Man on Two Ponies (25 page)

Carl Smith of the
Omaha World Herald
blamed Royer's lack of experience for the Indian scare, and accused
him
of trying to substantiate the fright that caused
him
to call for troops. “To hold his job, Mr. Royer may succeed in aggravating these Indians into some sort of warlike demonstration, but it will be fighting against their will,” he wrote on December 1. Royer refrained from expelling Smith only because the publisher of his paper threatened to seek redress from the Secretary of the Interior if he did. But General Brooke, who had no use for reporters, ordered Smith to leave on the grounds that he obtained his news by listening to the army telegraph operator at Pine Ridge.

On December 1 the Secretary of the Interior ordered all Sioux agents to bring rations up to the amounts guaranteed
in
treaties. Two days later Congress, which still hadn't acted on the Sioux appropriation bill, debated a measure to provide 100,000 rifles to the citizens of South Dakota, who were believed to be
in
imminent danger of being massacred. Senator Voorhees suggested, since it was obvious the trouble was caused by hunger among the Sioux, that it might be more sensible to send 100,000 rations to the Indians instead of 100,000 rifles to excited white men near the reservations. Another Senator remarked that the Crook Commission had made many promises to the Sioux, including restoring the beef
issue, and that Crook had died of grief over the failure of Congress
to honor his commitments. Outraged,
Senator Dawes denied that Congress had acted in bad faith. He saw no relief in the present situation, he said, unless bad chiefs like Red Cloud and Sitting Bull were removed, as if they were responsible for the crisis.

Senator Voorhees asked Dawes if General Miles was correct in blaming the Sioux troubles on hunger. Dawes, the spokesman for the Friends of the Indian in Congress, angrily retorted that this was the first time he'd heard of hunger among the Sioux. They'd been away dancing for weeks, and now this talk of hunger.
If
they stayed on their farms they'd have sufficient food, he was sure. Voorhees asked if he didn't know the Sioux had been starving for two years. Dawes huffily replied that the Sioux were hungry only because they abandoned their farms and left the agencies
to
dance.

While this was going on, Brooke sent Frank Merrivale, a trader of French descent who was fluent in Lakota, with some Oglala friendlies to try to persuade the Ghost Dancers to abandon the Stronghold and return to Pine Ridge. Merrivale's party returned the next day, for the Ghost Dancers' pickets had turned them back. When he learned of this, Royer rushed to General Brooke.

“It's come!” he exclaimed. “War has come! They wouldn't
listen to Merrivale. They shot over his head, killed a lot
of cattle,
and lit out for the Badlands.” Brooke, who had no respect for Indian agents, even able ones, ignored Royer.

George Wright returned to Rosebud as agent on December 1, having been cleared of the charges against him. Special Agent Reynolds stayed on
to
help. The Brulé headmen welcomed Wright and promised to obey his orders. They blamed their troubles on the Ghost Dance, and begged him not to allow the troops to attack them.

The day after Merrivale returned, December 3, seventy-year-old Father John Jutz of the Holy Rosary Mission four miles north of the agency, offered to
try
to talk to the Ghost Dancers. Popular with the Oglalas, he had been assured that if there was any fighting his mission would be spared. Jack Red Cloud, now active among the friendlies, accompanied him. The next afternoon scouts met them ten miles from the Stronghold and sent word to Short
Bull that Father Jutz wanted to hold council. By the time the rider returned with Short Bull's approval and Jutz and Jack Red Cloud had covered the ten miles to the Stronghold, it was an hour before midnight.

“Your Ghost Shirts won't protect you,” Jutz told them. “A couple of weeks ago Porcupine had someone shoot him to prove his shirt would stop bullets. He is seriously wounded.”

Billy remembered Porcupine, one of the most fanatic of Oglala Ghost Dancers. He looked down at his own Ghost Shirt Short Bull had given him, and at the painted symbols that were supposed to cause bullets to fall to the ground. Wovoka had said nothing about Ghost Shirts. He shivered at the thought of bullets tearing through the thin cloth into his body and wondered if the Ghost Dance was, as Culver insisted, an illusion. That was a troubling thought, and he forced it from his mind.

For the rest of the night Jutz sat in council with Short Bull, Kicking Bear, Two Strike, Turning Bear, Crow Dog, Eagle Pipe, and other headmen, while Billy and many other Ghost Dancers listened. The chiefs complained bitterly of the census that had caused rations to be cut again, and about the land agreement and the unkept promises. When Jutz urged them to return to the agency, they wouldn't hear of it. The Wasicuns would arrest them, Short Bull said. They'd rather die fighting
than
rot in prison. Before morning, however, Two Strike and several others agreed to accompany Jutz to the agency for a council with Brooke. They set out at daybreak in a light snow, although none had slept that night.

Leading the procession was a warrior carrying a white flag, followed by twenty armed warriors who were painted as for war. Their ponies were also painted, and their tails were tied up with ribbons and festooned with eagle feathers. Behind them rode Jack Red Cloud along with Turning Bear, High Pine, and three other headmen in their finest war costumes under their Ghost Shirts. Bringing up the rear were Father Jutz and Two Strike in an old buggy guarded by four Brulé warriors. They stopped for the night at Jutz's mission.

In the morning, fearing arrest, the Ghost Dancers hesitated to continue. Four times they started, but turned back each time as if their ponies refused to carry them to an uncertain fate. Finally
Father Jutz called them around him. “I assure you that you're safe with me,” he said, “but if any soldiers threaten you, you may kill me.” Shamed, they agreed to continue, but without their paint and feathers.

When the procession neared the agency, the Oglalas in the friendly camp were wild with excitement. Looking straight ahead and showing no sign of fear, the Ghost Dance party rode past the troops to Brooke's headquarters and tied their ponies. There Father Jutz led them into the big tent for the council.

