Old-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, 98, 124, 128-29, 138, 142, 144, 187, 278
Ollokot, 320, 322, 327-28
Omahas, 355, 357-58
One-Eye, 76-78; portrait, 81; killed, 91
One-Who-Speaks-Once, 418
Osages, 353
Otis, Elwell, 304
Otoes, 355, 357
Ouray, 12, 367-68; portrait, 369; 370-73, 387, 389
Oury, William S., 202
P
Paha-Sapa See: Black Hills Paiutes, 12, 104, 416, 431-34
Palo Duro Canyon, 255, 268; battle, 269-70
Panther, 110, 112
Papagos, 204
Parker, Ely S., 176-79; appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 180; portrait, 181; 182-89; resigns from office, 190; 192-93, 200
Parker, Quanah See: Quanah
Pawnee Killer, 92, 138, 141-42, 143, 153, 163
Pawnees, 108, 111-13, 173-74, 300, 306
Pease, William B., 178, 180
Pfeiffer, Albert, 27
Piegans See: Blackfeet
Pike’s Peak gold rush, 68
Pine Ridge agency, 347, 349, 417, 421-22, 428-29, 434-37, 439-40, 442, 445
Pistol Bullet See: Manuelito
Pitkin, Frederick W., 370, 376-78, 380, 387, 388
Platte Bridge Station fight, 98-99, 106
Platte river, 68, 70, 82, 94, 97-98, 101, 128, 138-40, 173, 184-85, 188, 351, 356
Plenty Bear, 188
Pocahontas, 2
Ponca agency, 363-64
Poncas, 351-66
Pontiac, 4
Pope, John, 59, 380
Poppleton, Andrew, 359-60
Powder river, 70, 96-99, 104-05, 107-17, 122, 128-32, 142, 186, 188, 285-86, 308, 310
Powhatan, 2
Price, Shadrach, 378-80
Price, William, 269
Pte-San-Waste-Win, 291-96
Q
Quanah, 11, 260, 265-66; portrait, 267; 269-70
Quapaws, 357
Quinkent, 372, 378, 381-82; portrait, 383; 386, 388
R
Rain-in-the-Face, 296
Ramsey, Alexander, 50, 54, 59
Randall, George M., 214
Raritans, 4
Rawn, Charles, 323-24
Rda-in-yan-ka, 55, 57, 61
Red Cloud, 10, 97-99, 103, 105-08; portrait, 109; 110, 116-19, 123-34, 138-45, 148-49, 173, 176; visits Washington, 182-86; visits New York, 187; 188, 276-84, 299-300, 308, 310, 342-49; at Pine Ridge agency, 416-17; 420-22, 429, 439-40; portrait in old age, 450
Red Cloud agency, 188, 277, 279, 283, 286, 298, 305
Red Dog, 278, 282, 299, 422
Red Horse, 291, 296
Red Leaf, 115, 128
Red Tomahawk, 437-38
Reno, Marcus, 292-94, 297-98
Republican river, 70, 92, 96, 99-100, 150, 163, 172
Reynolds, Joseph J., 286-87
Richard, Louis, 279
Riddle, Frank, 229-31, 233, 236, 238, 240
Riddle, Toby See: Winema
Roman Nose, 10, 70, 75, 92, 98-99, 116; fight on Powder River, 117-18; 148-54; portrait, 155; 156, 158, 160, 162-65; killed, 166
Rosebud agency, 417, 420, 428, 434
Rosebud river, 105, 113-14, 285, 288-91
Rough Feather, 444
Running Antelope, 274, 423
S
St. Paul, Minn., 50, 54, 64, 65
San Carlos agency, 214-16, 393-99, 401-08, 413
Sanborn, John B., 100, 138, 142, 145-46, 157
Sand Creek, 69, 83, 84, 86; massacre, 87-92, 94, 100, 102, 137, 148, 151, 167-68, 349
Santa Fe, N. Mex., 14, 21-22, 30, 32
Santee agency, 300
Satank, 11, 249-50, 252-55
Satanta, 11, 241-44; portrait, 245; 246-70; kills himself, 271
Saville, J. J., 277-78
Sayers, James A., 105-10, 113, 118
Scalping, 25, 57, 94
Scarfaced Charley, 221-24, 230
Schonchin John, 221, 233-40
Scott, Hugh, 412-13
Schurz, Carl, 336, 338, 345, 355, 358-59, 363-64, 389
Senecas, 178-79
Shacknasty Jim, 221, 236
Shakopee, 42-43, 47, 58, 62, 64
Shangreau, John, 440
Sheridan, Philip, 162-63, 166-72, 243-46, 265, 285, 336, 345, 364
Sherman, William T., 34, 139-46, 157-59, 170, 228-30, 252-54, 269-70, 297, 326, 355, 364
Shirland, Edmond, 197-98
Short Bull, 431; portrait, 433; 434, 436
Shoshones, 288
Sibley, Henry H., 50-61, 122
