Indian Fights and Fighters: The Soldier and the SiouxBrady, Cyrus Townsend
History
Indian Fights and Fighters: The Soldier and the Sioux
Brady, Cyrus Townsend
Dakota Indians -- Wars; Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895
“I had sung the war song, I had smelt the powder smoke. My heart was
bad—I was like one that has no mind. I rushed in and took their flag; my
pony fell dead as I took it. I cut the thong that bound me. I jumped up
and brained the long sword flag-man with my war club, and ran back to
our line with the flag.
“The long sword’s blood and brains splashed in my face. It felt hot, and
blood ran in my mouth. I could taste it. I was mad. I got a fresh pony
and rushed back, shooting, cutting, and slashing. This pony was shot,
and I got another.
“This time I saw Little Hair. I remembered my vow. I was crazy; I feared
nothing. I knew nothing would hurt me, for I had my white weasel-tail
charm on.[95] (He wears the charm to this day.) I don’t know how many I
killed trying to get at him. He knew me. I laughed at him and yelled at
him. I saw his mouth move, but there was so much noise I couldn’t hear
his voice. He was afraid. When I got near enough I shot him with my
revolver. My gun was gone, I don’t know where. I leaped from my pony and
cut out his heart and bit a piece out of it and spit it in his face. I
got back on my pony and rode off shaking it. I was satisfied and sick of
fighting; I didn’t scalp him.
“I didn’t go back on the field after that. The squaws came up afterward
and killed the wounded, cut their boot legs off for moccasin soles, and
took their money, watches, and rings. They cut their fingers off to get
them quicker. They hunted for Long Yellow Hair to scalp him, but could
not find him. He didn’t wear his fort clothes (uniform), his hair had
been cut off, and the Indians didn’t know him. (This corroborates what
Mrs. Custer says about her husband’s having his long yellow curls cut at
St. Paul some weeks before he was killed.)
“That night we had a big feast and the scalp dance. Then Sitting Bull
came up and made another speech. He said: ‘I told you how it would be. I
made great medicine. My medicine warmed your hearts and made you brave.’
“He talked a long time. All the Indians gave him the credit of winning
the fight because his medicine won it. But he wasn’t in the fight. Gall
got mad at Sitting Bull that night. Gall said: ‘We did the fighting, you
only made medicine.’ It would have been the same anyway. Their hearts
were bad toward each other after that, always.
“After that fight we could have killed all the others on the hill
(Reno’s command) but for the quarrel between Gall and Sitting Bull. Both
wanted to be head chief. Some of the Indians said Gall was right and
went with him. Some said Sitting Bull was. I didn’t care, I was my own
chief and had my bad young men; we would not obey either of them unless
we wanted to, and they feared us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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