General Brooke was friendly and conciliatory toward the visitors. If they came in, he told them, they would receive increased rations and he would hire some of them as scouts. Turning Bear, a leading Ghost Dancer, spoke for the Indians. There's no need for scouts, he said, because there is no war, but they'd be glad to be paid for scouting. He told Brooke that they would like to come in and camp near the agency, but there were already too many people there and not enough grass for their pony herds. They had many old people in the camps who couldn't ride, and they had no wagons for them.
It
was true about the grass, but Turning Bear was politely stalling. As to coming to the agency, he concluded, they'd have to
talk
about that before deciding.

The
talks
lasted two hours, then the Indians were fed. When they left Brooke gave them boxes of hardtack and other army rations. He was convinced they would soon decide in favor of coming in. Accompanying them on their return to the Stronghold were No Neck and thirty-two young Oglala friendlies as well as Louis Shangreau, a courageous mixed blood.

In the meantime, Short Bull and Kicking Bear had kept those in the camp excited, warning them to have no dealings with the whites, who would
try
to
prevent the new world from coming. Two Strike's party and No Neck's friendlies arrived as a frenzied Ghost Dance was going on; it continued uninte: ·1pted for thirty hours before it was stopped for the council. Short Bull, Two Strike, and Crow Dog spoke for the dancers.

“The agent will forgive you if you come in now,” Shangreau told them, “and he will also increase your rations. The only restriction is that you may not dance.”

“If
the Great Father would allow us to continue the dance, give
us more rations, and quit taking away pieces of our reservation,” Short Bull replied, “I would favor returning. But if we return he will take our guns and ponies and put some of us in jail for taking cattle and looting cabins. Tell him we're not coming.” He then ordered the dance resumed, and the council ended. Although it continued for two days, No Neck, Shangreau, and their party refused to leave. Another council was held on December 10, when Two Strike abruptly announced that he was taking his people to the agency. Crow Dog said he would do the same. Short Bull sprang to his feet.

“At such times as this we should stick together like brothers!” he exclaimed. “These agency men are lying. Louis Shangreau is at the bottom of this! He's a traitor.
Kill
him!
Kill
him!”

At that Billy joined other shrieking Ghost Dancers who rushed at Shangreau with clubbed rifles and knives, ready to do Short Bull's bidding. But the young Oglala friendlies surrounded Shangreau, No Neck, Two Strike, and Crow Dog, and fended off the frenzied dancers with their rifles. In the midst of the tumult, Crow Dog sat down and covered his head with his blanket. Seeing him, the Ghost Dancers backed off and fell silent.

Crow Dog threw off his blanket and arose. “Brothers! Stop this! I can't bear to see Tetons shedding the blood of their brothers,” he shouted. “I'm going back to the agency. You can kill me if you want to and prevent me from going. I'm not afraid to die. The agent's words are true—it's better to return than to stay here.”

Billy felt ashamed that he had impulsively joined in the attack. Crow Dog was right. No Teton should shed the blood of another. Even though Crow Dog himself had killed Spotted Tail, no one reminded him of that.

The camp was immediately astir as women frantically tore down the tipis and loaded the wagons, while the Ghost Dancers ran around shouting “Don't go! Don't go!” In a short time Shangreau, No Neck, and the Oglala friendlies started for the land bridge. Two Strike, Crow Dog, and their people followed. Billy looked for Mollie, and found her in one of the wagons.

“Come with us,” she said before he could speak.

“Will you stay with me if I do?”

“I can't. I was married in church. I wish I could.”

“I may as well stay then. There's no reason for me to return.”
He turned and left her, feeling empty inside.

As the long procession strung out across the mesa toward the land bridge, the Ghost Dancers ran about in confusion. Soon Billy saw some of them strike their tipis and follow, stampeded by the sight of others leaving. When they were gone, only about two hundred die-hards remained in the Stronghold. What was most shocking to Billy was that the tall, rawboned Kicking Bear had deserted Short Bull and gone with the others.

Once the southern agencies were quiet, and efforts were being made
to
coax the Ghost Dancers
to
come
in,
General Miles turned his attention
to
Cheyenne River
and
Standing Rock, where Hump, Big Foot, and Sitting Bull were still considered dangerous. “I concluded
that if
the so-called Messiah was
to
appear
in
that country,” Miles remarked, “Sitting Bull had to be out of it. I consider it of
first
importance
to
secure his arrest and removal from the country. “But an attempt
to
arrest
Sitting
Bull
could spark the war Miles hoped
to
avoid. How could it be managed without bloodshed?

In
pondering this delicate question, Miles remembered
that
after he returned from Canada, Sitting Bull had traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show for a year, and it was said the two
had
become friends. On November 24 he sent for Cody and questioned
him.
He
and
Sitting Bull were indeed old friends, Cody said,
and
he was sure
he
could
persuade
him
to
come
in
peacefully. Miles gave him confidential orders, stating, “Col. Cody, you are hereby authorized to secure the person of Sitting Bull and deliver
him
to
the nearest commanding officer of U.S. Troops, taking a receipt
and
reporting your action.” On the back of one of his
visiting cards,
he
wrote, “
Commanding officers will please give Col. Cody transportation for himself
and
party
and
any protection he may
need
for a small
party,”
and gave it
to
Cody. For showman Buffalo Bill, here was a splendid, unexpected opportunity for adventure and especially for publicity. Although his orders were confidential, he was so elated he had to
talk
to reporters about the Sioux troubles
and prepare the way to capitalize later on his anticipated glorious achievement. “Of all the bad Indians,” he said of his presumed friend, “Sitting Bull is the worst.
If
there is no disturbance he will foment one. He is a dangerous Indian.”