The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-03-29

stripped every private in the ranks,
every officer save one, Custer. They |
had scalped every man except the
general. Clusters body had been
lifted from the heap and laid to one
side, a handkerchief spread over his |
face. A knife had been inserted dcft-
ly under the lower rib and the heart |
extracted. We found it set upon
Clusters breast, a silent testimonial |
of the completed vengeance Of the |
Sioux chief. Some time after the bat
Face, he told me he had vowed to
General Custer that he would some
day cut out his heart, and that lie
left it on the battle field as his boast
that he had carried out his threat"
Properly to understand this Incl
dent of the heart-cutting, we shall
revert again to history and quote an
other line or two: "Chief Gall was
leader in the mascara. Rain-in-thc-
Face was the Sioux chief who killed
DR.. Hulzinger and Mr.. Balliran in
1873 on the Rosebud. These men had
fallen behind Custer and his COM
mand, and were found dead with no
| traces of their slayers. Some months
| later, Rain-in-thc- Face told of the
killing, in the hearing of Reynolds,
| it to the general who arrested Rain
in-the-Facc and locked him in the
guardhousc, but he escaped" 1t was
this arrest that infamed Rain-in- the
Face and his friends, among whom the
nearest and best loved is none other
than the author of the statement
hereinafter quotcd-Chicf Flying
Hawk, who was with him throughout
these campaigns, was present in the
1878 incident and during his arrest
and confinement, and took promin-
cnt part in the massacre under Rain
in-thc- Faces leadership. But here
history and try to understand the In
dian's viewpoint and the cause and
manner of the arrest
The Sioux and Cheyenne count.
included the Black Hills, where gold
was discovered in 1874, it was on their
reservation; they had been driven
out into this bleak and supposedly
!, valueless land, just as they always
had been, and herded together like so
many wild animals, and, like animals
, were supposedly fed and clothed by
the government in this observation
set apart and sacrcdly proclaimed by
solemn treaty to be theirs forever.
: 1t was under these conditions and
, while facing starvation, that Rain,
in-the-Face wandered from the re-
servation to hunt along with others
, This, wit the blame for killing Hulz.
l niger and Balliran, furnished an ex,
cusc for his arrest and inhuman con
finement. 1t was then that he made
the threat that some day he would
cut out the heart of General Custer
, 1t is believed that failing to econ.
-, vict" the chief in a court-martial pro
cecdihg, the general issued orders tt
: his jailers to remain off duty while
! Rain-in-the- Face "escaped' from thu
' guardhouse. He had not murdered
t Hulzinger and Balliran, for it wa:
' in "war" that they met their death
' So the Indian had "grudge" that
c from his viewpoint, was entirely nat
D ural and fully justified. 1t was with
this feeling of great personal injur!
y and humiliation that he went into tn,
4 Custer fight on that beautiful Jun,
G day in 1876, and if we are to bcliev,
v the statement of the white survivor
4 quoted, he made good his threat Il
0 last.
& But we are yet to hear from tn,
=. old chief who knows most about it
). the man who was the best friend o
n Rain-in-the-F Face and who was witt
: him in the fight and saw just wha
d occurred there. 1t is the story of tn