Great Plains (30 page)

Grouard's mistranslation appears in many sources; e.g., Clark, p. 29. Mari Sandoz makes him the villain of the piece, which interpretation others have followed, despite the fact that dozens of people from General Sherman on down wished for and assisted at Crazy Horse's destruction.

The disdain of Crazy Horse for councils is in Hinman, p. 13. In Brininstool A, pp. 15–16, Agent Lee describes his efforts to clear up the confusion.

 

The anxious telegrams which brought General Crook to Fort Robinson are mentioned in Clark, p. 31. Crook's plan for a big council, Crazy Horse's fears about it, and the speech Crazy Horse made to He Dog are all in He Dog's account in Hinman, pp. 21–23. He Dog died in 1936 at the age of a hundred; see Clark, pp. 44, 69.

 

The account of Woman Dress's warning to Crook, the plot in General Bradley's quarters against Crazy Horse, and the discovery of the plot by General Bradley are all in Garnett, pp. 2–4. I find Garnett a credible witness because of his flair for dialogue: “When I got in the room, Bradley says, ‘What is that council that was held today in my room?'… I says, General, that is supposed to be a private council and not to be given out … I told him the plan was made, and about this $300.00 and horse racket, that ammunition was drawn and the Indians were to be prepared for it. He says, ‘You go back where the orderly found you, and stay there.' … So I went to Lieutenant Clark's quarters and went in the room, and he was walking up and down in there, and when I went in he said, ‘These Indians can hold nothing.'”

A sidelight: Hyde, in
Red Cloud's Folk
(note, p. 296), says that Woman Dress was a grandson of the Oglala chief Old Smoke. When Francis Parkman lived among the Sioux in 1846, he lived in Old Smoke's tipi. Assuming that Woman Dress was in his mid-thirties in 1877, it is therefore possible that he was one of the children whose heads Francis Parkman punched “with a short stick” when they climbed on him in his sleep.

 

I cannot determine exactly when Crook gave Bradley orders to capture Crazy Horse and jail him. Probably, it was sometime on September 3. General Bradley says that Crook left Fort Robinson on the morning of the fourth (Brininstool A, p. 50). McGillycuddy says that the soldiers and scouts left the fort to arrest Crazy Horse before sunup (Clark, p. 123). Mrs. Lucy W. Lee, wife of Agent Jesse Lee, gives the number of men in the party as 850 (Brininstool B, p. 63). Clark's reward for Crazy Horse's capture is in Brininstool A, p. 22, as is “I am Crazy Horse!…”

 

The account of Crazy Horse at Spotted Tail comes from Agent Lee, in Brininstool A, pp. 16 et seq. Buffalo Chips's speech is recounted by interpreter Louis Bordeaux, who was present, in the Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 11, p. 69. Bordeaux also states that Crazy Horse was put in the custody of Touch the Clouds for the night (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 11, p. 80).

 

Red Feather, Black Shawl's brother, said that she was sick and that Crazy Horse left her with her mother (Hinman, p. 27). Agent Lee describes getting Crazy Horse to return with him, in Brininstool A, pp. 23 et seq. Mrs. Lucy W. Lee said that Crazy Horse said that riding in the ambulance made him sick (Brininstool B, p. 65).

 

According to Dr. McGillycuddy, it was Lee's interpreter, Louis Bordeaux, who whispered to Lee that they might be killed for bringing Crazy Horse to Fort Robinson (Clark, p. 124). “I'm not going to be made a goat of…” is mentioned by McGillycuddy's wife (J. McGillycuddy, p. 83). The quotation from the
Times
is in the September 19, 1877, issue (5:4); that the Tortugas were Crazy Horse's destination is mentioned in many other sources. The Army prison at Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas was for the most loathed of prisoners; it was where the government sent Dr. Samuel Mudd, the man who set John Wilkes Booth's leg.

 

Mrs. Lee says that her husband told Crazy Horse he would have a chance to talk to General Bradley on the following day (Brininstool B, pp. 65–66). Agent Lee's account of what he said to Crazy Horse is in Brininstool A, p. 26. The fact that Little Big Man and Captain Kennington walked on either side of Crazy Horse is in Garnett, p. 6. Interpreter Louis Bordeaux said that Lee warned him “not to get into any trouble over Crazy Horse” and then went toward the officers' quarters (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 11, p. 89). Mrs. Lee says that she was at Fort Robinson staying with their “good friends, Major B. and wife,” and that immediately after Crazy Horse was stabbed she saw Crazy Horse's uncle threaten to shoot Agent Lee as she watched from in front of her friends' quarters (Brininstool B, pp. 66–67). It seems clear that Agent Lee, his job done for the day, headed to where he knew his wife was staying.