Sioux, 10, 38-65, 74, 76, 80, 82, 92, 94-97, 104-18, 122-46, 176-77, 217, 273-312, 327, 329, 332, 352, 367, 386, 415-45, (Blackfoot), 188, 288-94, 423, 426, 430; (Brulé), 10, 100, 122-29, 135, 138, 141-43, 177, 182-88, 288, 291, 308, 417, 420, 428-29; (Hunkpapa), 10, 104, 114-16, 123, 132, 188, 285, 287-93, 304-05, 417-20, 423-26, 430, 439; (Minneconjou), 114-16, 123, 129, 132, 135, 188, 287, 291-94, 302, 308, 431, 434, 439-42; (Oglala), 9, 104, 109, 116, 123-35, 138-39, 142, 145, 153-57, 163-64, 177, 182-88, 276-79, 282-87, 291-92, 302, 307-08, 311, 332, 416-17, 420, 429; (Sans Arcs), 288, 290, 308; (Santee), 9, 38-65, 296
Sitting Bull, 10, 64, 114-17, 132, 188, 273, 278-79; portrait, 281; 285-88; at Little Bighorn, 291-97; 298, 300, 303-04; exile in Canada, 305, 312, 323-24, 329, 417-19; song of, 313; speeches, 415, 423-27; return to U.S., 420-23; 428-36; assassination, 437-40
Sleeping Rabbit, 139
Slim Buttes fight, 302-03
Smith, Edward P., 284
Smith, John E., 182
Smith, John S., 79; portrait, 81; 86, 88, 100
Smoky Hill river, 70, 72-78, 83-84, 91, 99-100, 148-49, 152, 161-62, 173
Solomon river, 74
Sorrel Horse, 132
Spotted Tail, 10, 92, 122-25; portrait, 127; 128-29, 132, 138-42, 146, 177, 182; visits Washington, 183-88; 276, 279-84, 299-300, 308, 310, 343, 416-17; assassination, 420-21, 428-29
Spotted Tail agency, 188, 279, 308, 310, 312
Soule, Silas, 81, 86-87, 90
Southern Pacific railroad, 406
Squanto, 3
Standing Bear, 351, 355-60; portrait, 361; 362-66
Standing Elk (Brulé Sioux), 128-29, 138, 142
Standing Elk (Cheyenne), 332-33, 340
Standing Rock agency, 300, 417, 420, 423-30, 434-36, 439
Stands-Looking-Back, 115
Steamboat Frank, 221
Steele, James, 100-101
Steen, Enoch, 193
Stevens, Isaac, 317
Stone Calf, 163
Stumbling Bear, 255-56
Sully, Alfred, 74, 115, 138
Summit Springs fight, 173-74, 176
Swift Bear, 115, 124, 138, 142-43
T
Tainos, 2, 6
Tall Bull, 10, 92, 148, 150, 152, 156, 161-65, 172-73; killed, 174
Tappan, Samuel, 142
Tatum, Lawrie, 246-249, 252-53, 260
Tauankia, 263-64
Taylor, E. B., 126, 128-30
Taylor, Nathaniel, 141-43
Taza, 217, 392, 394
Tecumseh, 1, 4
Teller, Henry M., 374
Ten Bears, 11, 158; speech, 241-42; 288; visits Washington, 257; dies, 258; portrait, 259 Teninos, 238
Terry, Alfred, 142, 279, 283, 285, 288, 290, 417-19
Thomas, Eleazar, 228, 230-31, 236, 238
Thompson, James B., 377-78, 381
Thornburgh, Thomas T., 380-84; killed in fight with Utes, 386-87
Tongue River, 110-13, 133-34, 137, 285, 287, 303, 332, 343, 348-49
Tonkawas, 269
Toohoolhoolzote, 320-22, 327-28
Tosawi, 170; portrait, 171; 243, 257-58
Touch-the-Clouds, 308, 310
Traveling Hail, 42-43
Treaty of 1851, 68
Treaty of 1868, 146, 176, 185-86, 273, 276, 280, 288, 298-99, 332, 352, 428
Tucson, Ariz., 192, 202, 204-06, 408-10
Tuekakas, 317-18
Tule Lake, 220-21, 224, 237
Turkey Leg, 138, 141, 340
Turning Hawk, 444
Two Moon, 131, 140, 286-88; at Little Bighorn, 293-98; portrait, 295; 306-07, 332, 348
U
Union Pacific railroad, 139, 141-42, 182, 342, 359, 441
Utes, 12, 24, 367-88
V
Vickers, William B., 376-77, 387
Victorio, 11, 197, 199-200, 396-99; portrait, 400; 401
W
Wabasha, 9, 42, 46, 55-56, 58, 61
Wagon Box fight, 140-41
Wahunsonacook, 2
Walker, Francis, 257-58
Walker, Samuel, 105, 113-14, 116, 118
Walking Bird, 244
Wallowa Valley, 317-18, 320
War Bonnet, 78, 87; killed, 91
Warner, William, 428
Wasumaza, 442
Watkins, E. T., 284
Webster, John C, 359-60
Webster College, 75
