The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1902-07-24
VIVID MIMIC WARFARE.
First Lifelike Reproduction OF
the Custer Massacre.
PLANNED BY SCOUT 0. P. HANNA.


Fifteen Hundred Crow and Cheyenne
Indians, With 26O Regulars, Fought
a Sham Battle on the Little Big
Horns Historic battle-ground.
Three Hundred indians Were In
Real Fight Years Ago.
At Sheridan, Wyo., July 4, not far
from the spot where Custer fell, twen-
ty-six years after the heroic Seventh
cavalry was demolished by ferocious
and overpowering force of Indians,
was enacted a mimic but fearfully
lifelike imitation Of that celebrated
massacre, says the New York Times.
Fifteen hundred Crows and Chey-
ennes, hideous in their war paint,
swooped down upon 26O men from
Fort Mckenzie and surrounded, cut
down and annihilated them in the
presence of thousands of spectators,
who then saw the first lifelike repro
ductt-n Of the slaughter Of Custer and
his band
The fight Of June %, 1875, was with
out surviving witness, and after the
last horrible yell had died away in the
Big Horn, after the last scalp had
been lifted, there was no one Of that
gallant band of troopers left to tell
the tale. The scene of carnage has
been described only in the unwilling
speech Of the Indian victors and the
imagination Of the writer's whom that
speech and the graves of the silent
dead inspired. SO, after all, the most
authentic and certainly the most vivid
picture of that fight was the sham bat
tie between Uncle Sans men and the
Crows and Cheyennes on the Fourth
Of July, 1902.
The recent reproduction of the Gus
ter massacre is the result of many
years of scheming. For ten years eff
forts had been made to persuade the
Grows to take part in the mimic fight,
but all overtures had been met with
grunts of disapproval. 1t was not TN
til after patient persistence and much
canvassing that O. p. Hanna, once a
scout with Custer, succeeded in inter-
esting the reds in a sham battle.
Through his long experience on the
frontier and his personal acquaintance
among the leading chiefs of the west
ern Indians Hanna finally came out on
top. They agreed to ''put up" al ey-
hibition If Hanna would do certain
things, which Hanna readily promised.
The Crows are very conservative
tribe these days, and when once they
were interested in the project they
were ready to emigrate almost to a
man to the field of the sham battle. So
the Crow agency on the Fourth looked
like deserted village, while around
the town Of Sheridan were camped at
least 1900 Indians. OF the chiefs who
took part In the sham battle the best
known are Spotted Horse, Wolf-That-
Lies-Down, Two Leggins, Old Crow,
Plenty Cuss, Crazy Head, Red Toma
hawk, Iron Thunder, Medicine Grow,
Sparrow Hawk, Pretty Eagle and Bad
Man.
Rehearsing 1000 Indians for the
sham battle was no small task and re-
quired diplomacy as well as executive
ability. For days the spectacle was
repeated until all the movements We're
thoroughly drilled into the red mems
minds In the band of Indians who
fought on the Fourth more than 300 Of
them were in the battle of twenty-six
years ago. Major Sanders was the Gus
ter, and at the head of bis little band,
representing the detachment of the ia
nous Seventh United States cavalry,
he could be seen in the distance max.
inc a detour to surround a smf1l clus-
ter of Indians The latter ran. and
Sanders charged after them in full pur-
suit. The red men were real warriors
In appearance, with their shining, maxi
ed limbs and features Enthusiastically col
ored, and riding their mounts at top
speed they presented a terrifying spec
tacle.
The reds were then REINFORCED and
beat back the soldiers, the firing broke
into sulien roar, and the soldiers
were seen again advancing. The sol
diers divided into two columns. one
taking one side and the other the OPP
posite of the ascent Up the ravine.
Then Spotted Horse, who acted Gall,
brought up more Indians. The troop
ers tried to form junction Of their
two slender columns, but the enemy,
scores and scores of flying, yelling
fiends, remained ever between them.
There was no escape. Call was an
omnipresent fiend and seemed to pos
sess a charmed life as he charged at
the head of his hordes yelling, encour-
aging, calling on the Great Spirit as
they rode over their own dead to reach
the little band of the Seventh First
the cavalry horses fell as their riders
dropped behind them, shooting desper-
ately on every side at an enemy that
seemed to encircle each one of them,
so numerous were the reds.
A final charge, and both sides wers
down save a few plucky punches OF
men who stood side by side in the last
encounter. Then the carnage began,
and scalps were lifted in high glee
Custer alone. with half dozen men,