The scout named Young Hawk watched as the Crow and Arikara scouts gathered in their tribal groups, waiting for George Armstrong Custer to arrive. They had learned that the Sioux already knew the Army was coming, and the scouts were uneasy about how Custer would react to the news that his approach had been detected. As the officers relayed orders through Fred Gerard, the interpreter, the scouts were told to prepare for action. Custer directed them to take the horses away from the Sioux camp.
Stab, an elder among the Arikara, urged the younger scouts to follow the order and capture as many horses as they could. The bugle sounded as the column reached the top of the ridge, and the flag was unfurled. Excitement spread through the ranks as the men lightened their loads and tightened their saddle girths. Custer commanded the scouts to move forward, and they descended into the valley, heading toward the Little Bighorn.
As they rode, the scouts spotted a lone tepee at the base of the ridge ahead. Gerard shouted that the chief ordered them to charge. Strikes Two, one of the Arikara scouts, called out in surprise, then gave a war yell. The others answered with battle whoops of their own.
Strikes Two was the first to reach the lone tepee, striking it with his whip. Young Hawk dismounted on the north side, drew his knife, and cut the tent from top to bottom. Inside, he found a scaffold bearing a dead person wrapped in a buffalo robe. The scouts gathered around, then turned and rode into the valley beyond, passing the white soldiers and continuing together in a frenzied crowd.
The more experienced riders kept pace with the cavalry on the west side of the Little Bighorn. Young Hawk spotted Red Bear, Goose, Chief, and Red Star as they rode. When they passed through a prairie dog town and reached the mouth of a dry creek, Young Hawk unbraided his hair, tied it forward with a handful of loose eagle feathers, and braced himself for what he expected to come. He anticipated being killed and scalped by the Sioux.
The soldiers dismounted and positioned their horses in groups behind the line. Skirmishing broke out in front of the line almost immediately. The scouts took positions to the left, close to the crest, with a few scattered farther out on the slant. The soldiers formed a line to the right.
Bob-tailed Bull was closest to the crest and the farthest out on the left flank, followed in order by Red Bear, Little Brave, Forked Horn, Red Foolish Bear, Goose, Big Belly, Crow, and Strikes Enemy. Young Hawk moved to the right to take his own place in the line. In front of them, Dakota skirmishers rode back and forth, testing the position. A scout named Bloody Knife appeared on the Little Bighorn behind the line and rode straight toward Young Hawk.
He was wearing a bears claw with a clamshell and a black handkerchief with blue stars, a gift from Custer. Bloody Knife reported that Custer’s orders concerning the Sioux horses were being carried out. Then he moved behind the line and stood next to Little Brave. The battle grew more intense as soldiers began to fall.
The line bent back toward the river under pressure. From about sixteen feet away, a Dakota warrior made a brave charge directly at the soldiers before being shot and killed. He had been mounted on a bald-faced sorrel horse with a scarlet cloth tied around its tail. The horse continued toward the scouts, and Young Hawk claimed it.
He called for Red Bear to take the captured animal, but Red Bear did not respond. Instead, a Crow scout named Big Belly approached and asked for the horse. Young Hawk gave it to him. Big Belly, also known as Half Yellow Face, mounted the Dakota horse and let go of his own inferior animal.
Meanwhile, the Sioux had been gathering behind the crest nearest Bob-tailed Bull. Suddenly, a thick crowd of Dakota warriors appeared over the ridge and rushed in unison toward him. A white soldier nearby turned to Young Hawk and said, “John, you go. ” The scouts had to retreat across the river some two miles downstream as the Dakota assault drove the line back into the soldiers.
The climb was strenuous as they crossed the flat ground and went diagonally up the cliff. Half Yellow Face, Strikes Enemy, the two Crows, Red Foolish Bear, Forked Horn, Goose, and Young Hawk trailed behind the soldiers as they led the retreat. When they reached the timber, Forked Horn called out to dismount and make a stand. Bob-tailed Bull had fallen back close to the troops, closely followed by the Sioux.
Young Hawk and Goose both jumped off their horses, interpreting the call as a general signal for the scouts. When they fired at the Dakotas without stopping their horses, the attackers turned back. At the troops fort, Bob-tailed Bull was able to cross the river while loading his carbine, but Young Hawk dropped his shell and could not fire again. Less than an eighth of a mile away, four scouts rode into the brush and crossed the river farther downstream.
Goose and Young Hawk made their way through thick undergrowth in deep water, their horses straining to reach the other bank. They found the other four scouts taking cover in a thick grove of trees. The Sioux closed in, shooting through the foliage. Goose groaned and said, “Cousin, I am wounded.
” Young Hawk stood beside his horse, grabbed his cartridge belt, and put it on, his determination to fight to the end solidifying. He helped Goose dismount, and as he did, bullets knocked Goose’s horse down. Young Hawk took off his army blouse and coat, preparing to battle for his life. Half Yellow Face was crawling toward them.
