The Donaldsonville chief., 1886-08-14
Chief Gall. who con.

dlsTs early N the morning crossing the
divide When Reno and Custer separated
we watched them until they came down in: q
the valley. The >rY was raisel that the
white soldiers were co. aing, and orders were
given for the village TO move. Reno swept
down SO rapidly upon the upper end that
the Indians were forced to fight Sitting
Bull and were At the point where Reno at
tackled. Sitting Bull was the big medicine
man Tho women and children were hastily
moved down the stream where the CheYennes
were encamped. The Sioux attacked Reno
and the Chey snnes Custer, and then all be-
came mixed up. When Reno made hi, a.
tack at tie upper end he killed my two
squaws and three children, which made my
heart bad. l then fought with hatchet
dreaming that he mutilated the soldiers)
Prom other portions OF his graphic de-
scription of the fight one of the chic. causes
of Cuter's disaster is determined. He says
that some OF the horses stood on their heads
from fright at the Indians ceiling an 81 ak
Ing vari-colored blankets nt them. The sol.
diers then abandoned their horses to fight OH
foot leaving the horses in charge f Il few
men These were soon dispatches by tie
Indians, and the already frightene horses
stampeded, carrying in their saddles the re-
serve ammunition on which the soldiers de-
pended. The wiley reomen knew all this.
and drew the fire from the white soldier u.i--
til his ammunition was exhausted, when
they. closed right in and killed them with
hatchets. This account Of the disaster is
born out by the known fact that most of the
Seventh cavalry had, just previous to the
tucky horses, unframed to the yells and ex-
element of Indian fighting.
Gall, however, pays high tribute to the
bravery of Custer's command. "The In
dians, he said. "were In couple. behind and
in front Of Custer a. he moved up the ridge
and were as many as the grass on the plains.
The first two companies Keogh's and CAL
houn1 dis,Aounted and fought on foot,
They never broke. but retired step by step
until forced back to the ridge. upon which
all finally died. They we're shet down in
line where they stood. Keogh's company
rallied and were all killed in bunch. This
statement seems borne out by the facts. as
thirty eight bodies Of Keoxh's troopers vera
found piled in heap)
"The soldiers fought desperately and never
surrendered. They fought standing alon1 In
line on the right As fast as the men fell the
horses were herded and driven toward the
fquaws and old men, who gathered them up.
When Reno attempted to find Custer by
throwing out a skirmish line, Custer and all
who were with him were dead. When the
skirmishers reached a high point overlooking
Clusters field, the Indians were gallopine
around and over the wounded. diving and
dead popping bullets and arrows into them.
Forty-three Indians were killed that dav
but many more died subsequently from
wounds
Gall has with his own hand killed many
soldiers and settlers in the twenty years that
he was on the warpath prior to 1876 At
one time party of soldiers overlook him on
the prairie. near Fort Sully, D. 7. They shot
him a half dozen times through the BODY.
and to make sure that he was a dead Indian,
they bayoneted him several times through
the chest but he lived to retaliate ON the
Little Big Horn battlefield
Gall is a magnificent specimen Of Indian
humanity. He is full six feet in height.
with an immense chest and 1.-the, active
body. He, like Sitting Bull and the major
part of his tribe, are now sincere Christians
and that they are proud of their religion is
evidenced by the cross which they wear
Though born leader, Gall a. become ons
of the meek Of followers,