 

Frank Grouard's cold observation of Crazy Horse walking unknowing into the guardhouse is in Brininstool A, p. 66. Dr. McGillycuddy says that Crazy Horse half nodded at him (Clark, p. 124). Garnett (p. 6) says that a sentry was marching in front of the guardhouse. Garnett says that a moment after Crazy Horse went in there was a sound of confusion, and then “I saw a Roman-nosed Indian come out. He had a very thin face. He was a Rosebud Indian. He says, ‘This is a guard house.'” Descriptions of Crazy Horse's attempt at escape are in Hinman, pp. 27, 20; Garnett, p. 7; Brininstool A, p. 38; among other places. Lee says that Crazy Horse tried to stab Kennington (Brininstool A, p. 27). Little Big Man's howling is described by interpreter Baptiste Pourier (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 13, p. 22). Garnett is the source for the prisoners' leg irons clattering (p. 7). “Stab the son of a bitch!” is from the account of Louis Bordeaux (Ricker Collection, series 1, tablet 11, p. 90). Information about Private William Gentles is in Clark, p. 143. Many sources say Crazy Horse was stabbed only once; He Dog (Hinman, p. 20) says, “He was gasping hard for breath. ‘See where I am hurt,' he gasped. ‘I can feel the blood flowing.' I pulled back his shirt and looked at the wound. He was thrust nearly through twice.” Grouard describes Crazy Horse falling, in Brininstool A, p. 66. “He has killed me now” is in Garnett, p. 7.

 

Dr. McGillycuddy describes the guard of twenty soldiers ringing Crazy Horse. The private who felt sorry for Crazy Horse's father was named George W. McAnulty (Brininstool B, p. 87). The Indians “bending and swaying like tigers” are in Kadlecek, p. 53, who is quoting William Garnett in the Ricker interviews. It was Grouard who heard the hammers being cocked and the shells being chambered (Brininstool A, p. 66). The member of the guard who said they were lucky no shot was fired was named Edwin D. Wood; he made that observation in a letter to his father which appeared in the Schoharie, N.Y.,
Republican
(reprinted in the
Times,
September 28, 1877, 3:2). Dr. McGillycuddy's description of Crazy Horse's condition is in Clark, p. 125.

 

The request of Touch the Clouds that Crazy Horse be allowed to die in an Indian lodge is in Brininstool B, p. 33. Dr. McGillycuddy says, “I suggested [to General Bradley] that we effect a compromise and put Crazy Horse in the adjutant's office, where I could care for him until he died” (Brininstool A, p. 39). Bradley's reply is on the same page. Julia McGillycuddy says that American Horse told her husband that Crazy Horse was a chief and must not be put in prison (J. McGillycuddy, p. 84). McGillycuddy's further negotiations with Bradley are in Clark, p. 126. A description of the adjutant's office is in J. McGillycuddy, p. 85, among other places. “[American Horse] said to put him in a blanket and take him to the adjutant's office, which they did. Red Shirt and Two Dogs helped carry Crazy Horse into the office” (Garnett, p. 7).

Crazy Horse's refusal to lie on the cot comes from two sources. One is the account of Agent Lee, who says that when he went to the adjutant's office Crazy Horse was “lying on the floor as he desired” (Brininstool A, p. 29). Another is a two-page typed manuscript, “The Saga of Fort Robinson, ‘Outpost on the Plains,'” by Richard L. McGhee, former curator of the Fort Robinson Museum, in the Crazy Horse file in the museum library. This says explicitly that Crazy Horse refused to lie on the cot.

 

Dr. McGillycuddy's accounts of Crazy Horse's last hours are in Brininstool A, p. 40, and B, p. 46. Julia McGillycuddy says that all other Indians were ordered to leave the fort by sunset (J. McGillycuddy, p. 85). Agent Lee describes his last visit to Crazy Horse in Brininstool A, p. 29; his wife's version is on p. 34. Crazy Horse's speech about how his people preferred hunting buffalo was recounted by Captain H. R. Lemly, who was present (“The Passing of Crazy Horse,” by Captain H. R. Lemly, in
Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States,
Vols. 54–55, [1914], pp. 321–22).

The death-scene dialogue between Crazy Horse and his father is a good example of the way writers change things. Mari Sandoz, in
Crazy Horse,
pp. 412–13, says:

 

And when Worm [Crazy Horse's father] was brought to the bare, dusky room where Touch the Clouds was watching, he stooped over the wounded man, saying, “Son, I am here—”

But there was only the slow, heavy breathing of the medicine sleep and the feet of the soldier guard outside, walking up and down on the gravel …

“I am here,” Worm said.

