Wooden Leg Wooden Leg ( Cheyenne " Kâhamâxéveóhtáhe " ) ( 1858 – 1940 ) was a Northern Cheyenne warrior who fought against Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn . Biography . Wooden Leg was born , in 1858 , in the region of the Black Hills , near the Cheyenne river . He was son of Many Bullet Wounds ( also called White Buffalo Shaking off the Dust ) and Eagle Feather on the Forehead . He had three brothers ( the two elder ones being Strong Wind Blowing and Yellow Hair , the younger one Twin ) and two sisters ( the elder one being Crooked Nose , the younger one Fingers Woman ) . During his childhood he was known as " Eats from His Hand " . Later , he inherited the name Wooden Leg from his uncle , a Crow adopted by the family of Eagle Feather on the Forehead . This young Crow proved to be a tireless walker , outlasting all the young Cheyenne and earning the name Wooden Leg , since his tireless legs seemed to be made of wood . Only his nephew was able to follow him during his endless walks and so the friends of Eats from His Hand began calling him by his uncle ' s name in sport . Eventually , Eats from His Hand took his uncle ' s name as his own . In his childhood and youth , he lived among his tribe , wandering in the land between the Black Hills and the $ 3 . During this period , he lived like any other Indian of the Plains , spending his time , hunting the game and fighting against the enemy tribes , in particular Crow and Shoshone . The first remarkable battle with the white men he saw was the battle of Fort Kearny in 1866 . Wooden Leg was too young to take part in the battle , but during the fight his eldest brother Strong Wind Blowing died . So , in spite of the final victory of the Cheyenne , that was a mourning day for all his family . At fourteen , he was invited by Left Hand Shooter to become part of the warrior society of the Elkhorn Scrapers , one of the three warrior societies ( the other being the group of the Crazy Dog and the group of the Fox ) in which the men of the tribe were divided . At seventeen , he went on retreat to thank the Great Spirit . He spent four days closed in a tepee , meditating and contemplating , visited only once a day . After the trial , his face was painted with a black circle enclosing his forehead , chin and cheeks ; the internal area of the circle was yellow . This facial picture , together with his best suit , his shield and his flute made from the wing of an eagle , became part of his war equipment for the rest of his life . The morning of the 25 June 1876 , while sleeping under a tree after a feasting night , Wooden Leg and his brother Yellow Hair were awaken by the cries of the old men claiming the arrival of the soldiers . Wooden Leg ran to his tent . He quickly prepared himself for the battle , then moved himself to the melee with his brother . At first , he fought with soldiers hidden and surrounded in the woods near the river . Defeating these enemies , he went towards the river where he found a rifle and ammunition . Then , he attacked the soldiers on the hills . The Battle of Little Bighorn lasted all day . After the victorious battle , the Northern Cheyennes wandered for some time in the region of the Little Bighorn river , soon chased by the soldiers . Then some Cheyennes , who had lived for some time in the reservations of the United States , were sent by the U . S . Government to persuade the tribe to surrender and to live in a reservation . Because of their hunger , a great part of the tribe accepted the offer ; Wooden Leg , with a group of other 34 Cheyennes , among which his brother Yellow Hair , refused , since he and his fellows " " still desired , more than anything , that freedom that they considered a right " " . He lived a laborious life in the area of the Tongue River and the Powder River , until , again because of the hunger , he and other 30 Cheyennes decided to give up their lives as hunters and sought the reservation . The U . S . government , seeking retribution for the loss at Little Big Horn sent General Crook on the Powder River Expedition . He was to search out and remove the Sioux from the Black Hills as well as any other large Indian group in the area . Part of Crook ' s large force was made up of the 4th Cavalry , led by an experienced Indian fighter , Ranald MacKenzie . His 4th Cavalry was often referred to as MacKenzie ' s raiders . Crook ' s force moved out of Cantonment Reno , a staging area , and north up the Powder River . Crook ' s Indian Scouts , Pawnee , Sioux , Shoshone and others found a large Cheyenne encampment at Red Fork , on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains . MacKenzie ' s 4th Cavalry was dispatched to attack and destroy the camp . After a long and difficult overnight march over icy and treacherous terrain , the 4th came upon the camp of Morning Star ( Dull Knife ) in the early morning of November 25 , 1876 . The Indians had been dancing most of the night and most of the camp was awake , rather than asleep as some accounts indicate . MacKenzie ' s troops and scouts attacked the camp , killing many of the inhabitants , driving off the rest . The camp itself was burned , food provisions taken by the scouts and troops . Because of the agitated flight , Wooden Leg abandoned his flute , which was later destroyed in the following destruction of the camp . After the battle , the Northern Cheyenne marched towards north - east , reaching the Oglala Sioux . Here they were joined by other tribes , such as Miniconjou , Sans Arcs , Santee Sioux and Blackfeet . Together they reached , and camped in , the valley of the $ 3 . Wooden Leg entered in the reservation of the White River . He lived here until the soldiers moved the reservation southward . In this new place , he learned how to hunt eagles . However , the new reservation was very far from the native land of many Northern Cheyennes , so a group led by Little Wolf , disobeying the soldiers , left the reservation to go back to their ancient home . Wooden Leg at first refused to follow the old leader and remained in the reservation . In 1878 , he married a Southern Cheyenne woman . After the death of his father , Wooden Leg and his family decided to leave the southern reservation . Passing from the White River reservation , renamed by that time as Pine Ridge Indian Reservation , they reached the place where Little Wolf and the other Cheyennes camped . It was the core of the future reservation of the Tongue River . In 1889 , Wooden Leg enlisted at Fort Keogh as a scout , and , in 1890 , he guided the soldiers in the campaign of the Wounded Knee Massacre . In the same years , he served also a messenger and a sentry . Thirty years after the battle of Little Bighorn , he took part in a 1906 a meeting of whites and Indians , gathered on the field of the battle to remember that event . He spoke of the battle , being one of the few Indians who had the courage to tell his experience to Dixon , a white doctor . Wooden Leg was baptized by the priest in the reservation in 1908 . He thought that the whites and the Indians worshiped the same god , even if in different manner ( i . e . : calling him with different names ) . Wooden Leg , together with the young Little Wolf ( nephew of the old Cheyenne leader ) , Two Moons and Black Wolf , was part of a 1913 delegation sent to Washington to speak about the Cheyenne tribe . During this journey , he visited Washington and New York . Back in the reservation , he became a judge : he had the responsibility to solve quarrels in the tribe and to teach the law of the United States . Twice , he was offered to become a chief in lower order of the warrior group of the Elkhorn Scrapers , but he refused ; some white men called him Chief Wooden Leg , but indeed he was never a chief . He had two daughters , but they both died in their youth . After the death of the last daughter , he and his wife decided to adopt the son of his sister , John White Wolf . In a 1903 interview with Thomas B . Marquis , a former agency physician for the Cheyenne , Wooden Leg related a great deal of information about Cheyenne life prior to the reservations and the battle of Little Bighorn . His account is published in a book called " " . He died in 1940 .