Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-06-13

celebrated Cureley, long known as the
only survivor of the Custer disaster,
belated recognition had been given to
all the Crow scouts who served
through the entire campaign against
the Sioux and Cheyennes. In addition
to his exploits in the days of warfare,
White Man Runs-Him gained Indian
students as one of the finest physical
types of the Indian race.
Lad of %
At the time of the 1876 campaigns
in Montana. White Man, uns-Him
was a youth about %. Early in the
spring of that year, Lieutenant Brad
ley of Gibbons command recruited
from the Grow tribe band of about
Is young warriors, anxious for bat
tie honors. Until the arrival of the
forces under Terry and Custer from
Dakota, they were engaged with Glib
bon's troops in patroling the Yellow
stone.
At the parley between the officers
at the mouth Of the Rosebud, Custer
asked for the services of six of the
best Grow scouts to point the way up
the Rosebud and across by way of the
Wolf mountains to the Big Horn
country. White Man Runs Him was
one of those chosen. Their work was
done with CELEBRITY and notes left by
Custer show that he had high opin-
ion of the sagacity and trustWorthi-
ness of his Crow aides.
Ordered to Go.
According to the accounts ven1by
White Man-Runs- Him, he remained
with Custer during the first attack
near the river, but after the retreat to
the ridge, the scouts were ordered to
join the pack train and left Had not
Custer told me to go, the people who
visit Clusters battlefield would see my
name also on the monument" White
Man Runs-Him once remarked,
Of the six scouts, two were with
Reno's forces. OF the others, White
Man-Runs-Him, Hairy Moccasin and
Goes=Ahead rode through the night
skirmishing with Sioux bands and fl
nally reached Gibbons command
where they told the terrible details of
the battle and of the besieging Of
Reno in the hills farther south. About
the same time Curley brought the
same news to the steamer Far West
Whether he left Clusters command at
a later stage of the battle, will always
be moot question.
James NJ. Sipes, n, the last surviv-
or of the three men who first heard
from the lips of Curley, Crow Indian
scout, the story of the battle of the
Little Big Horn on June 81, 1876, two
days after humiliation of General
A. Clusters immediate command, died
at the home of his daughter here. He
had been i'll for year. The funeral
will be held Thursday at Miles City
where the pioneer made his home for
many years after the Indian cam
paigns of the late seventies.
Sipes was barber ON the Far West,
Of which Grant Marsh was skipper. It
was while Sipes, Steward Reuben Ri
ley and James Boles, pantryman, were
fishing about mile up the Big Horn
from anchorage of the Far West on
the Yellowstone that Curley, scout
with Clusters immediate command,
suddenly appeared.
| Making a sign of peace, he told the
three white men in the sign language
of the loss of Custer and his immedi-
ate command. He was taken to the
| Far West, where he repeated his
story.
Sipes remained on the Far West
during its 54-hour trip back to Fort
Bismark with wounded men of the
| Rann and Ranfa1r Ja A
years later he located at Miles City.
White Man-Runs- Him now rests be-
| side his comrades Of the. ill-fated
Custer expedition in the National
cemetery ON the Little Big Horn over
looking the battlefield where, So years
ago this month, an entire fighting
unit of the United States army was
| wiped out.
With military pomp and every hon
or that is accorded one who has served
his country in time of stress, the body
Of the aged Indian scout, one of the
four Grow Indians who guided Gen
eral George A. Custer and the five
troops Of his immediate command
! from the Rosebud to the Little Big
Horn on June rs, 1876, was buried al
!, the battlefield.
In nearby graves lie the bodies OF
Curley, Goes-Ahead and Hairy Moe
casin, who, with Trumpeter Martin
were last to see Custer alive. Curley
remained with the command after
start Of the battle and later escaped
but Goes-Ahead, Hairy Moccasin and
/ White-Ma -Runs-Him were ordered
back to the park train in the rear at
the beginning of the hostilities. White
Man Runs-Him Is the fourteen hun,
dred and sixty-sixth grave at the
Custer battlefield, dedicated as a Ma.
tional cemetery some years ago.
Baptist Service.
After services at the Baptist mis-.
sion at Lodge Grass, at which the
Rev. G. A. Bentley Of Crow Agency
officiated the Grow warriors body
was taken to the battlefield, where
services were conducted under aus
plces of Hardin post No. 8 and T4odoa