Man on Two Ponies (26 page)

Boarding the train at Chicago, Cody picked up old friends on the way west—Frank Powell, his Nebraska ranch manager John Keith, and Pony Bob Haslin. At Bismarck, South Dakota, he hired two wagons and men to drive them. He filled one with presents for Sitting Bull, including a generous supply of the Hunkpapa chiefs favorite candy. When they boarded the train for the short trip across the Missouri to Mandan, several reporters joined the party, prepared to tell the nation about Buffalo Bill's greatest coup in bringing in the fearsome Sitting Bull.

On November 28 Colonel Drum was surprised to see the famous showman, still dressed in his Wild West Show suit and patent leather shoes, with long hair, mustache, and goatee. Drum's surprise turned to shock when Cody announced the purpose of his visit, and that he was expected to cooperate with him in the madcap adventure. Like most army officers, he heartily disliked meddling civilians, especially publicity seekers. He immediately conferred with white-haired McLaughlin, who was equally disturbed at the new turn of events. Both agreed that Cody was much more likely
to get himself and his friends killed or of starting a war than he was of arresting Sitting Bull. Drum promised to stall Cody as long as he could while McLaughlin wired the Secretary of the Interior requesting that Miles' order to Cody be cancelled.

Knowing of Cody's reputation as an unrivaled tippler, that evening Drum invited him to join the officers for a libation. Before long the officers realized that this was a difficult assignment, for they were no match for the long-haired former scout, and they spared themselves the embarrassment of being drunk under the table by several taking turns drinking with him while the others downed cups of black coffee. In the morning, apparently refreshed by army hospitality, Cody informed the
bleary officers of the last shift,
“I'm off on the most dangerous assignment of my whole career.”

Fearing that Cody might set out before a message could arrive revoking his orders, McLaughlin had set in motion an alternate plan for delaying the meeting with Sitting Bull. Early in the morning
he sent interpreter Louis Primeau and several others down one of
the two roads leading to the Grand River settlement, and another party down the second road, to go twenty miles or more and then return, making a fresh set of tracks toward the agency. Cody met Primeau halfway to the Grand River; the interpreter told him that he had just left Sitting Bull' s village and the chief was on
his
way to the agency by the other
road,
then showed him the fresh tracks. There was nothing for Cody to do but turn back. When he reached the agency McLaughlin greeted him with a
wire
from
the
President rescinding his orders from Miles. Grumbling, Cody left the next day for Chicago.

Early in December a rider reached Sitting Bull with Short Bull's message
that
the Messiah was soon coming to the Stronghold, and that a prominent chief like Sitting
Bull
should be there
to
welcome him. His semi-literate nephew Andrew Fox
translated the
letter Billy had written for Short Bull. Even though he was a Ghost Dance leader, Sitting Bull wasn't altogether convinced by Wovoka's promises. Besides, going to the Stronghold meant a 200-mile ride in cold weather. He pondered the matter for several days, and on December 11 held a council in his cabin. His old friends agreed that it would be unfortunate indeed if the Messiah came to
earth
at the Stronghold and the
great
Sitting Bull wasn't there to
greet
him. Sitting Bull, who wasn't burdened by modesty or self-doubts, found their logic convincing.

Andrew Fox laboriously
wrote
a letter from
his
uncle
to the agent.
First he told McLaughlin that “I wish no one to come with
guns
or knives to interfere with my prayers. All we are doing is praying for life and to learn how to do good. When you visited my
camp
you gave me good words about our prayers but then you took your good words back again. And so I
will
let you know something. I got to go to Pine Ridge and know this pray so I let you know that. I want answer back soon.”

He sent Bull Ghost to Standing Rock with
his
indirect
request
for a pass to visit Pine Ridge. A few hours before Bull Ghost arrived, Col. Drum had received orders from Miles to arrest Sitting
Bull
and to
call
on the agent for assistance.
Drum
and McLaughlin read and reread Sitting Bull' s letter and concluded that he intended to leave with or without permission. Both were sure he planned to
join the Ghost Dancers in the Badlands, and that would be a
disaster. They decided to stall Sitting Bull until the next ration day,
December 20, when he would be virtually alone in his village. Any attempt to arrest him when all of his people were present would almost surely lead to a bitter fight. They concluded that the Indian police had a much better chance of making the arrest peacefully than the cavalry did.

McLaughlin wrote Lt. Bull Head, chief of the Indian police, to keep a close watch on Sitting Bull and his people. Bull Head's farm was a few miles upriver from Sitting Bull' s cabins. White Bird
rode
through the night with the agent's letter.

While White Bird was making the forty-mile ride
to
Bull Head's farm, Sitting Bull held another council. His friends decided he should leave for the Stronghold as soon as possible. Since it would take two days to
grease
the wagon wheels, round up the ponies, and make other preparations for the long journey, Sitting Bull couldn't leave until December 15. Bull Head's police observed preparations being made for a move, and by evening they had managed to learn when Sitting Bull planned to leave.

Bull Head hurried to the school a few miles below the village and asked teacher Jack Carignan to write a letter informing McLaughlin that Sitting Bull would leave on December 15, then sent Hawk Man with it to the agency. At the same time Sitting Bull' s spies were riding in the opposite direction with the news that McLaughlin and Col. Drum were preparing to arrest him. Hawk Man reached Standing Rock late in the afternoon of December 14.

McLaughlin and Drum agreed that they had no choice but to make the arrest immediately, regardless of the danger, for the prospect of Sitting Bull joining the Ghost Dancers in the Badlands was frightening. McLaughlin wisely had been sending police to the area around Bull Head's farm in case they were needed. He sent Sergeant Red Tomahawk, a Yanktonai Sioux, racing through the night to Bull Head with orders to make the arrest in the early morning, adding that
troops
would be at Oak Creek crossing, twenty miles away, in case they were needed. “You must not let
him
escape under any circumstances,” he concluded.

