Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-02-07
WORD OF INDIAN
STUDENT DOUBTED
ON CUSTER FIGHT
CLAIM THAT RED CLOUD PARTT-
CIPATED IN THE BATTLE
is REFUTED
By GEORGE Nj. CASEY

! by OEOhGE M. CASEY
A recent dispatch in the daily press
quotes one Clarence M. Groshell, Salt
Lake resident whose hobby is Indian
research, with the statement that.
military history to the contrary, Sit
ting Bull did not win the battle of the
Little Big Horn-better known as
Clusters last stand.
The dispatch continues:
"Groshell says Sitting Bull was a
mediocre fighter. Not only that-he
arrived on the scene of the massacre
when it was nearly over The chief
really responsible for the Little Big
Horn debacle was named simply Gall,
Groshell says But he had able as
sistance from Red Cloud and Rain-in-
the-Face.
"Chief Sitting Bulls role was not
unimportant, however. The old chief
was willy politician and strategist,
and he kept the Indians at fighting
pitch
But when the actual bullets began
to fly, Sitting Bull was doing just that
sitting"
The Salt Lake authority may be cor
rect in his main deduction-that Sit /
ting Bull played only passive role
in the fighting that hot June day in
1876, although this is, by no means, ,
an established fact.
But either he is off base decidedly |
in other statements regarding the
Little Big Horn battle or much infor-
nation given by historians Of standing
concerning the fight is at sharp vari- /
ance with the truth.
Red Cloud Wasn't There
The Salt Lake dispatch says that
Gall was the chief mainly responsible
for the Little Big Horn fiasco. Again
Grosheu may be correct. Historians
seem pretty well agreed that Gall, an
Hunkpapa chief, was designated by
Sitting Bull, also a Hunkpapa, to be
the Sioux leader in the scrap. The
Hmkpapas were in the majority in
this campaign against the Seventh
cavalry and 1t was thus but natural
that one Of them should be so desig-
mated.
But when the Salt Lake man states
shat Gall had able assistance from
Red Cloud we must part company with
him. The old Oglalla war chief, who
had forced the government to abandon
It's string Of forts eight years before
along the Bozeman road-shortcut to
the Montana gold camps-waSn't even
present at the Little Big Horn to hear
The shooting. At least If he were pres
ent Frederic F. Van de Water doesn't
zee fit to mention the fact In 1.-THE
Glory Hunter" as engaging and &C.
,urate a biography Of General Custer
IS has ever come off the press. Neither
10 P. E. Byrne in Soldiers of the
Plains" nor any other writer's whose
works on this fascinating chapter In
western history we have studied.
If Red Cloud had been there It
would be rank oversight to omit his
lame. For Red Cloud, as you know,
vas no small change as an Indian J
lighting man. He was right up there,
n fact, with Chief Joseph, both as a '
warrior, strategist and diplomat and
10 historian in his right mind would |
lave brushed him off as a person of
10 consequence had he been among
he Sioux who liquidated Clusters !
Red Clouds star as a fighting man .
lad about set when the Custer massa- :
re occurred. His fame rests chiefly
lpon the implacable war he waged
against the whites in the Powder river J
country, when the government, in di- :
ect violation Of its treaty, established !
forts Reno, Phil Kearney and Smith !
o guard the Bozeman road. His name 7
S linked with the Fetterman massacre
md the historic Wagon Box fight. He
vas riding high then, with the entire
sioux nation.
by Treaty b
He was riding still higher when he y
orced the whites to abandon the forts r
nd negotiated the Laramie treaty of {
1858. But when he listened to the /
ntreaties Of peace commissioners at o
'ort Laramie and signed this treaty s.
e alienated the bitterly hostile Sioux y
the followers Of Sitting Bull, Gall +
nd Crazy Horse. When he urged them $
D take up farms ON the newly estab-
shed reservation they gave him the a
lugh. They had defeated the whites d