the battle of the Little Big Horn. For all of the intervening period of more than fifty years between the battle and Marquis' interviews, the Cheyenne had lived in Montana overlooking the sites of the battle. In Marquis' view, this made them the most reliable of witnesses because their continual retelling of the stories was always anchored in the visible reality of the locations before them.
Wooden Leg spoke little English and Marquis spoke no Cheyenne. They communicated mainly through Plains Indian Sign Language
Plains Indian Sign Language
The Plains Indian sign languages are various manually coded languages used, or formerly used, by various Native Americans of the Great Plains of the United States of America and Canada...
and only occasionally used an interpreter. Wooden Leg provided maps and sketches as well as narrative. The book is an amalgam of material from Wooden Leg along with support and corroboration from many contributors. Amongst these contributors were most of the seventeen Northern Cheyenne participants of the Battle of the Little Big Horn still alive at the time of the interviews. From these, Marquis gives specific credits to Limpy, Pine, Bobtail Horse, Sun Bear, Black Horse, Two Feathers, Wolf Chief, Little Sun, Blackbird, Big Beaver, White Moon, White Wolf, Big Crow, Medicine Bull, and the younger Little Wolf. The last is a different person from the more well known Chief Little Wolf
Little Wolf
Little Wolf was a Northern Cheyenne Chief...
who led the escape from Oklahoma
Northern Cheyenne Exodus
The Northern Cheyenne Exodus, also known as Dull Knife's Raid, the Cheyenne War, or the Cheyenne Campaign, was the attempt of the Northern Cheyenne to return to the north, after being placed on the Southern Cheyenne reservation in the Indian Territory, and the United States Army operations to stop...
.
Early years
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
. His father was previously known as Many Bullet Wounds. Warfare was common and the narrative is soon describing a conflict with the Crow
Crow Nation
The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a Siouan people of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota. They now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana and in several...
. Wooden Leg took his own name from an admired uncle of the same name who was a tireless walker, an ability which Wooden Leg shared. The meaning is that his legs must be made of wood since they feel no pain no matter what the exertion.
Many other conflicts, both with other Indian tribes, most especially the neighbouring Crows, but also the Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
, and US soldiers are documented in which Wooden Leg took part from a very young age. His elder brother was killed in the fight at Fort Phil Kearny during Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
's attempt to clear the Bozeman Trail
Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863-1868. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The U.S. Army undertook...
of US forts.
The hardships of hunting in the snow as a boy with minimal clothing are described as are the unique Indian methods of transport during camp moves. In his young life Wooden Leg travelled all around the Black Hills region, and the Tongue
Tongue River (Montana)
The Tongue River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 265 mi long, in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana. The Tongue rises in Wyoming in the Big Horn Mountains, flows through northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana and empties into the Yellowstone River at Miles City,...
and Powder River
Powder River (Montana)
Powder River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long in the southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in the United States. It drains an area historically known as the Powder River Country on the high plains east of the Bighorn Mountains.It rises in three forks in eastern...
s.
Cheyenne ways of life
According to Wooden Leg, at the top of the tribal organisation were four "old men" tribal chiefs, and under these were forty "big chiefs". The Northern Cheyenne, along with other Plains Indian tribes, had a number of warrior societies; each of these was led by a warrior chief helped by nine little warrior chiefs. In Wooden Leg's time, there were three Northern Cheyenne warrior societies; the Elk, the Crazy Dog and the Fox. The tribal chiefs would delegate executive authority to one or the other of the warrior societies. These would put into action war, hunting expeditions, and camp moves as decided by the tribal chiefs. The currently designated warrior society also acted as police.Wooden Leg joined the Elk society at the age of 14, a big event in the young boy's life. By the rules of Cheyenne society, the currently "on duty" warrior society had sole prerogative in the task at hand. Nobody else was allowed to get in front of their scouts in a camp move, nor to approach the buffalo in a hunt. Of course, teenage boys are wont to push the boundaries and Wooden Leg was no exception. Several episodes are related where he and his friends are reprimanded and narrowly avoid serious punishment.
Sport events and betting were usually between the warrior societies and there were a great many contests of all kinds. If the Cheyenne happened to be travelling with Sioux, then their warrior societies would take part also. Chief Little Wolf
Little Wolf
Little Wolf was a Northern Cheyenne Chief...
