While the civil court was composed of the "elder statesmen" the military court was composed of the war chief and his most distinguished braves, and, as has been before suggested herein, exercised unlimited power in time of war and was implicitly obeyed. It took jurisdiction of all matters growing out of infractions of the "Articles of War" and of all the civil and criminal affairs of the tribe as well. There was no appeal from its judgments and its sentences were summarily executed. An anecdote will illustrate something of its practice: In the campaign of 1876, after the affair at Little Big Horn, Grey Eagle, a Hunkpapa headman of good family and with a good military record, was charged with stealing a horse from another warrior of the Sioux forces. He denied the charge but the property was in his possession and he could not satisfactorily explain his connection with it. He was placed upon trial, witnesses summoned and he was convicted of the theft and sentenced to be whipped, a punishment most befitting the mean estate of a squaw. The sentence was executed in full view of the entire camp. Grey Eagle continued in the campaign, fighting valiantly at every opportunity, but he was filled with an intense desire for revenge against the court and particularly against Sitting Bull, a plebian who had compelled recognition from the aristocrats, and whom the convict believed to be especially responsible for his humiliation. Though not apropos to this discussion it may be of interest if I shall add that after the lapse of fourteen years, one December morning in 1890 when a party of native policemen, inspired very largely by the aristocratic hatred for the presumptuous plebian, came down upon the home of Sitting Bull and effected his arrest and were taking him away through an excited throng of his friends, the voice of Grey Eagle, from out in the darkness shouted: "Sitting Bull is escaping, shoot him, shoot him!" whereupon began the outbreak which within the moment resulted in the death of the old medicine man and seventeen of the police and Indians.[7] It, too, may be of further interest to relate that at the present time Grey Eagle is the Chief Justice of the native court at Bullhead Station, South Dakota. [7] Related by Miss Mary C. Collins, April, 1908. Among the duties of this court was to determine the limits of each day's march when out upon a campaign, and to regulate the camping places. This was an important function, for the army subsisted off the country and unless the utmost care was exercised "the base of supplies" would be frightened away and the band subjected to starvation.