The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1905-12-15
Rain in the Faces Dying State.
ment Not Believed by all
the Indians
Chief Crawler Tells of Celebrated
Battle With Clusters Troops
Conclusion of Articles
(By FRED G. HUNTINGDON

Miss Collins wrote to the state
historical society, l believe, while we
were away that Rain in the Face had
told her, before he died, that he
killed Custer. I was quite curious
about this and got the story from Miss
Collins myself. She told me that
Rain in the Face hated Custer with
all the intensity of his Indian nature
and that, just before he died, when
almost gasping for breath, he fairly
Missed, Eyes, 1 killed CUSTER. Miss
Collins said though that she had
never before been able.to,get him to
admit it. Miss Collins believes that
he told the truth.and it may be but
the Indians, as the go, don't
believe it. They will tell you, those
that were in that fight, that the con-
fusion was so great and the action of
so short duration that no man could
say just who did thisJ.or that. How
ever, this brings me to the story of
Chief Crawler, a hereditary chief of
the Sioux, whom | interviewed.
AN EVENING WITH CHIEF CRAwLER
Thanks to the kindness of Walker
Smith, the %sub-agent at Bull Head, 1
met Chief Crawler at his residence
one evening and talked with him
through Antoine Durocbrain, the Of
fetal interpreter. Crawler is a man
who must have been, in his prime,
two to three inches over six feet.
His hair is Q snowy white and he
wears it in long braids. His face
would do for a typical Indian art
study and it is one of the chief regrets
of the whole trip that we missed get
ting his photograph. 1 asked him of
his early life and of various other
incidents. 1t was a pleasure to listen
to him. Every syllable, nearly, was
accompanied ty a gesture of some
sort. l simply can't describe it. 1t
was certainly an unique experience.
He told me that he was born just
above Bull Head, on the Grand river,
and that he had spent his entire life
up and down the Missouri river on the
west side. He first saw a steam boat
when he was five years old, that was
6S years ago, and he said that all the
Indians raj and hid, thinking it the
evil spirit. He told me of how he and
another Indian rescued a white woman
who had been captured by some of the
Sioux. This woman was the only sur
vivor of a party which were attacked
and wiped out in Wyoming, just west
of the Black Hills. He also said he
was in an attack on Ft. Lincoln and
in a fight with a large emigrant party
near where Ft. Butord is now. He
said the Indians lost rather heavily in
that fight.
HIS STORY OF THE CUSTER FIGHT
The Indians do not talk very freely
about the Custer fight. Crawler said,
however, that when Clusters men
charged the Indians we're surprised
and would have run but were rallied
by their chief men. They closed in
on Custer who had stopped at the
bottom of the rayine. The soldiers
quickly say that they were caught
and Immediately remounted and tried
to break out of the net that had been
closed in and around them. The
fight, Crawler said, took place on a
sloping hill side and that the soldiers
and the Indians were mixed up IN a
confused mass. Instead of there hav-
ing been a ring of soldiers with Indians
circling around, as we have all seer
pictured and have read of in our
school histories, it was a running
fight. Custer, he said, had cut his
hair and could not be distinguished
from the other officers on that account
nor vas his uniform such as would
mark him out from the rest. When [
asked him if he thought Rain in the
Face killed Custer he said that he did
not and for two reasons. First, he
said, the confusion was so great that
he did not think he could have got to
him unless he just happened to be
near him and his second reason was
that he did not consider Rain in the
Face man enough. So there you are.
However, Rain in the Face un-
doubtedly knew Custer somewhat
better than the other Indians, per-
haps better than any other one Indian
and he hated him SO intensely that he
surely would have killed him if he
could have. He stuck to his story of
mistreatment by Custer TO the hour
of his death and it seems to ne that
he would not have lied to Miss Collins,
circumstances considered. Another
feature of the Custer fight is that the
soldiers e almost totally exhausted
when the charge was made. They
had been in the saddle, l think, two