The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1905-09-27
Rain-In-The-Face Has
Passed Away.
PLANNED TO DESTROY CUSTER.


ing chiefs of the Custer massacre,
who is said to have killed Gener-
al Custer, died at the Standing
Rock Reservation Sept. II, aged
81.
Rain-in- the-Face was a pure
blooded Sioux. and prided him
self on this fact. While he was
one of the most savage fighting
General Bull ever had under him
in his campaign, he never enter
tanned much respect for the old
chief, always contending. as did
many others, that the Bull had a
white feather.
As a trouble maker, who would
kill on the slightest provocatioD,
Rain-in-the Face was known in
all parts of North and South Da-
kota and Southeastern Montana,
but he did not come into great
prominence until the early part
of the seventies, when he was ar
rested by Tom Custer, brother
of the famous general, and
brought to the prison at Ft. Alb
raham Lincoln, on Missouri. The
charge against him was that of
murder.
ESCAPED FROM PRISON.
After being imprisoned three
months he escaped and joined Sit
ting Bull on the Rosebud and
Big Horn rivers. He left behind
him the threat for Tom Custer
and the whole Custer family, 81
will kill you ALL
The Grow Indians, scouts and
guides ofthe army, always friend
Iy, warned General Custer and
his relatives that Rain-in-the-
Face was the most treacherous of
the Sioux, and surely would be
avenged for his arrest, but the
Clusters laughed, and said that
when they met him again he
would have the punishment due
him.
Eighteen months after the es-
cape of the chief, who was then
a strong buck about 80 years old,
the Clusters, with the Seventh
Cayaly and Reno and Benton,
subordinate officers of the COM
mand, rode down the trail of the
Yellowstone to find Sitting Bull
and his warriors. June 25, 1876,
they found them in a valley of
the Big Horn, and the Custer
massacre, inspired by Rain-in-the-
Face, and sustained by aboriginal
hatred of the whites, followed.
Deserted by Reno and Benton,
not realizing that they had come
upon the full camp of the Sioux,
Clusters handful of 800 odd men
rode into a trap which Chief
White Bear said afterward to the
government commission, Rain
in-the-Face had planned ever
since he had known of their COM
ing, and his scouts had been in
advance of them for week be-
fore the battle took place:
FIRED THE LAST SHOT.
Rain-in-the-Face led the final
grand charge on the little knoll
above the mountain streams
where the Seventh Cavalry would
not surrender. He directed the
braves to kill the horses of the
troopers. In two hours a hand
full of Clusters men were left, his
brothers were dead, his men were
ont of ammunition and the last
act of the tragedy was at hand.
No thrush of the Indians was nee
essary to destroy the few left.
Rain in-the-Face could keep at a
distance and pick them off, as he
and his bucks did.
Custer, so far as Indian tales
can be accepted, finally stood
alone, pistols empty, sword brok-
en-, the dead of five companies of
the gallant Seventh about him.
Spotted Tail, the Bull and White
Bear always insisted that he could
have surrendered then and would
have been treated with honor by
his captors, but he did not know
the meaning of the word.
But from defle came puff of
smoke, the song of a rifle bullet,
a flash of flame and the leader OF