, who had been a great distance runner in his youth, was once jokingly challenged by an Ogallala Sioux when he was in his fifties. Little Wolf accepted this challenge and won by intelligent pacing of the distance despite being behind for most of the race.
Many mythological or magical stories are found in the book. This includes a Cheyenne version of the great bear which is supposed to have put the claw marks in the side of Devils Tower
Devils Tower National Monument
Devils Tower is an igneous intrusion or laccolith located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River...
, the feature later seen in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
. Much else of Cheyenne life is documented, a guide to arrow recognition, marriage customs, the entitlement to wear warbonnets amongst many others. Wooden Leg puts all this in perspective by comparison with other Plains tribes. In the process, the reader also learns much about other tribes, especially the Sioux.
The Cheyenne deity is called by Wooden Leg The Great Medicine. A sacred tepee in the camp holds the tribal medicine object, in the case of The Northern Cheyenne, a Buffalo Head. Because of this, buffalo heads often appear in Cheyenne myths and ceremonies. Wooden Leg first "made medicine", an important event for him, at the age of seventeen under the supervision of an experienced old medicine man.
War of 1876-1877
After the Indians were driven out of the Black Hills,They were driven out by the influx of illegal prospectors during the Black Hills Gold RushBlack Hills Gold Rush
The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876-77.Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 19th century...
. Wooden Leg's family chose not to live on the reservation, but instead took advantage of the Fort Laramie treaty
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
provision of hunting grounds for the Indians between the Black Hills and the Bighorn River
Bighorn River
The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately long, in the western United States in the states of Wyoming and Montana. The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the Bighorn Sheep he saw along its banks as he explored the Yellowstone River.The upper...
. They decided to live permanently in the hunting grounds, as far as possible staying out of contact with the white man. Other Cheyenne and Sioux also took this attitude, but most spent at least the winter on their reservations. When "reservation" Indians arrived in camp with rare goods such as tobacco and sugar it was a cause for celebration.
In February 1876 they received news that the US intended to make war on all Indians who did not return to their reservations. In the subsequent fighting
Great Sioux War of 1876–77
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, against the United States...
Wooden Leg took part in nearly every major engagement. The report was initially not believed; they were not fighting the white man and were only acting within the treaty. However, after similar information was brought by respected chiefs, the Cheyenne started keeping good lookouts and it was not long before Wooden Leg and his friends were in a skirmish with a party of soldiers.
Towards the end of winter, the Cheyenne camp on Powder River was attacked and destroyed; however, most of the Indians escaped.Troops commanded by Colonel Joseph Reynolds
Joseph J. Reynolds
Joseph Jones Reynolds was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars.-Early life and career:Reynolds was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky...
. Marquis (q.v., p.168) has his rank as General but other sources (Cozzens, p.xxxiii; Bourke, p.465) have him as a Colonel under Brigadier General Crook's command. Reynolds believed he was attacking Crazy Horse's camp rather than the Cheyenne. Because they now had no possessions during winter, the Cheyenne moved to join their allies, the Ogallala Sioux led by Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
. Together, they moved North-East to join the Uncpapa Sioux led by Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
at Chalk Butte. At some time the camp was also joined by the Minneconjoux Sioux under Lame Deer
Lame Deer
John Fire Lame Deer, , also known as Lame Deer, John Fire, John Lame Deer and later The Old Man, was a Lakota holy man, member of the Heyoka society, grandson of the Miniconjou head man Lame Deer, father of Archie Fire Lame Deer.John Fire Lame Deer was a Mineconju-Lakota Sioux born on the...
. The Indians had to continually move camp to find enough game and grazing for the large numbers of people and horses. Arrows all Gone SiouxMarquis' rendering of Sans Arcs. then joined and then the Blackfeet Sioux. Small groups of other tribes also joined, such as the Waist and Skirt Indians
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two sub-divisions of the Isanti or Santee Dakota people...
The Waist and Skirt Indians were the Wahpeton band
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two sub-divisions of the Isanti or Santee Dakota people...
of the Santee Sioux, a division of the Dakota. They had been living as refugees in Canada since the Dakota War of 1862
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
. They were so called by Wooden Leg's people because of their extreme poverty, lacking even most clothing. Marquis, q.v., p.182., the Assiniboines and Burned Thigh Sioux. Even Chief Lame White Man
Lame White Man
Lame White Man, or Ve'ho'enohnenehe, was a Cheyenne battle chief who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876 and was killed there. He was also known as Bearded Man and Mad Hearted Wolf...
was there with a small group of Southern Cheyenne.
