“Right after the sun dance was over, some of our scouts came in from<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the south, and the crier went around the circle and said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“the scouts have returned and they have reported that soldiers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
are camping up the river. So young warriors, take courage and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
get ready to meet them”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While they were all getting ready, I was getting ready too, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
because Crazy Horse was going to lead the warriors and I wanted to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
go with him; but my uncle, who thought a great deal of me, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Young nephew, you must not go. Look at the helpless ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stay home, and maybe there will be plenty of fighting right here.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the war parties went on without me. Maybe my uncle thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was too little to do much and might get killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The the crier told us to break camp, and we moved over west<\/p>\n\n\n\n
towards the Greasy Grass[Little Bighorn] and camped at the head<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of Spring Creek while the war parties were gone. We learned later that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
it was Three Stars[General Crook] who fought with our people on the <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rosebud that time[June 17, 1876]. He had many walking soldiers and some <\/p>\n\n\n\n
cavalry, and there were many Crows and Shoshones with him. They were<\/p>\n\n\n\n
all coming to attack us where we had the sun dance, but Crazy Horse<\/p>\n\n\n\n
whipped them and they went back to Goose Creek where they had all <\/p>\n\n\n\n
their wagons. My friend, Iron Hawk, was there that day and he <\/p>\n\n\n\n
can tell you how it was.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Iron Hawk speaks:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am a Hunkpapa. I was fourteen years old that summer, and I<\/p>\n\n\n\n was a big boy. Two war parties went out, a very large one from <\/p>\n\n\n\n the south end of the camp, and a small one from the north end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went with the small one, and there were only about forty of<\/p>\n\n\n\n us. The big party got there early in the morning, and when we<\/p>\n\n\n\n came, they had been fighting a long while. There is a wide valley<\/p>\n\n\n\n there at the bend of the river with some bluffs and hills around<\/p>\n\n\n\n it, and it looked as though people were fighting all over that<\/p>\n\n\n\n place. There were Crows with the soldiers, and we began fight-<\/p>\n\n\n\n ing with some of them. It looked as though we were getting the<\/p>\n\n\n\n best of them. Then the soldiers began to advance on the other<\/p>\n\n\n\n side of us, and we had to retreat. We were heading for where the<\/p>\n\n\n\n big party was, but the soldiers were after us, and the Crows got<\/p>\n\n\n\n braver and fought harder because of the soldiers. When we got<\/p>\n\n\n\n to the bend, the Crows were right among us, and it was all mixed<\/p>\n\n\n\n up fighting there. I don’t know whether I killed anybody or not,<\/p>\n\n\n\n but I guess I did, for I was scared and fought hard, and the way<\/p>\n\n\n\n it was you couldn’t keep from killing somebody if you didn’t get<\/p>\n\n\n\n killed, and I’m still alive. There was a Lakota with me by the<\/p>\n\n\n\n name of Without-a- Tepee, and a big Crow pulled him right off<\/p>\n\n\n\n his horse and he disappeared. Of course, me–I ran for my life,<\/p>\n\n\n\n because we could not fight all those Crows and the soldiers too,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and I was scared. But I was not running alone. We were all run-<\/p>\n\n\n\n ning with the Crows after us. Then all at once we saw a band<\/p>\n\n\n\n of cavalry coming right ahead of us–about thirty of them. I do<\/p>\n\n\n\n not know how they got there. Maybe they were returning from<\/p>\n\n\n\n a scouting trip. It looked bad for us. Then I heard voices crying<\/p>\n\n\n\n in our language: “Take courage! This is a good day to die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of the children and the helpless at home!” So we all yelled<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Hoka hey!” and charged on the cavalrymen and began shooting<\/p>\n\n\n\n them off their horses, for they turned and ran. They were <\/p>\n\n\n\n running toward their big party, and I could see many people<\/p>\n\n\n\n were fighting over there, but everything was all mixed up, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n you could not tell what was happening. It was a pitiful, long-<\/p>\n\n\n\n stretched-out battle. They fought all day. Then the Crows were<\/p>\n\n\n\n on us from behind, and we turned around and charged back on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But many soldiers were behind them, coming. So we all<\/p>\n\n\n\n had to run, crying “yea-hey” because there were not enough of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By now I was very scared, and I ran for my life. I came to a rocky<\/p>\n\n\n\n place, and my pony stepped between two stones and nearly <\/p>\n\n\n\n tore his hoof off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a very brave Shyela by the name of Sitting Eagle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was a friend of mine and he had been with me in the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I got off my pony to look at his hoof, a single Crow was<\/p>\n\n\n\n coming after me. Then I saw my friend, the Shyela, going to meet<\/p>\n\n\n\n the Crow. They fought hand to hand, and the Crow went down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wish I had stayed with Sitting Eagle, because then I could have<\/p>\n\n\n\n been the first to coup that Crow. But another man did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ran on foot, leading my horse, who was hopping on three<\/p>\n\n\n\n legs. Then I saw smoke coming out of a deep gully where there<\/p>\n\n\n\n was a creek. I went over to the smoke, and there was three Lakotas<\/p>\n\n\n\n who had killed a bison and were having a feast right there<\/p>\n\n\n\n while all the fighting was going on over the hill. They invited me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n so I sat there and ate, for I was about fourteen years old and<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was always hungry. We had to watch out while we ate. One of<\/p>\n\n\n\n the men took some clotted blood from the bison and put it in<\/p>\n\n\n\n some raw bison hide and fastened it around my pony’s hoof<\/p>\n\n\n\n so that I could ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After we had been eating there a long time, a Lakota came<\/p>\n\n\n\n upon his horse with blood and dirt all over his face, and he was<\/p>\n\n\n\n angry. He said: “What are you doing here? Were fighting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n All you think of is to eat! Why don’t you think about the helpless<\/p>\n\n\n\n ones at home? Come, make haste! We have to stand our ground!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt ashamed, so I got on my horse and we started. My horse<\/p>\n\n\n\n could go better with his hoof tied up that way. We came to a<\/p>\n\n\n\n ridge, and I could see all over the valley of the Rosebud where<\/p>\n\n\n\n the fighting was going on. You could not tell who was getting<\/p>\n\n\n\n whipped. It looked all mixed up. Some Crows attacked us there<\/p>\n\n\n\n and I never got to the big party that was doing the hard fighting,<\/p>\n\n\n\n but it was hard enough where I was, except when I was eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I must have eaten a great deal, for it was evening now. Of course,<\/p>\n\n\n\n when we got there, they had been fighting a good while already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all came away when it was dark, to guard the women and children,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and the enemy did not follow us. Of course, I thought the Wasichus <\/p>\n\n\n\n whipped us; but I learned it was not so. It was not a finished<\/p>\n\n\n\n battle because the night stopped it, but the Wasichus got whipped<\/p>\n\n\n\n anyway, and did not attack our village. They went back to their<\/p>\n\n\n\n wagons on Goose Creek and stayed there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpted from “Black Elk Speaks”,<\/p>\n\n\n\n as told through John G. Neihardt, author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publisher, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TO BE CONTINUED:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Islander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Right after the sun dance was over, some of our scouts came in from the south, and the crier went around the circle and said: “the scouts have returned and they have reported that soldiers are camping up the river. So young warriors, take courage and get ready to meet them”. While they were all … Continue reading “Black Elk”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1971","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}