Man on Two Ponies (23 page)

The Wazhazhas and Oglalas were ecstatic. Billy thought of Short
Bull's promise. If five thousand whites were left on earth, surely good people like Culver and the Purvis family would
be
spared. He was relieved by that thought, for be didn't want
to
have
to
see them destroyed just because they were Wasicuns. Short Bull wouldn't even
kill
the bluecoats unless they tried to break up the dances, but the aroused Brulés
and
Oglalas were no longer satisfied merely
to
defend themselves. Many now
talked
of a holy war
to
drive the whites from the country.

For the next
three
weeks Billy watched as Brulé and Oglala families flocked
to
the growing camp on
Pass
Creek near where it entered the White River. Among them was Bull
Bear
who again
shared
his
tipi. All of the families brought any stray cattle or horses they saw. They bad abandoned their
cabins
and moved
to
Pass Creek to remain. Kicking
Bear
and some Miniconjus joined them there, and two of the leading Ghost Dance apostles were now together. Billy wrote letters for them
to
Sitting Bull, Hump, and Big Foot, telling them about the big gathering at Pass Creek and urging them
to
join it. Sitting Bull responded by inviting all of the Tetons to assemble in the spring at
Bear
Butte near the Black Hills
to
wage an all-out war against the whites. Many of Short Bull's followers were eager
to
join Sitting Bull in the spring.

Pleas from white settlers in South Dakota and Nebraska, who were certain they and their families would soon be massacred, deluged Washington. Many isolated families abandoned their homesteads and settled temporarily in frontier towns or returned to their former homes elsewhere. Those who remained demanded that they be provided with guns and
military
protection. On
October 31, the same day Short Bull aroused the Wazhashas
and
Oglalas on Black Pipe Creek, the President ordered the
Secretary
of War to investigate the situation at the Sioux reservations.

General Miles hadn't returned from
his
Cheyenne Commission trip, but General Thomas H. Ruger, commander of the
Department of Dakota, crossed the Missouri
to
visit the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River agencies. At the former, be and McLaughlin agreed that the situation was still under control, but that Sitting Bull should be arrested during the winter. Ruger also found that
conditions at Cheyenne River were not yet dangerous. He didn't visit Pine Ridge and Rosebud; although both were under his jurisdiction, they were nearer to the Department of the Platte.

Rumors that the Oglala agent
had
asked for troops reached Short Bull, but he didn't appear concerned about the likelihood that the bluecoats would
try
to
stop the Ghost Dance.
As
he watched the sharp-faced Short Bull and the tall, rawboned Kicking Bear, Billy was sure the Messiah
had
spoken to them and promised to protect their people. All they needed to do was to keep on dancing until the
earth
trembled. He hoped the Messiah would come before the troops arrived.

On November 11,
just
over a month after he became agent, Royer saw the last shred of his authority vanish.
As
was usual on ration issue day, Pine Ridge was crowded with people and wagons. At noon the beef issue was
made
in the customary way—steers were turned loose one at a time while whooping warriors dashed after them on their best ponies and killed them as they
had
the buffalo in the old days. The
Indian
Bureau had ordered this “barbarous custom” stopped, but Royer was in no position
to
enforce the order.

An
Oglala Ghost Dancer named Little had openly killed cattle in the tribal beef herd, and he brazenly strutted around the agency, as if daring the agent to
try
to arrest
him.
When informed of Little's presence, Royer ordered Lt. Thunder Bear to seize
him.
The police found Little outside the building where the chiefs were holding council. When Thunder Bear told him he was under arrest, Little drew a butcher knife and prepared to resist.

A large crowd of angry Ghost Dancers immediately surrounded
Thunder
Bear
and his men, brandishing Winchesters and shouting
“Kill
them!” Hearing the commotion, the chiefs rushed out and saw the crowd recklessly jabbing the police with cocked rifles. Somehow American Horse made himself heard above the tumult. Even though he'd lost prestige by signing the land agreement, his voice was still forceful enough to command attention.

“Stop!” he shouted. “Think what you are doing! Killing these men of our own race? Then what? Kill all the helpless white men and women? What will these brave deeds lead to in the end? How long can you hold out? Our country is surrounded by railroads. Thousands of white soldiers will be here in
three
days. How many bullets have you? What will you do for food? What will become of your families?
Think,
think, my brothers. This is a child's madness.”

The crowd fell silent and the warriors lowered the hammers on their rifles and released the police. Jack Red Cloud, who had been stirring up the crowd, now rushed up to American Horse and stuck a cocked pistol in his face. “It's you and your kind who brought us to this,” he shouted.

American Horse ignored him as not worthy of notice, turned his back, and with head erect walked up the steps to the council room and closed the door behind him. The police could only watch as the Ghost Dancers dispersed, taking the smirking Little with them.

That evening Royer called Dr. Charles Eastman, an eastern Sioux who was the reservation physician,
to
his office. Already there were Special Agent John Cooper, the chief clerk, and a Sioux Episcopal minister named Cook. “I want your advice,” Royer told them. “Do you think I should ask for troops?” Only Eastman and Cook were opposed, for both were confident that the Oglalas had no desire to start a war. The arrival of bluecoats, they knew, could easily change that.