In Wooden Leg's mind, there is no doubt that this gathering of the tribes into one place was intended by the tribal chiefs for defence, not as a preparation for attack on the Whites, despite many of the young men being keen to do just that. On the other hand they were making no attempt to hide. Wooden Leg says "our trail...could have been followed by a blind person" since it was between a quarter and half a mile wide. Wooden Leg, in a group on a scouting mission, spotted soldiers coming from the SouthBrigadier General George Crook
George Crook
George R. Crook was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.-Early life:...
's column. towards their camp on the Rosebud River. Wooden Leg took part in the ensuing Battle of the Rosebud
Battle of the Rosebud
The Battle of the Rosebud occurred June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Lakota Native Americans during the Black Hills War...
in which the soldiers were driven off.
Little Bighorn
Marcus Reno
Marcus Albert Reno was a career military officer in the American Civil War and in the Black Hills War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne...
. Wooden Leg was torn between the desire to join the battle quickly and the need to first put on his best clothes and paint his face (it was the Indian custom to always look one's best if there was any possibility of ending up in the afterlife) and was only stopped from oiling and braiding his hair as well at the urging of his father to hurry.
The Indians drove back these Reno soldiers and had them pinned down, but they then spotted other soldiersLed by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer. making their way along the hills to the side of the Indian camps. Most of the Indians broke off the current fight at this point to engage this new threat from the Custer soldiers. Wooden Leg went back through the camp in the river valley rather than directly towards the soldiers. When there, his father tried to dissuade him from further fighting on the grounds that he had already done enough, but Wooden Leg would not hear of it, even persuading others to rejoin the fight.
After the Custer fight Wooden Leg helped to save Little Wolf
Little Wolf
Little Wolf was a Northern Cheyenne Chief...
from being killed by Sioux who were angry that he had arrived after the fight and accusing him of coming to help the soldiers, though it was the actions of Little Wolf's small band that had provoked Custer into a premature attack. Wooden Leg, who was a good Sioux speaker, presented Little Wolf's case for him as he could not speak Sioux.
Even though Custer's command had been wiped out, the Reno soldiers were still present. Wooden Leg returned to fight them that night, and again the next morning with a handful of comrades. Initially firing from high ground without success, Wooden Leg then descended to the gulch, where he could lie in wait for soldiers coming to fetch water and succeeded in killing a man.Private J. J. Tanner, Dustin, p.147.
Wooden Leg describes many objects recovered from dead soldiers which the Indians did not understand, such as a compass and a pocketwatch. Wooden Leg himself threw away paper money, not realising its value; he also gave away coins which he did realise were of value, because he had no wish to trade with white men. When a new column of soldiers was observed approaching,This was the main force of infantry under Brigadier General Alfred Terry
Alfred Terry
Alfred Howe Terry was a Union general in the American Civil War and the military commander of the Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869 and again from 1872 to 1886.-Early life and career:...
. the council of Chiefs decided not to fight these soldiers also. At this point the Indians disengaged and the entire camp was packed up and moved.
Parting of the tribes
The tribes travelled together for some weeks, camping at various locations in the Bighorn Valley, Rosebud and Tongue Rivers. After arriving back at the Cheyennes' starting point on Powder River it was decided to split up the tribes. It was becoming too difficult to hunt enough food to feed everyone and the danger seemed to be over.As winter approached, Wooden Leg joined a small war party on a raid into Crow territory. On the return journey they visited the site of the Little Bighorn battle, mainly looking for rifle cartridges but also whatever else they could scavenge. Wooden Leg remarks that there were a large number of soldier boot bottoms; this was because the tops had previously been taken by Indians, but they had no use for complete boots.
As they came down the Tongue River valley, the group was surprised by the sight of the entire Northern Cheyenne tribe on the move. They had been attacked at the Powder River camp by soldiers and Pawnee Indians, the camp had been destroyed and they had lost all their possessions. The tribe was searching for the Ogallala Sioux under Crazy Horse, who they eventually found at Beaver Creek. The Ogallala welcomed them and together they journeyed to Tongue River. At Hanging Woman Creek, at the beginning of 1877, they had decided to separate as the Cheyenne had now replenished sufficiently, but while they were in the process of doing so, they were attacked by soldiers.Under the command of Colonel Nelson Miles. Marquis gives his rank as general, (q.v., p.295) but Miles did not receive his promotion to Brigadier General until 1880. Miles, p.207. Wooden Leg's sister was captured in this engagement. Wooden Leg rode to attempt a rescue but was driven back by fire from the soldiers. Most of the Indians escaped down Tongue River; the soldiers did not follow and the Cheyenne hunted peacefully for several months.
