The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-03-25
INDIAN VERSION OF
CUSTER MASSACRE

] 4il1td Tic IloSly Luz ltllCdIlOIlS. III WdS
always standing and in the open and
yet no bullets or arrows could kill him.
On one occasion many Indian bullets
were fired at him all at once, but he
was not touched. The old warriors
at a signal fired at. him with sacred
arrows, but they could not. kill him.
All Indians think, but for this one
charmed man, Bentine, Reno camp
would easily have been taken.
Bentine, the Swedenborgian, is a
most unique 1 understand that
the Military Fireside in Washington,
gives the chief credit for this heroic
defense of Reno's camp to General
Godfrey. Or cours he may nave been
the man giving the chief directions, I
do not know about that. Lam giving
the old Indian version of the matter.
Indians know things as they see them
and come in contact with them. White
men often see them from a different
standpoint. Indians are concerned
with facts and actions.
The attack against Reno camp
though desperate and heroic failed
and as a result Rain -The-Face lost
the opportunity of his life of becoming
a truly. great man In the history Of the
Indians.
Third: There is another thing
which gives a n-In-The-Face a uni
aNS FA1SN AA SAAS ~ VI iLOA
The victory over Custer, though
easy as white men see it was at one
time almost lost, as old Indians see it.
They tell how Custer n his men
were at n time near the Little Big
Horn river and q bugle was blown.
Chief Gall and his men thought this
bugle ment a charge. Indians at
that time were terribly afraid of q
cavalry charge" amin The Face
who had been much around Fort Yates
knew the bugle was retreat. When he
Informed Gall and his men that the
bugle was retreat, they were on the
point of rushing each man to his tent
to try to make his get away with his
w wife and children instead of rush
ing to the attack. This would of
course have been disastrous to the
Indians. This information which
Rain-In-The-Fac carried to Chief
Gall was just in time to save Calls
men from fleeing, and in that case
Custer and his men would, as the
Indians think, have made a charge
and the result would have been terri
BILE.
This is, of course. the Indians YER
sion. I am not speaking from the mill
tary standpoint. From a layman's
view point. 1 believe this is correct.
The writer's on the Custer battle have
failed to realize hat Chief Gall had a
group of men 400 or 500 strong who
were able to 10Y as a solid mass.
This is a new feature in Indian war
fare. Custer had not met this at
Wichita.
To be sure Rain-In-The-Face car
ried the information to Gall, involun-
tarily. A young Indian girl Wfnona
(Which means the first born), COM
i PEELED him to do this by threatening
to shoot him, unless he did this, and
SO he has a unique place in the
memory Of Indians.
In the drama Sitting Bull is not
represented as a warrior. He is not
a warrior. However, I have a picture
made by an old Indian in earth colors
representing him as fighting .~valorous-
Iy and heroically four different times.
He did not wish for war, he was of a
somewhat timid nature, but when
aroused he was equal to anything. He
is the chief character in the drama.
He was patriotic to the Sioux nation.
He was ambitious, but not selfish. His
faith in the power Of the occult was
unlimited. To the time of his death
he never abandoned the thought that
he was destined to become the one to
establish the independence and
anatomy of the, Sioux nation.
Winona, the heroine in the play, has
a heroic as well as a pathetic part.
Her lover falls in the charge made at
the lower ford while he is attempting
to defend a mother and her child, as
indians say, Winona. his lover, draws
| him to the shade of a tree, where she
thinks that he is dead. In her hysteria
she sees the ghost ready to depart,
while other ghosts are in the place
trying to take her lover away with
them. In her thoughts she seizes the,
ghost of her lover. in her arms and
struggles against the ghosts who are
trying to take him away until she
faints and falls. The old woman di-
viner, an occult character in the play,