Weichel, Maria, 173-74
Weium, 233
Welsh, William, 189-90
Wessells, Henry W., 344-46
West, Joseph, 198
Whipple, Henry, 298-99
White Antelope, 69-70, 78, 80; portrait, 81; 82, 87-88; killed, 89-90, 100
White Bear See: Satanta
White Bird, 320, 322, 323, 327-29
White Bull (Cheyenne), 116-17, 286
White Bull (Minneconjou Sioux), 136-37, 296
White Contrary, 165
White Eagle, 351, 353, 355-58, 363
White Horse (Kiowa), 249; portrait, 261; 271
White Horse (Southern Cheyenne), 148, 150, 161-65
White Lance, 442
White Mountain reservation, 201, 214, 393-96, 399, 401-02, 406-08
White River agency, 368, 371-388
White Thunder, 415, 423, 430
Whiteman, William H, 363-65
Whitman, Royal E., 192, 201-06
Whitside, Samuel, 440-41
Wichitas, 246, 268
Wild Hog, 332, 335, 340, 343, 346
Wild West Shows, 427
Williford, George, 107-08
Winema, 227-38
Wolf Belly, 165
Wolf Chief, 71
Woman’s Heart, 244, 271
Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, 328
Wooden Leg, 286-88, 291, 333, 348
Wounded Knee Creek, 12, 313, 417, 421, 440-42; massacre, 444-46
Wovoka, 12; speech, 416; 431-32; portrait, 433; 435
Wynkoop, Edward W., 76-79; portrait, 81; 82-86, 149-58, 162-63, 169
Y
Yellow Bear, 170
Yellow Bird, 442
Yellow Eagle, 133-34
Yellow Hair, 422, 429
Yellow Wolf, 316, 325-26
Yellow Woman, 72, 92, 96, 108
Yellowstone Park, 326
Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, 97, 278, 283; portrait, 301
The Fetterman Massacre
For L. L. B.
Contents
I. April:
MOON WHEN THE GEESE LAY EGGS
II. May:
PLANTING MOON
III. June:
MOON WHEN THE GREEN GRASS IS UP
1
2
IV. July:
MOON WHEN THE CHOKECHERRIES ARE RIPE
V. August:
MOON WHEN THE GEESE SHED THEIR FEATHERS
VI. September:
DRYING GRASS MOON
VII. October:
HARVEST MOON
VIII. November:
DEER RUTTING MOON
IX. December:
MOON WHEN THE DEER SHED THEIR HORNS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
X. January
MOON OF STRONG COLD
XI. Aftermath
1
2
3
4
5
Bibliography
Notes
Index
I. April:
MOON WHEN THE GEESE LAY EGGS
My name is Henry B. Carrington: forty-three years of age, colonel Eighteenth U.S. Infantry, and now commanding post Fort McPherson, Nebraska, late commanding post Philip Kearny, Dakota Territory, and previously thereto commanding Mountain District, Department of the Platte, which command embraced the route from Fort Reno westward to Virginia City via the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers, and being the new route I occupied during the summer of 1866.1
SO BEGAN, ON A spring day in 1867, Colonel Carrington’s testimony before a commission convened at Fort McPherson to investigate the Fetterman Massacre of December 21, 1866. For several days Carrington defended his past actions, offering letters, records and reports relating to his command at Fort Phil Kearny, narrating a relentless procession of events which led to the violent deaths of three officers, seventy-six enlisted men and two civilians.
The Fetterman Massacre was the second battle in American history from which came no survivors, and was a nationally debated incident for ten years—until overshadowed by the Custer Massacre of 1876. Acting under orders from Colonel Carrington, Brevet-Colonel William Judd Fetterman led eighty men out of the gates of Fort Phil Kearny at 11:15 A.M. of that dark December day. Carrington’s orders were explicit: relieve the wood train from Indian attack, but do not pursue the enemy beyond Lodge Trail Ridge.