Surrender
As spring approached, the Cheyenne received envoys from Bear CoatThe Cheyenne name for Colonel Nelson Miles. The Cheyennes believed that Miles was in command of the campaign against them since it was to him they had surrendered. They knew nothing of Terry or Custer. In reality Miles arrived after the Little Bighorn fight, Marquis, q.v., p.377. inviting them to surrender. They received encouraging reports from released prisoners that they were being treated well. The chiefs decide to move the tribe nearer to Fort KeoghFort Keogh
Fort Keogh is located on the western edge of Miles City, Montana. Occasionally spelled Fort Keough. Originally a military post, today it is a United States Department of Agriculture livestock and range research station. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
at the mouth of Tongue River without yet committing to a surrender. At Powder River they stopped and waited for the result of negotiations with a delegation of chiefs sent to the fort. While negotiations were proceeding, Wooden Leg heard of the suicide of his sister, Crooked Nose, who was still a prisoner in the fort.
After some time in discussion, the tribal chiefs decided they would go to their agency and surrender there instead, which was the same agency as their friends the Ogallalas. Most of the tribe followed the chiefs, but everyone was left free to make their own decision. A few chose not to surrender at either place, and Wooden Leg and his brother, Yellow Hair, joined one such group led by the Fox warrior society chief Last Bull even though the rest of his family had gone to surrender at the agency. The small band, however, were not hunting sufficient food and slowly became weaker. Eventually, they too travelled to the agency to surrender.White River agency, Fort Robinson, Nebraka, Marquis, q.v., p.304. At first, they were satisfied with their situation, but then came the shocking news that they were to be moved south to Oklahoma. Wooden Leg, along with many others, was extremely angry about this. They had all expected to be able to continue to live on their homeland. However, there was nothing that could be done since they had all given up their guns and horses on entering the agency.
Oklahoma
 |
The journey to Oklahoma began in May 1877 and took 70 days. A few Indians fled the agency when the news was announced, amongst them Wooden Leg's brother Yellow Hair. While in Oklahoma he received news that Yellow Hair had been killed by white men while out hunting. Wooden Leg hunted on the reservation, but there was no large game to be had and the Indians were not allowed to go off. Nor were they being fed as promised and there was much sickness. Little Wolf campaigned for action. Finally, he and Dull Knife led a great part of the tribe off the reservation and fought their way back North.
Wooden Leg and his father stayed on the reservation hoping that food would eventually be provided. Wooden Leg had much contact with the Southern Cheyenne during this time. He learnt from them who Custer was (the Southern Cheyenne were familiar with him since he had previously fought a campaign against them) and of their attempt to come north to join them in the summer fighting of 1876. Finally, Wooden Leg took a wife from amongst the Southern Cheyennes.
After six years in the South, the Northern Cheyenne were given permission to leave, either to join Little Wolf or to go to the Pine Ridge agency (formerly White River agency). Wooden Leg's father had died in the South but he and the rest of his family went first to Pine Ridge and later to the Tongue River country where the main part of the tribe were living.
Changed times
There were many changes in the North. Cheyennes were now acting as scouts for the US Army in the same way as previously had been done by the hated Pawnees, Crows and ShoshoneShoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
s. Little Wolf had had his chiefship revoked after a drunken killing. In 1889, at the age of 31, Wooden Leg himself joined the army scouts at Fort Keogh. There was not much to do; he spent most of his time learning to drink whisky. The following year the Cheyenne scouts were involved in a campaign against rebellious Sioux. Wooden Leg was present at Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
. The Cheyenne scouts had prepared themselves to fight (on the US side) but were not called upon to do so.
Wooden Leg befriended the exiled Little Wolf towards the end of that great chief's life. Wooden Leg says that no-one had bad hearts against Little Wolf; even the dead man's brother, Bald Eagle, said "Little Wolf did not kill my brother, it was the white man whisky that did it". Little Wolf was interred standing upright in a pile of stones overlooking the Rosebud valley.
