Evening star., 1922-07-09

the summer before.
Through skillful scouting and many
a days hard riding. we eventually
reached the scene of the aforesaid
massacre. the first troops on the
ground since Terrys command came
up to bury the dead the day following
the tragedy. Just a year and day
had passed and practically nothing
had been disturbed. AS we came into
the valley of Little Horn. ! was al
lowed to precede the troop by an
hour or more and to take an Indian
with me, selecting Bleeding Heart,
a young Sioux. buck who had been
prominent in the Custer fight and
knew every inch of the ground 1t
was an intensely hot day. in June
tthe 18th. 1870. and my escort had
gotten himself up in full fighting rig
war jacket and all. We ap-
preached the scene of the ma ssacre
where the grass had grown more than
knee-high and very thick. My guide
exhibited symptoms of suppressed ex-
citement, and desired me to smoke
with him. I knew what that meant.
SO I smoked with him and we passed
the pipe to each other. 1t was not
my intention to kill. him, and ! now
had the assurance that he'd not kill
me. He commenced humming a war
DO f>Il
| scalp dance. Indeed. his whole bear
ing plainly bespoke his approval of
what his tribe had done to the Gus
ter command the year before.
Suddenly he checked his pony. and
glancing down into the grass. signed
| to me to look, which I did. There
lay the skeleton of a cavalry trump
eter-one of Reno's men. Using the
sign language. which I understood,
Bleeding Heart gave me to under
stand that this had been the first
man of that part of the command to
fall: that he had been in advance of
the men. and that his horse had also
been killed. Later the Sioux squaws
and Indian boys had shot him full of
arrows and finished him. Most of
| these arrows had been shot into his
chest, and their heads were of hoop
! iron from sugar. barrels. filed down
to a most wicked kind of arrow point.
1 took some half a dozen and kept
them.
bleeding HEART was familiar
! <b,t haI ho0 a
on that eventful day up to the moment
when the big Sioux bunch pulled out of
the valley and deserted their immense
camp. where six thousand Of them were
strewn along the west bank Of the Little
Horn river. He pointed out the scalp
pole where they had held their dance
after stringing up it over two hundred
scalps of the Custer command-in short
Bleeding Heart took me to every point
that had any connection whatever with
the massacre and fdily explained all
that had passed. Several years ago J
published a full account Of all this, SO
will not repeat it here.
In, the course Of another hour or two
Col Kellogg came up with the troop and
the remaining eight Indians. To my
surprise, these latter had produced their
war jackets and were now wearing full
war-rigs, even their faces being painted
as upon the day of the massacre.
shall never forget their appearance and
can hear the blood-curdling, monot-
1 choose to send my mind back to that
day.
| We went into camp on the west
bank of the river and in a little
while the colonel expressed the wish
to cross the then very shallow Little
Horn to go, over the scene of the
massacre. The Indians followed Us
and appeared to be very curious as
to how we would conduct ourselves
They seemed much surprised when
they. noted our GOODNESS and our
practical way of examining every
thing. -. - -.-+
Kellogg and sat down on the
| ground where the Terry burial party
had driven in the stakes that marked
the graves of the officers. The In
dams were standing up. about us
Reaching out the colonel took hold OF
one of the stakes and shook it. say
ing as he did so: who do you sup.
pose is down here?" The stake was
| somewhat loose and he. pulled it up-
a cottonwood stake. rather less
than a yard long, pointed at one emo
and blazed fiat on one side. Its lower
end had apparently been driven into
an empty cartridge shell. which lat
tier came off as we pulled up the
| stake. On the blazed. nat side hao
heen made six vertical parallel
marks, the last one followed by a
horizontal one, with finally another
vertical one. Col. kellogg was. puz'
zled and could make nothing Of it
"what do you make. out of it?" he
queried. why" replied, lit look.
to me like CUSTER - l
Ii. e., the. general. In other words
this is Clusters. grave and Custer.
body lies below" The solution wa'
correct. as the, empty cartridge shell
proved, for 1t. contained the. gen