“Standing Bear Speaks:
I was not in that fight. There were many who were not. The warriors
came back in the dark, and everybody was so excited that
nobody slept all night.
The next morning, about twenty of us young fellows started
out to see where the fight had been. First we saw a dead horse
without shoes. Then we saw a dead horse with shoes, and near
this one was a soldier full of arrows. we got to where the sol-
diers had camped after the fight, and there was a place where the
ground was fresh and a big fire had been built on it. We started
to dig there to see what was hidden. We got down on our hands
and knees and dug in the loose ground. After a while we came
to a blanket and there was a dead soldier in it, and it was tied
around his legs and waist and neck. We pulled him out, and one
of the men said: “This is my blanket. I have been looking for
this blanket. I will have this blanket.” So he took it.
Under that was another dead soldier tied up in a blanket,
and then another and another under that. The fourth one was a
black Wasichu[Negro]. Each time somebody said, “This is my
blanket,” and took it. I got the the fifth one, and the man inside was
young, and he had a ring on his finger with a white stone in it
that sparkled. I cut off the finger and I had the ring for a long
time. One of our men scalped a soldier and started home with
the scalp on a stick. When we got on top of the ridge we could
see the soldiers of Three Stars retreating toward Goose Creek a
long way off. A big dust was rising there. The we went home.
The village stayed at the head of Spring Creek several days.
Then we all broke camp and moved over to the Greasy Grass.”
Excerpted from “Black Elk Speaks”,
as told through John G. Niehardt, author.
Publisher, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.
To Be Continued: Islander.