Wooden Leg attended a "peace feast" at the Little Bighorn to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the battle. Some Cheyenne veterans would not go, fearful of retribution from the soldiers present. As late as 1926 there were still Cheyennes who would not go to the 50th anniversary. Wooden Leg himself did not attend the 50th anniversary, not out of fear, but because the site was now on Crow land, to whom he still felt much animosity. He resolved "never again to go to any place where I might be called upon to shake hands with a Crow". This was very different to his attitude to other former enemies, the Shoshones for instance, to whom he travelled on a friendly visit. In 1913 Wooden Leg was part of a Cheyenne delegation to Washington. He also visited New York and Philadelphia during this trip.
Around 1908 he was baptised a Christian. However, he still privately prayed to the Great Medicine, feeling more comfortable praying this way. From 1927, the Cheyenne were again allowed to hold their annual Great Medicine dance. Other customs were still forbidden: practising Indian medicine could end in jail. Wooden Leg was appointed a judge on the agency by Washington. In this capacity he was obliged to enforce a ruling against multiple wives. He found this difficult, not least because he had two wives himself and felt obliged to set an example by being the first to send away a wife. After ten years, clearly struggling with his conscience, Wooden Leg resigned the post, but was later persuaded to take it on again by a new Indian agent.
Wooden Leg had two daughters and had hopes that they would have a more comfortable life than his own. The younger, however, died unexpectedly of an illness. Later the other also died. Wooden Leg then adopted his grand nephew, Joseph White Wolf, and brought him up as his own. The story ends with Wooden Leg an old man becoming increasingly unable to farm his land, but still well off in relation to most Cheyennes as he had a pension from his scouting days and his pay as a judge. He appreciates the comfortable life he now has but thinks much about the old days when "every man had to be brave".
Academic importance
Wooden Leg is an important original source of information on the Cheyenne and Plains Indians in general and on the Custer fight in particular. Many hundreds of books have been written about the Great Sioux War, its battles, and its characters. A large number of these books have looked to Marquis to provide source material. This is especially true of the Custer fight, where there is a shortage of eyewitness accounts from the United States side. There are also books on social issues and archeology which find usable material in Wooden Leg when their book is discussing Plains Indians. A small selection of the hundreds of books that use Wooden Leg as a reference are listed at the end of this article.Wooden Leg is also regularly cited in papers in academic journals. Those addressing social and educational issues are found just as often as those in historical journals. Again, a selection of such papers is given at the foot of this article.
As well as source information for Cheyenne military and social history, the book is also a rich source of anecdotes. There is the incident where Wooden Leg and Little Bird are chasing a fleeing Reno soldier. Neither Indian was willing to shoot a fleeing man as it "seemed not brave" to do so. This did not prevent the soldier from shooting Little Bird, after which Wooden Leg clubbed the soldier off his horse; there are the screams of his mother when presented with a scalp as a present; Wooden Leg sitting in the lodge with his friend, Noisy Walking, dying of his battle wounds, wanting to support his friend but not knowing what to say; and many more equally memorable.
New York Times, 1931
The review in the New York Times after the book's first publication finds Marquis' writing praiseworthy. The reviewer notes that the details of the Cheyenne lifestyle are "deeply interesting". However, most of the review is taken up with challenges to the factual accuracy of the Indian account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.Despite the only surviving eyewitnesses to these events being from the Indian side, and the passage of time since the battle, it is clear that many of the details given by the Indian participants were still controversial and not believed (Custer's widow Libbie
Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Elizabeth Bacon Custer was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. After his death, she became an outspoken advocate for her husband's legacy through her popular books and lectures...
, who had dedicated her life to enshrining the memory of her husband as a hero and who attacked anyone offering a different point of view, was still alive). Special exception is taken to the claim that many of Custer's men committed suicide when defeat seemed inevitable. The claim that Tom Custer's body was decapitated by the Indians is also disputed for reasons that are not clear. It should be noted that the identification of the headless body as Tom Custer is not from Wooden Leg himself, who at the time of the battle knew nothing of either George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
or his brother Tom, but rather, it is a footnote from Marquis. Wooden Leg had merely described the markings he saw on the body. Tom Custer's biography, on the other hand, describes the decapitation as a fact without dispute, saying that the body was identified from tattoos.
