The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-06-22

ton was organized. AS these three
tribes Travelled westward other tribes
Joined them. They moved slowly,
camping and hunting along the way.
The arrival at the Little Big Horn was
about June ID. The camp on the site
where the Custer soldiers found them
on the 25th had been for but n night,
and the plan had been to go to another
place the next day if the soldiers had
not come.
The first soldiers in the field in 1876
were those of General Crook, who as
senbled his forces at Fort Fetterman,
Wyo., in February. In March he NOV
ed northward into Montana. On March
18th he found an Indian camp, whipped
out the Indians, burned the tepees, and !
returned to Fort Fetterman. He re-
ported hat he had fought Crazy Horse
and his band of Ogallala Sioux. That
report doubtless passed on up the mil
itary channels and now is in storage at
Washington. 1t is an official docu-
ment, and it is accepted as incon-
trovertible proof that those Indians
were Ogallalas led by Crazy Horse. All
writer's have followed that false "docu-
ment," and deductions from it have led
them into other mistakes.
But, notwithstanding that authorit-
alive original army officer report, those
Indians were Cheyennes. There were
40 lodges of them. Their chief was Old
Bear, n of the four superior chiefs
of the tribe. In result Of that attack
upon this Cheyenne camp they fled,
travelling three days, and reached the
camp of Crazy Horse and his Ogallalas.
These two bands then went to the Sit
ting Bull camp, east of Powder river.
That act of warfare by the Crook SOL
diers was the prime cause of the COM
bining Of the Indian tribes that sum-
mer. There are a considerable number
of old C~heyennes yet living on our
Tongue river reservation who were in
that little camp when the soldiers
struck them on March II. 1876. Among
these yet alive are Wooden Leg, Teeth,
Braided Locks. and various others. Any
of them can go now M point out the
precise spot where their camp then was
located, two or three miles north of the
present Moorhead. Mont, just north Of
the Wyoming line, and on the
west bank of Powder river.
Crooks army returned in June to
search again for Indians. He encount-
cred them ON June II or upper Rose
bud creek, just above the present Kirby,
Mont, and e the highway leading
from there to Sheridan, Wyo. The en-
suing battle lasted several hours, from
early forenoon to late afternoon. Crook
retreated into wyoming. The Indians
returned to their camp. The army Of
ficer reported that battle as having
been against Crazy Horse and his Ogal-
lala Sioux warriors. It went into the
record that way, and historians since
then have copied the record in this re-
gard.
But in that battle Of June II were
Indian warriors from all of the six
tribes then combined and travelling to-
gether. They had various leaders be-
sides Crazy Horse. Warrior chiefs and
their followers went from the Unc-
papas, Ogallalas, Brules, San Ares,
~Cheyennes, Minneconjoux, Blackfeet
Sioux, and from small bands mingled
with these tribal bands. The Crook re-
portland the historians who accepted
it-said the Indian camp at that time
was ON Rosebud creek a few miles be-
low the battle ground. In fact, the
combined camps had been on Rosebud
creek a few days before the battle, but
at the time Of the conflict they were
located in a great group on the stream
we know as Reno creek, a tributary on
the east side Of the Little Big Horn riv-
er, seven or eight miles southeast of the
Custer battlefield. Any old Crow In
dian, Of the present time, as well as any
old Cheyenne or old Sioux, can go
straight to this camp site Of June II,
1876. It is at the place where the road
over the divide crosses Reno creek.
Crazy Horse is treated by many his
torical writer's as having been a leading
chief Of the C~heyennes as well as Of the
Ogallala Sioux. But he was restrictedly
a chief of the Ogallalas, having no on
nection with the Cheyennes, except as a
friendly ally. Those two tribes were
in alliance for mutual interests through
many years, but they were at all times
separate tribes, each with its own tribal
government, and the language being ut
terly different. The conception Of them
as one tribe may have come from their
being put together on the Dakota res
ervation in 1868.
Gall, an Uncpapa Sioux warrior, has
been held out in our book writings as
the commandments of all the In
dams who fought Custer at the Little
Big Horn. But his status as such was
fixed by the agent at the Standing
Rock reservation, several years after
the battle, and after Gall had returned
to the reservation and had become an
adherent Of the agent. However, In
dian warriors never did operate by that
system, never had any commander-in-
chief, neither at that battle mol at any
other battle. On all occasions of fight
ing, every warrior was his own com
mander. There were warrior leaders,
but they merely set examples Of bravery
and cunning, having no authority to
compel any warrior to follow such x
ample. Each Of the six tribes at the
Little Big Horn had three or four war
rior leaders, total Of twenty or so in
the battle-and not any one of them