Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief, was not frightened by this exhibition of a nation's anger. He was then a young warrior, but he gathered about him a large number of Indians, who had been friendly to the whites. In 1874, they attacked the Crows and drove them from their reservation. Notice was sent to him by the Interior Department, to remove with his band by January 31, 1876. Sitting Bull paid no attention to the order, and the business was put in the hands of the War Department. General Crook destroyed the village of Crazy Horse in the following March, but the severity of the weather compelled a halt in military movements. [Illustration: GENERAL CROOK'S APACHE GUIDE] The discovery of gold in the Black Hills led to an invasion of the section by emigrants. The section belonged by treaty to the Sioux, and the authorities warned all white people to keep away. No heed was given to the notice, and the enraged Sioux left their own reservation and began to plunder and massacre the people of Wyoming and Montana. Generals Terry and Cook, with a strong force of regulars moved into the region of the Upper Yellowstone, and drove Sitting Bull with several thousand hostiles toward the Big Horn Mountains and the river. Generals Custer and Reno with the Seventh Cavalry set out to locate the Indians. They found their camp, three miles in length, on the left bank of the Little Big Horn River. Custer sent Reno with three companies to attack the rear, and without waiting for support, charged the Sioux. Not a soldier came out of the charge alive. Fifteen officers, including two brothers and a nephew of Custer, and two hundred and thirty-two men were overwhelmed and massacred by the hostiles. It was one of the most awful disasters in our frontier history, but the fault lay with the dashing, headlong Custer himself. When news of the calamity reached Fort Leavenworth, General Nelson P. Miles was ordered to the scene with the Fifth Infantry. Certain that a large number of the Indians were not far off, General Miles moved down the left bank of the Yellowstone. On the way, he came upon the following note, fastened on a stick thrust into the ground, where it had been left by an Indian runner several days before: "Yellowstone. "I want to know what you are doing traveling on this road. You scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt in this place. I want you to turn back from here. If you don't I will fight you again. I want you to leave what you have got here and turn back from here. "I am your friend, "+Sitting Bull+. "I mean all the rations you have got and some powder. Wish you would write as soon as you can."