Richard Littlebear
Dr. Richard Littlebear, a Northern Cheyenne himself, provides an introduction to the 2003 edition of the book. He is president of Chief Dull Knife CollegeChief Dull Knife College
Chief Dull Knife College is a small, open-admission, Native American tribal community college and land grant institution. It is located on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana, USA. Current enrollment is 141 students. More than half of its graduates move on to four-year...
and an educator writing on Indian culture and language. He describes how he read an earlier edition of the book while an undergraduate and was inspired in his career by it.
Littlebear is most struck by the rapid transition of a free and independent people to a society restricted to reservations and dependent on the federal government. He expresses bitterness against the US government and shows some expression of shame at the part played by Cheyenne scouts after their surrender, for instance their role in locating the position of Chief Joseph
Chief Joseph
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, or Young Joseph was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho...
during his epic, but ultimately futile, attempt to escape from US government control. He identifies this sense of shame in the words of Wooden Leg himself when Wooden Leg is writing about the later part of his life.
Littlebear believes that the book can help explain how modern attitudes amongst the Northern Cheyenne to other tribes originated in their history. For instance the Crow
Crow Nation
The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a Siouan people of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota. They now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana and in several...
are traditionally enemies of the Cheyenne and the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
are traditional allies. Littlebear says that although he knew of these prejudices, he did not understand the underlying reasons until he read this book. Ted Rising Sun's humorous claim that the alliance with the Sioux was only because the Cheyenne "needed someone to hold the horses" only emphasises their friendship. This claim, repeated by others, may possibly have originated as a reference to the Sioux having originally obtained horses from the Cheyenne after the Sioux's migration into the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
region. Ted Rising Sun is a descendant of Chief Dull Knife, a major figure in Cheyenne history and a contemporary of Wooden Leg.
The suicide controversy
The theory that Custer's soldiers committed suicide en masse toward the end of the Battle of the Little Bighorn has been controversial right from the very start, and the discussion still rumbles on to the present day. Marquis was a keen advocate of this theory and developed it most fully in a later book, Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself. This was so controversial, however, that he could not find a publisher and it did not appear in print until long after his death.Marquis has many critics saying either that he has exaggerated the role played by suicide or is entirely mistaken; Hardorff says that his theory is discounted by most academics. Hardorff suggests that Marquis may have made errors due to the use of sign language which, he claims, cannot convey the nuances of language. There can be no doubt, however, that Wooden Leg is indeed relating a tale of mass suicide. In the book he discusses at length what may be the cause of the soldiers' suicide.The idea of suicide to avoid capture was unknown to the Indians. Marquis, q.v., p.246. The effects of whisky was a common theory amongst the Indians, but Wooden Leg believed the prayers of medicine men to have been the cause. Wooden Leg's only taste of whisky up to the time of the battle had been a mouthful from a captured bottle which he had immediately spat out. In later life Wooden Leg changed his mind and subscribed to the whisky theory after experiencing the effects alcohol could have. Despite this criticism, Hardorff still maintains that Marquis' work is of great importance.
Fox and others note that while Wooden Leg's version is corroborated by the oral tradition of other Cheyenne witnesses, notably that of Kate Bighead, there is no corroboration in the oral tradition of the Sioux. Fox concludes that "quite simply, the contention is nonsense. A few troopers undoubtedly took their own lives, but it is hard to know what factors fostered the idea of wholesale suicide". Fox in his turn has been criticised for selectively using Indian oral tradition when it suits him, but discarding it as nonsense when he finds it disagreeable.
Another suggestion is that the Cheyenne warriors were still reluctant to admit to killing soldiers for fear of punishment, but at the same time were being pressed to recount details of the Custer battle. A simple way out of this dilemma was to say when questioned by non-Indians that most of the soldiers died at their own hands. Wooden Leg is said to have retracted the claim in later life; this would have been in extreme old age, as he had still not recanted at the age of 73 when the book was written, other than recanting his original theory in favour of the whiskey theory.
Archaeologists have attempted to test the theory, particularly by the examination of the remains of skulls, but have been unable to reach any definite conclusion. The suicide theory cannot be ruled out by the archaeological evidence, but there is no evidence to support it either.
Books
- Kingsley M. Bray, Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life, University of Oklahoma Press, 2008 ISBN 0806139862.
- Dee Brown, Hampton Sides, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2009 ISBN 1402760663.
- H. David Brumble, An annotated bibliography of American Indian and Eskimo autobiographies, University of Nebraska Press, 1981 ISBN 0803211759.
- Colin Gordon Calloway, Our hearts fell to the ground: Plains Indian views of how the West was lost, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1996 ISBN 0312133545.