After they left Royer asked chief of police Sword, Thunder
Bear,
and American Horse the same question. All
three,
who had been threatened by angry Ghost Dancers, approved. They were sure that troops from Camp Robinson in Nebraska had already been ordered to Pine Ridge, and that the agent had called them in merely to gain their approval of an action he'd already taken.

The next morning an Oglala appeared at Royer's office. “I come from Little,” he said through an interpreter.

“Is he ready to surrender?”

“No! He demands that you fire
all
those police who tried to arrest him. He says if you don't he'll make big trouble for you and American Horse the next ration issue.” Royer wiped his moist face with his handkerchief. The Ghost Dancers had openly defied him, and he was powerless to punish them. Now that villain Little was even threatening him. It was too much to bear.

He wired the Indian Bureau that 200 maddened Ghost Dancers had seized control of the agency. The police are powerless and discouraged, he said. “We have no protection. We are at the mercy of the crazy dancers.” Troops must be sent immediately to Pine Ridge. He begged for permission to come to Washington so he could explain the situation in person. The Secretary of the Interior showed the message to the President, who remarked that the army was already looking into conditions at the Sioux agencies. For the present, he said, the agents should do nothing more
than
separate friendly Indians from the Ghost Dancers. They must be careful to avoid any action that might irritate the Indians.

The Indian Commissioner relayed the message to Royer, adding that if conditions were as bad as he claimed it was hardly the proper time for him
to leave his post. But because of the flood of
pleas and demands for protection from the citizens of Nebraska and South Dakota, on November 13 the Commissioner glumly recommended that Secretary Noble alert the War Department concerning the emergencies at Pine Ridge and Rosebud and request assistance. The President, when informed of the request, directed the Secretaiy of War “to assume responsibility for suppressing any threatened outbreak, and to take such steps as may
be
necessary to that end.”

At his Chicago headquarters, General Miles ordered his subordinates in Omaha and St. Paul, the commanders of the departments of Platte and Dakota, to prepare to send troops to the Sioux agencies if necessary. Royer's distraught telegram of November 15 convinced authorities in Washington that troops were needed immediately.

“Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy,” Royer
stated. “I have fully informed you that the employees and government property at this agency have no protection and are at the mercy of the Ghost Dancers. Why delay by further investigation?
We need protection, and we need it now.
I have submitted to you the result of six weeks' calm, conservative investigation, and nothing short of 1000 soldiers
will
settle this dancing. The leaders should be arrested and confined in some military post until this matter is quieted, and this should be done at once. Royer, Agt.”

Two days later Miles ordered Brigadier General John Brooke, commander of the Department of the Platte, to dispatch troops to the trouble spots—Pine Ridge and Rosebud—to arrive at exactly the same time at each agency. Brooke was to station most of his command along the railroads south of the two agencies and west of the Pine Ridge reservation. “You are to keep pressure on the Indians by your presence only,” Miles instructed his field commanders. “Do not come into active contact with them unless it is impossible to avoid doing so. ' ' Two trainloads of troops, horses, and equipment were dispatched that night, one to Valentine for Rosebud, the other to Rushville for Pine Ridge.

At daybreak on November 20, round-faced, white-haired General Brooke, accompanied by Royer and Special Agent Cooper who met him at Rushville at his request, rode into Pine Ridge. Following them were three troops of the black Ninth Cavalry, five companies of infantry, and Hotchkiss and Gatling guns. The troops marched through the agency and set up tents in neat rows on high ground overlooking Pine Ridge. The soldiers were armed with single shot Springfield rifles and carbines the army had adopted seventeen years earlier. The Tetons had acquired the most recent model Winchester repeating rifles.

The Oglalas were alarmed and excited by the coming of the bluecoats, but they did nothing to cause trouble and only a few fled. When Brooke sent messages to the cabin settlements for the friendlies to camp at the agency, they began streaming toward Pine Ridge, accompanied by many Ghost Dancers. Soon there were large tipi camps near the agency. Brooke also ordered all white and mixed blood employees—teachers, farmers, and missionaries—to bring their families to Pine Ridge. Several whites were so fearful they didn't stop at the agency but continued on
to the safety of towns in northern Nebraska.

The Oglala Ghost Dancers went wild when they learned that troops were at Pine Ridge, and for a time all was confusion. Then Little Wound took charge, and they resumed dancing with greater intensity than ever. Hundreds more joined those on White Clay Creek, all of them determined to fight if troops interfered. When the dances began a few months earlier, no one had been permitted to bring a gun. Now the dancers had cartridge belts draped over their shoulders and carried Winchesters. No one who saw them could doubt that they were ready to kill anyone who tried to stop the dancing.

Little Wound sent a message to Brooke. “We have done nothing wrong,” he said. “Our dance is a religious one, and we are going to dance until spring. If we find that the Messiah doesn't appear we will stop dancing. I have been told that you intend to stop our rations. For my part I don't care. The rations we get amount to little. We don't intend to stop dancing for them.”

When the bluecoats marched into Rosebud the Brulés panicked, and more than a thousand fled. Most were with old Two Strike, who headed for Pine Ridge. Small bands under Eagle Pipe, Crow Dog, and others rode to the northwest comer of the Rosebud reservation before continuing on to join Short Bull' s camp on Pass
Creek.

Billy watched for Pawnee Killer whenever new groups arrived, for he was sure his father was still a believer. Finally he asked Short Bull where his father was.