The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1905-09-28
RAINiN-rHE-rAcE z a
He Was Supposed slayer Of Custer
and the Aid Of Sitting Bull.

~ Vvao S0PHSOSo O~J
and the Aid Of sitting Bull.
"Reminiscences. one of the leading
chiefs of the Custer massacre, who is
said to have killed Gen. Custer, died
at the Standing Rock reservation Sept.
IL. He was sixty-two years old.
Rain-in-the-Face was a pure blooded
Sioux and prided himself on this fact.
While he was one of the most savage
fighting generals Sitting Bull ever a
under him in his campaigns, he never
entertained much respect for the old
chief, always contending, as did many
others, that the Bull had a white
father.
AS trouble-maker, horse thief and
Indian who would kill on the slightest
pr~ovocation, Rain-in-the-Face was
known in all parts of Western North
and South Dakota and Southeastern
Montana, but he did not come into
great prominence until the early part
of the '70s, when he was arrested by
Tom Custer, q brother Of the famous
general, and brought to the prison at
Fort Abraham Lincoln, on the Mis-
souri,. The charge against him was
that of murder.
After being imprisoned about three
months he escaped and Joined Sitting
Bull on the Rosebud and Big Horn
rivers, but he left behind him the
threat for Tom Custer and the whole
Custer family: 81 will kill you ALL"
The Crow Indians, scouts and guides
of the army, always friendly, warned
Gen. Custer and his relatives that
Rain-in-the-Face was the most treach'
erous of the Sioux and surely would
be avenged for his arrest, but the Gus
tiers laughed and said when they met
him again he would have the punish
ment due him.
Eighteen months after the escape OF
the chief, who was then a strong buck
about thirty years old, the Clusters
with the Seventh cavalry, and Reno
and Benton, subordinate officers OF
the command, 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, in.
spired by Rain-in-the-Face and sustain.
ed 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 hand
full Of 800 odd men rode into a trap
which White Bear said afterward to
the government commissioner Rain-in-
the-Face had planned ever since ne
had known of their coming, and his
scouts had been in advance of them
for a week before the battle too
place.
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 d.
rected the braves to kill the horses OF
the troopers. In two hours a handful
of Clusters men were left, his brothers
were dead, his men were out OF ammu-
milton, and the last act of b tragedy
was at hand. No thrush of the In
dams was necessary 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 broken, 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.
Out from a defle came a pun OF
smoke, the song Of a rifle bullet, a
flash of flame and the commander OF
the Seventh died by the hand of the
chief who had sworn everlasting
vengeance.