Now the son saw him. “Ahh-h, my father,” he whispered. “I am bad hurt. Tell the people it is no use to depend upon me any more now—”

For a while it seemed he would say more, then slowly his head seemed to settle back …

 

Interpreter Louis Bordeaux, from whose account in the Ricker Collection this scene certainly comes, actually says, “Crazy Horse, Sr., said, speaking to his son: ‘Son, I am here.' Crazy Horse, Jr., said, ‘Father, it is no use to depend upon me; I am going to die.' The old father and Touch the Clouds both cried” (series 2, tablet 11, p. 92).

In my version of events, have I changed or left out anything? Well, a
New-York Times
account (May 27, 1877, 1:6) of Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson after the surrender says that Crazy Horse “knelt on the ground” and took General Crook's hand when the two first met. I left that out because (1) I don't completely believe it and (2) I don't like it.

 

The time of Crazy Horse's death is in Brininstool B, p. 46. Touch the Clouds's last words over Crazy Horse are in ibid., and in Brininstool A, p. 40.

The death wail rising at the news of Crazy Horse's death is in J. McGillycuddy, pp. 85 et seq. William Garnett said he went to wake Lieutenant Clark with Frank Grouard, Louis Bordeaux, and Baptiste Pourier (Garnett, p. 8); Pourier claims not to have been there (Ricker Collection, series 2, tablet 13, p. 25). Agent Lee recalls his misery on the following day, in Brininstool B, p. 38. Parts of Lieutenant Clark's official report are quoted in Kadlecek, p. 54. The fact that General Bradley filed a similar report is in
Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
by James C. Olson, pp. 244–45, and Brininstool A, p. 51. The fact that no one ever collected the reward is in Kadlecek, p. 57.

 

The travels of the Sioux after Crazy Horse's death are recounted in Kadlecek, pp. 65 et seq., among other places. William Gentles died May 20, 1878; see Clark, p. 144. Dr. McGillycuddy's later career is told in J. McGillycuddy. Crow Dog served so little time in jail for the murder of Spotted Tail because at the time there was no law against an Indian killing an Indian (Kadlecek, quoting Carl Iron Shell, Jr., p. 115). Nellie Larrabee's remarriage is in “The Oglala Lakota Crazy Horse,” by Richard G. Hardorff. In 1930, Black Shawl's brother told Eleanor Hinman, “[Black Shawl] died near here only a few years ago in the year when so many Indians had influenza. She must have been about 84 years old.” Lieutenant Clark's death is in Clark, p. 137.

 

William Garnett is the source for his later encounters with Woman Dress and with Crook (Garnett, p. 8).

 

The journey of Crazy Horse's parents back to Spotted Tail is told by Agent Lee in Brininstool A, p. 30. The description of the parents' vigil is in ibid., pp. 32–34. Speculation on Crazy Horse's burial site is in Kadlecek, p. 61.

 

George Hyde's remarks about Crazy Horse and his admirers (“… One is inclined to ask, what is it all about?”) are in
Spotted Tail's Folk,
p. 253. These lines are also quoted in the excellent
Son of the Morning Star,
by Evan S. Connell (San Francisco, 1984).

 

My thanks to Tom Buecker, Curator of the Fort Robinson Museum, and his staff for their kind assistance in my research.

Chapter 7

 

The fact that Wibaux, Montana, was once the greatest primary shipping point for livestock in the West is from Howard,
Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome,
p. 140.

 

[pp. 129,Prices of wheat and cattle have gone up since this was written.

 

Francis Parkman's description of the buffalo being chased by Indians is in
The Oregon Trail,
p. 251.

The per-mile death toll on the Oregon Trail is in
The Great Plains,
by Walter Prescott Webb, p. 149.

The study which tracks storms on the Great Plains in 1849 is “Towards a Geosophic Climate of the Great American Desert: The Plains Climate of the Forty-Niners,” by Merlin P. Lawson, in
Images of the Plains: The Role of Human Nature in Settlement,
edited by Brian W. Blouet and Merlin P. Lawson (Lincoln, Neb., 1979).

 

The difference in the rate of evaporation between Texas and Canada is in
Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains,
by Waldo R. Wedel, p. 33.

Facts about mesquite trees come from
From the High Plains,
by John Fischer, p. 8, and
Killing the Hidden Waters,
by Charles Bowden (Austin, Tex., 1977), p. 19.