“Many of our warriors were following the soldiers up a hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
on the other side of the river. Everybody else was turning back<\/p>\n\n\n\n
down stream, and on a hill away down yonder above the Santee<\/p>\n\n\n\n
camp there was a big dust, and our warriors whirling around in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and out of it just like swallows, and many guns going off.[Custer had<\/p>\n\n\n\n
attacked the camp at the northern end about four miles away].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought I would show my mother my scalp, so I rode over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
toward the hill where there was a crowd of women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the way down there I saw a very pretty young woman among<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a band of warriors about to go up to the battle on the hill, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
she was singing like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Brothers, now your friends have come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be brave, be brave!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiuld you see me taken captive?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I rode through the Oglala camp I saw Rattling Hawk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sitting up in his tepee with a gun in his hands and he was all<\/p>\n\n\n\n
alone there singing a song of regret that went like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Brothers, what are you doing that I cannot do?”[he had been<\/p>\n\n\n\n
severely wounded in the battle on the Rosebud].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got to the women om the hill they were all singing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and making the tremolo to cheer the men fighting across the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
river in the dust on the hill. My mother gave a big tremolo just <\/p>\n\n\n\n
for me when she saw my first scalp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stayed there awhile with my mother and watched the big <\/p>\n\n\n\n
dust whirling on the hill across the river, and horses were<\/p>\n\n\n\n
coming out of it with empty saddles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing Bear Speaks:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am a Minneconjou, and our camp was third from the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We got up late the morning of the fight. The women went out<\/p>\n\n\n\n to dig turnips and two of my uncles were hunting. My grandmother,<\/p>\n\n\n\n who was very old and feeble, and one of my uncles and<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stayed in a tepee. When the sun was overhead, I went back<\/p>\n\n\n\n down to the river to swim., and when I came back all I had on<\/p>\n\n\n\n was a shirt. My grandmother cooked some meat in the ashes and<\/p>\n\n\n\n fed us. While we were eating, my uncle said: “When you have<\/p>\n\n\n\n eaten, you must go to the horses right away. Something might<\/p>\n\n\n\n happen.” An older brother of mine and another man were herding<\/p>\n\n\n\n the horses in two bunches on Muskrat Creek down stream<\/p>\n\n\n\n below the Santee camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before I finished eating, there was an excitement outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I heard our crier saying that the chargers were coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we heard this, my uncle said: ‘I told you before that something<\/p>\n\n\n\n might happen. You’d better go right away and help bring<\/p>\n\n\n\n in the horses.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I crossed the Greasy Grass, which was breast deep. and got<\/p>\n\n\n\n on top of Black Buttte to look. On the other side of the Hunkpapas<\/p>\n\n\n\n toward the south, I saw soldiers on horseback spreading out<\/p>\n\n\n\n as they came down a slope to the river. They crossed and came<\/p>\n\n\n\n on at a trot[he saw Reno advancing to the attack about four miles away].<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started down the butte, but I was barefoot and there was<\/p>\n\n\n\n a big bed of cactus there. I had to go slow, picking my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A dust cloud was rising up yonder; and then I could see that<\/p>\n\n\n\n the Hunkpapas were running, and when I looked over onto<\/p>\n\n\n\n the hills toward the south and east I saw other soldiers coming<\/p>\n\n\n\n there on horseback[evidently Custers detachment, coming to<\/p>\n\n\n\n attack at the northern end of the village]. I did not go to the horses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went down through the cactus as fast as I could and into the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were voices all over, and everybody was shouting something<\/p>\n\n\n\n and running around. After awhile my older brother came driving<\/p>\n\n\n\n our horses, and my uncle said: “Hurry up! We shall go forth!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I caught my gray horse and took my six-shooter and hung my<\/p>\n\n\n\n bow and arrows over my shoulder. I had killed a red bird a few<\/p>\n\n\n\n days before and I fastened this in my hair.I had made a vow that<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would make an offering if this would keep me from getting <\/p>\n\n\n\n hurt in the next fight; and it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We started and went down stream to the mouth of Muskrat Creek<\/p>\n\n\n\n beyond the Santee camp. We were going to meet the<\/p>\n\n\n\n second band of soldiers[Custer’s]. By the time we got there, they must<\/p>\n\n\n\n have been fighting on the hill already, because as we rode up east<\/p>\n\n\n\n from the mouth of Muskrat Creek we met a Lakota with blood <\/p>\n\n\n\n running out of his mouth and down over his horse’s shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His name was Long Elk. There were warriors ahead of us, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n “fronters”, who are the bravest and have had most practice in war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was sixteen years old and I was in the rear with the less<\/p>\n\n\n\n brave, and we had waited foe our horses quite awhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part way up we met another Lakota. He was on foot and he<\/p>\n\n\n\n was bleeding and dizzy. He would get up and then he would fall<\/p>\n\n\n\n down again. When we got farther up the hill, I could see the soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were off their horses, holding them by the bridles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were ready for us and were shooting. Our people were all<\/p>\n\n\n\n around the hill on every side by this time. I heard some of our<\/p>\n\n\n\n men shouting: “They are gone!” And I saw that many of the soldiers’<\/p>\n\n\n\n horses had broken loose and were running away. Everywhere our<\/p>\n\n\n\n warriors began yelling: Hoka Hey! Hurry! Hurry!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then we all went up, and it got dark with dust and smoke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I could see warriors flying all around me like shadows, and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n noise of all those hoofs and guns and cries were so loud it seemed<\/p>\n\n\n\n quiet in there and the voices seemed to be on top of the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was like a bad dream. All at once I saw a soldier right beside<\/p>\n\n\n\n me, and I leaned over and knocked him down with the butt of<\/p>\n\n\n\n the six-shooter. I think I had already shot it empty, but I don’t<\/p>\n\n\n\n remember when. The soldier fell off and was under the hoofs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were so many of us that I think we did not need guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just the hoofs would have been enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After this we started down the hillside in formation toward<\/p>\n\n\n\n the village, and there were dead men and horses scattered along<\/p>\n\n\n\n there too. They were all rubbed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were all crazy, and I will tell you something to show how<\/p>\n\n\n\n crazy we were. There was a dead Indian laying there on his face,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and someone said: “Scalp that Ree!” A man got off and scalped<\/p>\n\n\n\n him; and when they turned the dead man over, it was a Shyela–<\/p>\n\n\n\n one of our friends. We were all crazy.”<\/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 Islander. TO BE CONTINUED.<\/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":" “Many of our warriors were following the soldiers up a hill on the other side of the river. Everybody else was turning back down stream, and on a hill away down yonder above the Santee camp there was a big dust, and our warriors whirling around in and out of it just like swallows, and … 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-1995","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1995","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=1995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1995\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}