Not a single white man survived the battle alongside Kuster. Crazy Horse, that steadfast chief, had already overcome General Crook’s troops on the Rosebud earlier that same day. Notably, he could have destroyed the soldiers completely if he had decided to call for more warriors from surrounding camps and set a trap at sunrise since they had made camp in the darkness after the engagement. He then traveled west to the Rosebud and effectively drove back another assault when the soldiers arrived.
Finally, he journeyed to the Valley of the Greasy Grass, our hereditary territory, where we desired only to be left alone. Two days before the battle, we set up our huge camp in the valley along the southern bank of the greasy grass river before the sun was at its highest point. Upstream to the south were the Hunkpapas, then the Oglalas, many Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, and Shahiellas with the Santes and Yanktonese farthest to the north. Rattling Hawk, a warrior injured in the Rosebud Battle, was cured by Harry Chin, a talented medicine man, after being shot in the hip during the fight.
Five other boys were there and he required us to take on the appearance of bears in the healing ritual because his power came from a dream about the bear. Harry Chin colored my body and face yellow with black lines on each side of my nose and fixed my hair to look like bear ears, decorating my head with eagle feathers. Two women came in, standing on each side of the wounded warrior, one holding a cup of water, the other some type of herb. As I looked at the cup, I tried to see if it held the whole of the sky as it had in my vision, but unfortunately I could not determine.
While the plant and cup were being offered to Rattling Hawk, Harry Chin kept on chanting. Then they gave him a red cane and he stood up immediately. After that, Harry Chin came out on his hands and knees, looking very much like a bear in my view. Rattling Hawk’s walking got better, and although he could not fight the next day, he got well soon after.
We went to swim, wanting to wash the paint from our bodies after the ritual. When we got back, the people were dancing and telling stories of courage from the battle with three stars on the Rosebud. We moved from one dance to another until tiredness beat us and we could not stay awake any longer. While we were doing this, he warned me to put a long rope on one of the horses so we could catch it easily and in that way secure the others.
Several of us boys looked after our horses together until the sun reached its peak and the heat got very strong. We chose to go find relief in the water, and my cousin kindly agreed to stay with the horses until we returned. As I rubbed grease on myself, I felt a strange sense of dread, as if something awful was about to happen. By the time my cousin brought the horses down to drink, we had been in the water for a long while, the heat being extreme.
Shouts repeated from camp to camp all the way to the Santes and Yanktonese. The Ogl Crier said the same words, his voice becoming more desperate. I grabbed the weapons, got on my pony, and chased after my brother. Just past the Hunkpapa camp, a heavy cloud of dust rose as the Hunkpapas, many still wet from the river, ran around and cried out in alarm.
Looking back, I saw them all running up a hillside. When we got to the trees, many Hunkpapas were already there, and the soldiers were shooting above us, making leaves fall from the trees where the bullets hit. The warriors were riding in on their horses, and I could not make out what was happening in the village below. It was all dust, screaming, and thunder.
In the woods and outside the Hunkpapa camp, we all yelled, “Have bravery. Be not like a lady. ” My vision filled me with a feeling of determination and created the idea that the army would be defeated and that my people were all thunder beings. After that, a loud shout sounded over the dust.
To my left, I could hear the soldiers’ horses, shod with iron hooves, going back into the brush with shooting starting everywhere. The horses finally broke through the thick plants, and I was in the middle of a rush of action as men and horses came in and left the area, going upstream while shouting, “Hurry, move quickly. ” We were all mixed together in the noise and darkness as the troops ran upstream. Being small, I could not push through to where the soldiers were, so I did not kill anyone.
Soon the soldiers and many Lakotas were all crowded into the river and I was in the water for a time. After we came out of the water, people started taking the clothes off the dead soldiers and putting them on themselves. One soldier on the ground was still moving. His hair was short and my knife was not sharp.
He was grinding his teeth, so I shot him in the forehead and then took his scalp. Many of our warriors were chasing the soldiers up a hill on the other side of the river while everyone else was moving downstream. Then I saw something shiny hanging from the soldier’s belt. At first, it made a ticking sound, but then it stopped.
I wore it around my neck for a long time before I understood what it was and how to make it tick again. Then the women came together and we climbed to the top of the hill. It did not seem that anyone knew which soldier Ponhanska was, and I did not see him. I saw one soldier raising his arms and moaning, so I shot an arrow into his forehead, making his arms and legs jerk.
He was my cousin and both his father and mine were so angry about this that they went and attacked the soldiers, killing several. Most of the warriors drove the other soldiers back to the hill where their pack mules were while we were there. After a while, I got tired of looking around. I was not sorry at all.
When I was in the brush with the Hunkpapas and the first shots were fired, I had a feeling that this would occur. Everyone stayed awake all night in the village. He had hidden there when the other soldiers went back to the hilltop and had been there all night. He crawled from one side of the bush to the other while we ran around shooting our bows at him.
After a time, we set fire to the grass around the bushes and he came out running. By then, our scouts had said that more soldiers were coming up the stream, so we decided to break camp. Before dark, we were packed up and started going up the greasy grass towards Woodloose Creek in the Big Horn Mountains. My mother threw some puppy puppies into the pony drag that my two younger brothers and I rode in.
I am not sure what he meant. All through the camp, there were big fires and kill dances going on all night.