- Thomas W. Dunlay, Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-90, University of Nebraska Press, 1987ISBN 0803265735.
- William Alexander Graham, The Custer Myth, Stackpole Books, 2000 ISBN 0811727262.
- Jerome A. Greene, Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000 ISBN 0806132450.
- Thom Hatch, The Custer companion: a comprehensive guide to the life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian wars, Stackpole Books, 2002 ISBN 0811704777.
- Gary R. Lock, Brian Leigh Molyneaux, Confronting scale in archaeology: issues of theory and practice, Springer, 2007 ISBN 0387757015.
- Gregory Michno, Lakota noon: the Indian narrative of Custer's defeat, Mountain Press Pub., 1997 ISBN 0878423567.
- John H. Monnett, Tell Them We Are Going Home: The Odyssey of the Northern Cheyennes, University of Oklahoma Press, 2004 ISBN 0806136456.
- Wayne Moquin, Charles Lincoln Van Doren, Great documents in American Indian history, Da Capo Press, 1995 ISBN 0306806592.
- Peter J. Powell, Sweet medicine: the continuing role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance, and the Sacred Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne history, Volume 1, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 ISBN 0806130288.
- Charles M. Robinson, A good year to die: the story of the great Sioux War, Random House, 1995 ISBN 0679430253.
- Charles M. Robinson, The Plains wars, 1757-1900, Taylor & Francis, 2003 ISBN 0415969123.
- Douglas D. Scott, Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000 ISBN 0806132922.
- Richard Scott, Eyewitness to the Old West: First-Hand Accounts of Exploration, Adventure, and Peril, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2004 ISBN 1570984263.
- James Welch, Paul Stekler, Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians, W.W. Norton, 2007 ISBN 0393329399.
- Sherry L. Smith, Sagebrush Soldier: Private William Earl Smith's View of the Sioux War of 1876, University of Oklahoma Press, 2001 ISBN 080613335X.
- Robert Marshall Utley, The lance and the shield: the life and times of Sitting Bull, Ballantine Books, 1994 ISBN 0345389387.
- Robert M. Utley, Sitting Bull: The Life and Times of an American Patriot, Henry Holt and Co., 2008 ISBN 080508830X.
- Paul Robert Walker, Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, soldiers, and scouts tell their stories, National Geographic Society, 2006 ISBN 0792255216.
- James Willert, Little Big Horn diary: a chronicle of the 1876 Indian War, Upton, 1997 ISBN 0912783273.
Journal articles
- Rosemary Agonito and Joseph Agonito, "Resurrecting History's Forgotten Women: A Case Study from the Cheyenne Indians", Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol.6, no.3 (Autumn, 1981), pp.8-16, University of Nebraska Press.
- Michael Allen and Lawrence Lashbrook, "Enhancing Middle Grades Social Studies through Biography", The Clearing House, vol.54, no.2 (October, 1980), pp.71-74, Heldref Publications.
- Robert Anderson, "The Buffalo Men, a Cheyenne Ceremony of Petition Deriving from the Sutaio", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol.12, no.1 (Spring, 1956), pp.92-104, University of New Mexico.
- Beth Ladow, "Sanctuary: Native Border Crossings and the North American West", American Review of Canadian Studies, vol.31, nos.1&2 June 2001 , pp.25-42, .
- John H. Moore, "The Developmental Cycle of Cheyenne Polygyny", American Indian Quarterly, vol.15, 1991, pp.311-325.
- John H. Moore, "Cheyenne Political History, 1820-1894", Ethnohistory, vol.21, no.4 (Autumn, 1974), pp.329-359, Duke University Press.
- David D. Smits , ""Fighting Fire with Fire": The Frontier Army's Use of Indian Scouts and Allies in the Trans-Mississippi Campaigns, 1860–1890", American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol.22, no.1 (1998), pp.73-116, UCLA American Indian Studies Center, ISSN 0161-6463.
- Anna Lee Stensland, "American Indian Culture: Promises, Problems, and Possibilities", The English Journal, vol.60, no.9 (Dec., 1971), pp.1195-1200, National Council of Teachers of English.
- Bill Tallbull, Sherri Deaver, Halcyon La Point, "A new way to study cultural landscapes: the Blue Earth Hills assessment", Landscape and Urban Planning, vol.36, no.2 (November, 1996), pp.125-133, ISSN 0169-2046, .