White Man Runs Him White Man Runs Him ( Mahr - Itah - Thee - Dah - Ka - Roosh ) - ( c . 1858 – June 2 , 1929 ) was a Crow Scout serving with George Armstrong Custer ’ s 1876 expedition against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne that culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn . Early life . Also known as " White Buffalo That Turns Around " , he was born into the Big Lodge Clan of the Crow Nation , the son of Bull Chief and Offers Her Red Cloth . At the age of about 18 , he volunteered to serve as a scout with the United States Army on April 10 , 1876 , in its campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne , traditional enemies of the Crow . Service as a scout . White Man Runs Him " enlisted on April 10 , 1876 at the Crow Agency , Montana Territory , for six months in the 7th United States Infantry . " On June 21 , 1876 he was transferred to Custer ’ s Seventh U . S . Cavalry , as part of a contingent of six Crow warrior / scouts , including Goes Ahead , Curley , Hairy Moccasin , White Swan , and Half Yellow Face ( leader / chief of the scouts ) . He scouted for Lt . Charles Varnum ’ s column in the days preceding the battle . In the early morning hours of June 25 , 1876 , he and other crow scouts accompanied Varnum and Custer to the Crow ’ s Nest , a high point on the Little Bighorn / Rosebud Creek divide , from which the $ 3 , could be viewed at a distance of about seventeen air miles . The scouts could see indications of a large horse herd and the smoke of many morning fires , though the encampment itself was hidden from view on the valley floor . The Crow scouts advised Custer that the encampment was very large . Custer prepared to attack , however . Custer was concerned that during the morning of the 25th of June , Sioux / Cheyenne warriors had detected the presence of his 650 man force , and if he did not promptly attack the village would scatter , thus denying the army the confrontation it sought with the Sioux / Cheyenne forces . Convinced they were about to die in battle , the scouts took off their uniforms and donned Crow war clothing . When Custer demanded to know why , they responded that they wished to die as warriors rather than soldiers . Custer was angered by what he perceived as fatalism and relieved them from further service about an hour before engaging in the final battle . White Man Runs Him retired to a ridge along with Goes Ahead , Hairy Moccasin , and Strikes That Bear ( an Arikara Scout ) to join Major Marcus Reno . They were engaged briefly in battle but would survive the engagement . He then joined Colonel John Gibbon ' s column . Later life . After the battle , he lived on the Crow reservation near Lodge Grass , Montana . He was the stepgrandfather of Joe Medicine Crow , a Crow tribal historian who used his grandfather ’ s stories as a basis for his later histories of the battle and grandfather to Pauline Small , the first woman elected to office in the Crow Tribe of Indians . His status as a Little Big Horn survivor made him a minor celebrity late in life , and he even made a cameo appearance in the 1927 Hollywood movie , " Red Raiders " . White Man Runs Him lived the remainder of his life on the Crow Reservation in the Big Horn Valley region of Montana , just a few miles from the site of the famous battle . He died there in 1929 . Legacy . White Man Runs Him was buried in the cemetery at the Little Big Horn Battlefield . " His account of the battle is told in the work " The Custer Myth " by C . Graham , on pages 20 to 24 , " and also in " It Is a Good Day to Die : Indian Eyewitnesses Tell the Story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn . " A slough near Lodge Grass , Montana is known as Baaishtashíilinkuluush Alaaxúa , " Where Whiteman Runs Him Hid . " A coulee , Baaishtashíilinkuluush Isalasáh te , which is named after him is also known as " Whiteman ' s Creek . "