Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1901-01-03
rage. a diabolicai incarnation Of equine

rage. a diabolical incarnation Of equine
fury.
"A number OF Indians Immediately de-
tached themselves from the rest and gave
chase. They were hopelessly distanced
from the first. Nothing an Indian ever
rode could beat that horse. Finally. as
he streaked It out across the plateau near
ly a mile in the lead the Indians gave II
up n sitting back on their ponies
watched the flying horse In a fury of dis
appointment. Then they witnessed an
amazing thing, something which they,
"lth no conception of the code Of honor
which actuates officers in the United
states army, could not understand. They
saw the young lieutenant look back, and,
nnding himself hopelessly out Of the fight,
deliberately draw his revolver and
shoot Himself Through the Head.
Inc morse stopped at once, and the In
dians, continuing the chase. captured him,
leaving the body of the officer lying alone
on the sands. The first report of the
hght reported him missing, but a stone
was erected to his memory on the field.
In the meantime Clusters men met in
'front.' and on the river side by the same
deadly fire, were compelled again to re-
treat, this time down the second side Of
the fatal triangle. as you can see. SO
they were driven again to lower ground,
hghung desperately all the while. The
troopers, having dismounted from their
horses, 1ere now proceeding at a walk,
using their mounts as much as possible
for cover.
Clusters Death.
AT the spot where Custer met his death
there was a rally and a last stand. for
the Indians, bursting out OF cover from
the front. swept down on the little band
IKE a lot OF yelling fends. The combat,
waxing into an incredible fury, was
waged almost hand to hand. The rifle
ammunition was exhausted. revolyers
were emptied. and the troopers, dra wing
their sabers died fighting to the last
breath.
standing untouched through all
the melee, Custer must have be-
gun to guess that the Indians
were making an effort to capture
him alive. Expecting nothing but the
cruelest and most inhuman tortures
from their hands, he fought until they
had closed in about him on every side.
until all the men Immediately about him
= N"i a. anu lItH luTHGQ his revolver
against himself.
After that the end was not long in
coming. The scattered survivors were
driven back along the third side Of the
triangle, so that when the last men fell
he died within a hundred yards of the
place where the first was killed"
An Interesting Character.
To one familiar with the sanguinary his
tory of the plains from 1872 until the up
rising at Pine Ridge, eliminating in the
death of Sitting Bull in 1891, Gourard
stands as one of the most unique and in
teresting characters surviving. Capt.
A~rrasmith, who has known him for years,
declares that as a scout he had no equal,
not even in the famous Kit Carson him
self.
To-day fifty years of age, Gourard is in
appearance a type of the full-blooded
Sioux. Not a drop of Indian blood flows
in his veins, however. A Sandwich ISL
ander by p~arentage, a Californian by birth,
he was endowed by nature with the phys
ical hardihood OF a young mountain lion.
and the instincts of the most willy of
forest creatures. Captured by the Sioux
when but a child, he was reared as one
of them. From his captors he learned all
that nature and circumstances had taught
the crafty savage. He learned the lam
! guages of the plains n became g master
in the sign code. His roaming with the
restless tribes gave him knowledge of
the topography of the country, which
served him we'll in after years.