Col. Drum had officers' call sounded at Fort Yates, then ordered
Capt. E. G. Fechet to take Troops F and G, Eighth Cavalry, with a Hotchkiss and a Gatling gun, and to move out at midnight. As they were about to depart, Col. Drum stood by Fechet's horse. “Captain,” he said, “after you leave here use your own discretion. You know the object of the movement. Do your best to make it a success.” Ninety-nine men, five officers, two Indian scouts, and Louis Primeau, all bundled up in buffalo skin coats, set out at a trot in near-freezing weather.
In
three and a half hours the cavalry covered the twenty miles to Oak Creek crossing and stopped. A courier from Bull Head was supposed to be waiting for them. There was no courier, and the police cabin there was empty. Fechet, recalling Col. Drum's admonition to use his own discretion, knew that if there was trouble at Grand River in the morning, his troops would be of little use twenty miles away. He gave orders to proceed at a trot, and by daybreak the cavalrymen were only a few miles from the Grand River village.

Red Tomahawk didn't spare his pony that night, for he reached Bull Head's farm in under five hours. During the night additional police arrived, so that on the morning of December 15 Bull Head had thirty men. None of the police were happy about their awesome assignment of arresting Sitting Bull for the whites. Some of them were Yanktonais, but others, like Sitting Bull, were Hunkpapas, and they doubted that what they were doing was right even though Sitting Bull was making trouble for all, and none of them deluded himself into thinking the arrest could be made without bloodshed. All felt sad, but they were determined to do what Whitehair McLaughlin wanted done.

Bull Head gave them their instructions. Before daybreak they would ride to Gray Eagle's cabin, then to a spot south of the river opposite Sitting Bull's cabins. The Ghost Dancers, Bull Head pointed out, would expect any trouble to come from the north, from the agency or Fort Yates. In the early dawn they would cross the river and surround the cabin in which Sitting Bull slept. While Bull Head, Shave Head, and Red Tomahawk made the arrest, Red Bear and White Bird would saddle Sitting Bull's favorite mount, a gray trick horse Buffalo Bill had given him. They would put Sitting Bull on it and leave as quickly as possible, before his people were aware of what was happening.

Gray Eagle, Sitting Bull's brother-in-law, had accepted the fact that clinging to the old ways was foolish and had made a determined effort to adjust. His attempts to convince Sitting Bull to change were in vain. From the moment he arrived at Standing Rock, Sitting Bull had carried on a feud with the agent, refusing to cooperate in any way. He had his doubts about the Ghost Dance, but it provided an opportunity to regain his lost prestige. Another reason he embraced it was that his white-haired foe wanted it stopped. Gray Eagle, like many Hunkpapa progressives, regretfully concluded that for the good of the tribe Sitting Bull should
be
removed, but for him, too, it was a sad business.

At Gray Eagle's cabin, Eagle Man joined the party with eight more police, bringing the number
to
thirty-nine. All removed their hats and knelt while Bull Head prayed to the white men's
God,
asking help in doing what they had to do without bloodshed. Then they remounted their ponies. “Hopo,” said Bull Head, and they headed for the river in a misty drizzle that froze on their ponies' manes.
In
the trees, owls hooted mournfully. Owls were believed
to
be the ghosts of
dead
relatives. “They're telling us to
be
careful,” Red Tomahawk remarked. Sensing death hovering about them, the others shivered, wishing they were somewhere else.

They crossed the river in the
dim
light, and the dogs in the village immediately started barking noisily, alerting the sleeping Hunkpapas to the fact that intruders were coming. The police loosened their reins and galloped to Sitting Bull' s cabin and hastily dismounted, eager to get it over with quickly. Bull Head, accompanied by Red Tomahawk and Shave Head, knocked on the door. Red
Bear
and White Bird ran to the corral to saddle Sitting Bull's horse while the others surrounded the cabin.

“All right, come in,” Sitting Bull responded to the knock. The
three
entered and Shave Head struck a match, located a kerosene lamp, and lighted it. Naked, Sitting Bull sat up, then threw off his blankets and arose. “I come to take you to the agency,” Bull Head told him. “You're under arrest.”

“All right, let me put on my clothes and I'll go with you.” One of his wives brought him his clothes, but he took his time putting them on, while the nervous police tried to hurry him. “Sitting Bull wasn't afraid,” Little Soldier admitted later. “We were.” When
he was nearly dressed Sitting Bull told Crow Foot, his seventeen-
year-old son,
to saddle his horse.

“We've taken care of that,” Bull Head told him.

Bull Head and Shave Head each took Sitting Bull by an arm, while Red Tomahawk walked behind him, pressing his pistol against his back. As they passed through the doorway, one of Sitting Bull' s wives began wailing loudly. Red
Bear
and White Bird hadn't arrived with the horse, so they had to wait. It was still too dark to see more
than
a short distance.

By now the entire village had been aroused by the dogs and the wailing woman, and everyone ran to Sitting Bull's cabin. Catch-the-Bear, one of Sitting Bull's bodyguards who had sworn to
kill
Bull Head, looked each policeman in the face, trying to locate his enemy. “Where is Bull Head?” he growled. “Now here you metal breasts are,” he continued, referring to their badges, “just as we expected. You think you're going to take him, but you're wrong. You won't get away with him.” He turned to the others. “Come on,” he shouted, “let's protect our chief.”

Sitting Bull's horse was brought from the corral, and the nervous policemen pushed
him
toward it. From the back of the crowd Crawler shouted,
“Kill
them!
Kill
them! Shoot the old
metal
breasts and the young ones will run.”