At 11:45 A.M. Fetterman’s command of forty-nine infantrymen and twenty-seven cavalrymen halted on the crest of Lodge Trail Ridge, with skirmishers out. The sky was bitter gray, thickening for snow, temperature dropping rapidly. A few minutes later Fetterman’s rear guard disappeared from view of the fort, passing over the ridge, moving north. At 12 noon, almost as the bugler was sounding dinner call in the fort, sentinels at the gate heard firing from beyond Lodge Trail Ridge. Colonel Carrington was notified immediately. By the time the colonel had mounted the lookout tower above his headquarters, firing was continuous and rapid. Without further delay, Carrington ordered Captain Tenodor Ten Eyck to move out to Fetterman’s relief. At 12:45 P.M., Ten Eyck and seventy-six men reached the summit of a ridge overlooking Peno Creek. The valley was swarming with Indians, at least two thousand of them, probably more. One or two scattered shots rang out from the hill beyond; then there was no more firing, only the jubilant cries of Indians racing their ponies, some shouting derisively at Ten Eyck’s troops, beckoning them to come down into the valley.
For several minutes Captain Ten Eyck could see no sign of Fetterman’s command, neither the mounted nor dismounted men. Then as the Indians began withdrawing from the valley, an enlisted man cried: “There’re the men down there, all dead!”2
Maintaining his position on high ground until the Indian forces had vanished northward, Ten Eyck then cautiously advanced toward the battlefield. Near the Bozeman Road, dead men lay naked and mutilated, blood frozen in their wounds, in a circle about forty feet in diameter. They were mostly infantrymen. After loading the dead into his two ammunition wagons, Ten Eyck began a slow withdrawal to the fort, not reaching the gates until darkness was falling. The following morning, against the advice of his staff, Carrington led a second party out to the scene of battle and recovered the remaining bodies, mostly cavalrymen.
The full story of what happened in that brief hour of bloody carnage at high noon under the wintry sky of December 21, 1866, will never be known. During the years which followed, various Indian participants—Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho—told conflicting accounts of the battle. Yet the mystery is not so much what happened as why it happened. Why did Fetterman disobey Carrington’s orders? Why did the cavalrymen leave the infantrymen to meet the full force of attack, and retire to high ground only to die a few minutes later as they had watched the infantrymen die? Why did the Indians retire from the field instead of attempting to annihilate Captain Ten Eyck’s seventy-six men, a move wh
ich if successful would have left the fort vulnerable to immediate capture?
In the first place, why were Fetterman and his men there in that lonely, uncharted wilderness, 236 miles north of Fort Laramie, in a country which only one year earlier had been ceded by treaty to the tribes as inviolable Indian territory?
The commission investigating the Fetterman Massacre examined some of these questions directly, dwelling upon the necessity for three forts along the Bozeman Trail, debating whether or not the strength of Carrington’s military force was sufficient, yet never more than hinting at reasons for opening this road through the Plains Indians’ last unspoiled hunting ground.
The motivating factor of course was gold, which had been discovered in Montana in 1862, creating a rush to Virginia City through 1863 and 1864. During the Civil War, thousands of miners traveled to the diggings by two routes—either up the Missouri River by way of Fort Benton, or overland along the Platte Trail to Fort Hall and then doubling back into Montana Territory. These were roundabout routes, requiring weeks for passage. Public demand for a more direct route led two explorers in 1864 to mark out trails northward from Fort Laramie. Jim Bridger, aware of the Indians’ determination to keep the white man out of their sacred Powder River country, avoided that area and led his party of trail blazers west of the Big Horn Mountains. John Bozeman, seeking an even more direct route, ran his wagons east of the Big Horns, straight through the heart of the hunting grounds.
Except for Indian resistance, Bozeman’s route was by far the easier to travel, and by 1865 several parties of brave or foolhardy gold seekers risked their lives to make the crossing of what soon became known as the Montana Road.
In 1865, the Federal Government also became vitally interested in a direct route to the gold fields. After four years of Civil War, the United States Treasury was virtually bankrupt; gold was urgently needed to liquidate the accruing interest of the national debt. In hopes of encouraging more prospectors to make the journey to Montana, the government financed a survey for a direct route from Sioux City by way of the Niobrara River. Leader of this expedition of about one hundred men and 250 wagons was Colonel James A. Sawyer. The party included engineers and gold prospectors, and was escorted by two companies of former Confederate soldiers, who had sworn oaths of allegiance in exchange for release from military prisons.