The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1921-01-07
WHEN SHOT IN THE HAND BECAME GREAT WARRIOR STORY OF
HOW SIOUX TRIED TO WIPE OUT CROW NATION M ONE BATTLE

where we had camped the night be-
fore the chief counted the places
where the tepees had been. He turn
ed to his men and said, "See, allow
ing but three men to every tepee we
outnumber them 20 to one. Twenty
to one. We will surround them and
kill them all. Two days from now
the Crows will be no more. Two
days from now there will not be a
man Crow iii the world. We will
kill them all. You will all have many
women to work for you. We will
take the women and you will have
children by them and we will be a
big tribe" And they all shouted and
gave their war whoop.
Then the chief said to them who
will wear the clothes of my son and
ride his horse, and be the first in
the fight and fight till he dies and
avenge the death of my SOM"
But no one answered for it meant
death. And he went about the camp
asking who would wear the clothes
of his son and fight till he died. But
no one answered for they had no de-
sire to die but thought of the easy
victory they would have when fight
ing 20 to one, and the women they
would take captive. And he brought
out the clothes of his son-his best
war shirt, and leggings and bonnet
and they were very fine. There was
a young man who was not right in
his head and he thought how fine it
would be to wear such fine clothes
and he offered himself and he would
fight till he died. And they took off
his clothes and put on those of the
son Of the chief and brought out the
horse and put him on that. He was
proud of himself in the clothes and
that the chief himself had helped to
dress him and he rode down the
ranks and sang and shouted and said.
"See, I am gong to fight in the
clothes of the chiefs son, until
die, to avenge his DEATH I give my
body, my whole body to the Sioux"
Some of the chiefs lifted him from
his horse and did him much honor,
and took him to tepee and laid be-
fore him a choice cooked smoked
tongue of a buffalo. And they
themselves put four pieces into his
mouth flour is the big or sacred
number Of the Sioux; all acts Of
great importance are done four
times) and then he helped himself
to as much as he wanted.
| Well, that is what they did. I
will tell you how he died presently.
Ready for the Fight
They were joyful at the prospect
of the easy victory they expected to
get. Well, you will see. That is
what the wounded captive told us
happened in the camp of the Sioux.
told you how we had prepared
for them. How we had one side fac
ing the creek at deep part where
the bank was steep, how we had
made a big corrall and herded all
had dug pits to hide themselves from
the arrows, and how all the men
with rifles had been spread out and
under cover on foot.
l had an old muzzle loading gun
with short barrel, about two feet
long. loaded it up with powder,
a lot of it, and put in lot of pieces
of iron; not bullets but old pieces
of iron. This put on my horse. l
had a fine horse, white one with
yellow ears. He was my favorite
fighting horse and was we'll trained.
I also had my lance and bows and ar
rows and knife. My shield l slung
on my back to be ready.
We sent out scouts to get touch
of the enemy and what they were
.doing-how many there were and
how they were forming. They had
not gone beyond the first rise of
ground when they came galloping
back and called out "They are COM
ing, they are coming, the whole
Sioux nation. They outnumber us
many times. Go kiss your wives and
children for you are going to die.
We shall all be killed, they are so
many. Women, 60 sharpen your
axes and your knives and prepare to
kill yourselves, for it is better to
die than be taken by the Sioux" And
the women sharpened their knives
and their axes. And I went and kiss
ed my wife and children for l did
not expect to see them again. Ny
wife said she would kill the children
and herself rather than be taken BY
the Sioux. For the Sioux are bad.
determined I would get right in
to the middle of the enemy so that
II were to die my wife should not
see me. or If were not dead l
should not see my children taken.
Then / thought of my medicine and
what the spirit had told me. The
guns could not harm me and that !
should not die by the arrow. But
the Sioux had knives and tomahawks
and the big stones on the end OF
sticks. I had on my best fighting
shirt and got on my horse, my white
horse with the yellow ears. And
I tied the cinnamon bear skin about
his neck-this that you see here
for it was my medicine. AS l put il
on him he whinnied and began ia
paw the ground with his feet He
wanted to get in the fight. And ii
made me feel good and l broke into
the Bear Song. (The old man again
sang the bear song. He was fighting
the battle again and he was excited :;
so was Mike RN1l Chief and tho nj or