He placed Goose against a tree and told him to hold the horse, then said that his friend was being killed. Young Hawk crawled alongside him to reach the dead Crow scout, Strikes Enemy, also known as White Swan, who lay on his back with his arms up. They pulled him back to where Goose was sitting against a tree. Strikes Enemy declared that he was happy to be wounded.
Young Hawk admitted that he felt uneasy seeing his injured comrades and hated watching them suffer, so he decided to die at the edge of the timber. He whispered that he loved his horse, put his hand around the animal’s neck, and left. After crawling out, he straightened up and fired at the Sioux warriors who were kneeling. A volley came back at him, but he came out unharmed.
He crawled to a new spot, fired again, and drew another volley, disappearing before being struck. Determined to try again, he found Forked Horn lying face down to escape the shooting and discovered a tree with driftwood heaped against it that offered cover. Forked Horn warned Young Hawk not to do that again, saying it was a bad idea to make oneself a target. The grass was too green to burn when the Sioux tried to set it alight.
After sitting still for a while, Young Hawk fired at a nearby Dakota riding a gray horse but missed. He leaped to his feet, fired again, and killed him. The horse, which had a beautiful bridle and was finely groomed, circled to the left after its rider collapsed, held by a lariat. Young Hawk fired twice more and killed the horse as well, then yelled the Arikara death cry, the customary call that marks an enemy’s defeat.
Goose, seeing the horse fall, asked Young Hawk to retrieve the delicate bridle for him. Young Hawk later killed another warrior as the Sioux approached and gave the death cry again. Dakota women rode up and shouted at their warriors to slaughter the Arikara, but their cries were soon lost as they left with the others. Young Hawk saw the Sioux riding downstream as the attack faded, which suggested that Custer’s assault had begun at the lower ford.
More Dakotas crossed the river and rode north past them. When the gunfire stopped, Young Hawk stood and saw a United States flag on the ridge above, marking the location of the pack train. Forked Horn spoke to him, commending his bravery and calling him his grandson. He said they must now make every effort to reach the pack train, as Custer had directed, while avoiding being mistaken for Sioux.
Young Hawk tied his white handkerchief to a stick as a makeshift flag. Despite Strikes Enemy’s injuries to his right hand and leg, they mounted him on his own horse, while Red Foolish Bear continued on foot. Goose rode his own horse. Young Hawk waved the white flag and rode forward.
As they climbed the slope and moved down the creek, they saw the Dakotas reappearing on the east side of the ridge, swarming toward the white camp. The Sioux had overrun the hill where the soldiers made their last stand. The Custer engagement was over. The group turned around to escape, but Young Hawk held his position, waving the white flag.
The soldiers fired over him at the enemy. His horse was killed close to the camp, but he leaped to his feet and dashed inside, still holding the flag. He found the pack train and the survivors of the Reno and Benteen commands, along with Peak Face Vnum, the head of scouts, and the commander in charge, who greeted him with a relieved look. Sergeant Bob-tailed Bull had fallen, and his horse was in camp.
The officer indicated that Little Brave was presumed lost as well. Young Hawk saw Little Brave’s spotted horse, captured it, and claimed it as his own. As the Sioux drew closer, the entire group withdrew into a nearby ravine. Soldiers and horses fell quickly as the Dakotas launched a ferocious attack, gunfire filling the air from both sides.
The Sioux moved to the right and fired from one end of the gully into the other. The soldiers used cracker boxes, bacon packets, and whatever else they could find to build makeshift breastworks. Young Hawk lay on the ground with a cracker box as a shield, not taking part in the construction. As the lines advanced in a crouching stance, the Sioux enveloped them and opened fire from all directions.
The gunfire was so heavy that nothing else could be heard. The injured were dragged behind the breastworks, considered the safest place in the position. The fighting continued without interruption until nightfall. The dead were set aside, and the wounded were treated.
The troops stayed alert through the night, expecting a Dakota attack. A few shots rang out at sunrise, and then the fierce struggle resumed, lasting until late afternoon. On the side nearest the ridge, in the Dakota lines, the scouts had regrouped. On the first afternoon, an officer approached the scouts with a message that needed to be delivered after dark.
It was from Forked Horn, but because Goose was injured, the officer told him that each scout would deliver the same message. The officer later returned with a sergeant, saying the sergeant would accompany them to make sure the situation in the camp would be known if all the scouts were killed. Despite his injured hand, Goose insisted on going because he wanted to share the same fate as the others. The officer made clear that the message was intended for the president of the United States, to inform him of what had happened.
The scouts were told to ride hard, ignoring anyone, and to use government horses, which were faster than their own mounts. If they were shot or injured, they were to leave the paper on the ground so that soldiers could find it later and understand what had occurred. Forked Horn believed the government horses would perform better without their shoes and asked that they be removed. After the messages were prepared, the two Crow scouts stayed behind, one to tend to the wounded Goose.
Forked Horn, Red Foolish Bear, Young Hawk, and the white sergeant were the messengers set to ride out. They followed the ravine as night fell, but they were ambushed by the Sioux and had to flee quickly into the darkness.