Arizona republican., 1914-04-04

in order to get the game that was in l this country. We fought this battle from daylight up until three o'clock | in the afternoon, and all of the l white men were killed I think that | Custer was a very brave man to 1 fight all these Indians with his few
 men from daylight until the sun was I almost going down.
 The Fight Justified by the Indians l Runs Enemy, another Sioux chief, says in part: When we had killed all the sol
 Giers we felt that we had done our
 duty, and felt that it was a great 1 battle and not a massacre. With reference to the real reason for this fight l may say the talk among the
 Indians was that they were going to Icompel us to stay on the reservation
 and take away from us our country.
 Our purpose was to move north and go as far north as possible away l from the tribes. Our object was not
 to fight the Crows or any other tribe, but we learned that the sol
 diers were getting after us to try to compel us to go back on the reser vation, and we were trying to get away from them.
 During the Custer fight our tents Were not attacked, but after the bat tie the women gathered up their dead husbands and brothers. and laid
 them out nicely in the tepee. and left
 them. I understand that after we had left the tepees standing, holding
 cur dead. the soldiers came and
 burned the tepees. According to my
 estimate there were about 2000 able
 bodied warriors engaged in this fight: they were all in good fighting order. The guns and ammunition that we gathered from the dead sol diers of Clusters command put us in
 better fighting condition than ever before, but the sentiment ran around
 among the Indians that we had killed
 enough, and we did not want to fight any more.
 There has been good deal of dis
 pute about the number of Indians killed About the closest estimate
 that We can make is that fifty Sioux
 were killed in the fight, and others
 died a short time afterWard from their wounds.
 We Had to Fisht,' They Say
 Chief Two Moons says:
 The whole valley was filled with
 smoke and the bullets flew all about us, making a noise like bees. We could hardly hear anything for the noise of guns. When the guns were firing, the Sioux and Cheyennes and soldiers. one falling one way and one , falling another, together with the noise of the guns, I shall never for l get. At last we saw that Custer and
 his men were grouped on the side of the hill, and We commenced to circle round and round, the Sioux and the Cheyennes, and we all poured r in on Custer and his men, firing ; into them until the last man was
 shot. We then jumped off our
 horses, took their guns and scalped , them.
 | Before the Custer fight we wen. B ever on the Tongue river and found Q camp of soldiers We rushed upon
 them and took all their horses away, | and the soldiers ran into the brush. ? We knew there would be other sol , diers after us; we knew about where { they were, and we felt they would r pursue us.
 l At Powder river the soldiers at tackled our camp and destroyed ev- 5 erything, and that made us mad , When the soldiers came after us, on the day of the Custer fight, we were , ready to kill them all. The soldiers ? were after us all the time, and we 3 had to fight.
 | The Fault Was Reno's 2 The authors conclusions on the Custer fight, are as follows: Fair play is an all compelling !. creed Justice to the dead is one of the commandments in that creed Let the controversy rage. Let the sword be unsheathed in the face of misrepresentation and wrong. Gen. eral Custer was a daring and chival- rous officer. He had won laurels on many hard fought field under : southern skies-he was a stragegist brave and unfaltering. He served in western campaigns with distinc- tion and success. He knew how to deal with the masterful generalshiI , of his willy Indian foes. Hitherto his
 tactics had been victorious. The or ders under which he now marched to battle were definite up to a cer- , tain point-then, so the record ir i, the war department reads-he was tc | use his own discretion and initiative e He was compelled to follow this
 counsellor he marched over a wild I and trackless waste far distant from , his base of supplies and absolutely P without means of communication witf o headquarters. and without ability to ascertain the movements of any mili- V tary force in the field.
 gI It is fair to state that the ranking 1, general in charge of this campaign