Rain-in-the-Face, a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and warrior, played a significant role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry was decisively defeated. Known for his courage in combat, he was also believed to hold a personal grudge against Custer, whom he thought had killed his brother and sister in an earlier engagement. Some narratives claim Rain-in-the-Face was among the warriors who attacked Custer’s unit and may have delivered the fatal blow that ended Custer’s life, though historians contest this assertion and the exact circumstances of Custer’s death remain uncertain. Rain-in-the-Face eventually surrendered to U.
S. forces and served a period of imprisonment. After his release, he became an advocate for Native American rights and a well-known figure in Wild West shows, where he would narrate his battlefield stories. For years, army officers and government agents tried to get Rain-in-the-Face to discuss the fight, but he refused to speak.
They attempted friendliness, assurances, and even intimidation, but nothing worked. The poet Longfellow even composed verse about him. It was therefore a shock when he finally shared his story, as recorded by an interpreter during a conversation with the writer and others. Rain-in-the-Face began by describing events two years before the great battle, when Gall and Sitting Bull had their camp at Standing Rock.
He said the Hunkpapa there opposed the government and feared nothing. One evening, a girl challenged him to go to Fort Lincoln and kill a white man. She told him a brave man has no fear and said she would ask another who was not afraid if he would not go. He accepted the challenge.
He painted his face black, took his gun, bow, and pony, and slipped out of camp under darkness, traveling 45 miles north to Fort Lincoln. He waited two days for an opportunity to shoot a soldier. He wanted to bring a soldier’s brass buttons back to the girl who had mocked him. He eventually shot a storekeeper and struck a horse doctor with his war club, then shot them full of arrows and cut off some buttons.
He said “Long Yellow Hair” and his men heard the shot and charged back, but he escaped on his pony. The following winter, he went to the agency store at Standing Rock. He was captured, thrown in a wagon, and taken to the guard room at Lincoln. He was chained and given only a single blanket, and the snow blew through the cracks onto him all winter.
He vowed to escape and cut out the heart of “Little Hair,” a man he held responsible for his treatment. He eventually escaped, and later sent a picture of a bloody heart on buffalo skin to let his enemy know he had not forgotten his vow. When shown a sketch of Custer’s last charge, Rain-in-the-Face laughed and said the picture was false. He said the soldiers did not fight with swords but with guns and revolvers, and fought on foot with every fourth soldier holding the horses.
He said his people stripped naked, painted themselves and their ponies, and fought in a circle. He claimed the soldiers’ guns only fired once, with shells stuck inside, and that he saw dozens of guns on the battlefield with shells still in them. When the soldiers’ guns would not work, the warriors used war clubs to knock them down. He said it was simple, “like killing sheep,” and that some pleaded for mercy but received none.
He drew the Little Bighorn River as a large sideways S-shape, explaining that their lodges were along the banks. He said there were approximately 4,000 to 6,000 Indians, at least a thousand lodges. Sitting Bull performed powerful medicine on a hill and delivered a speech saying the Great Spirit had told him the soldiers were coming but they would vanquish them. The next day, runners informed them the soldiers were approaching.
Sitting Bull had the women set up empty lodges to deceive the scouts, while the brush and bend in the river concealed their real lodges. Sitting Bull left to make more medicine and did not return until the fight was finished. Gall was the head chief, Crazy Horse led the Cheyenne, and Goose led the Arikara. Rain-in-the-Face said he was not a head chief but led a band of fierce Hunkpapa.
The warriors knew the soldiers’ horses were exhausted and that the soldiers had been tricked by the empty lodges, believing they were only a small band. They knew the soldiers had erred when they divided their forces. Gall took most of the Indians up the river to intercept them. When they saw the scouts remain behind with Long Yellow Hair, they were pleased.
They let the soldiers come over the bluffs, and some of the young men cut off their retreat. The soldiers charged but fell back under fire. The warriors heard the soldiers singing their death song, knowing they were surrounded. The soldiers dismounted, and every fourth man held the others’ ponies.
Rain-in-the-Face said he sang the war song and smelled the gunsmoke. He rushed in, seized the flag, and his pony fell dead. He cut the thong, jumped up, struck the flagman with his war club, and ran back to their line with the flag. He was proud he had performed a brave deed.
He got a new pony and charged back, shooting, cutting, and slashing, but this pony was also shot, so he got another. That is when he saw “Little Hair” and remembered his vow. He said he was frenzied, fearing nothing, believing his white weasel tail charm would protect him. He did not know how many he killed trying to reach him.
When he got close enough, he shot him with his revolver. He jumped off his pony, cut out his heart, bit a piece off, and spit it in his face. He rode off shaking it. He was satisfied and tired of fighting, so he did not scalp him.
He did not return to the battlefield after that. He said the women came later and killed the wounded, taking their possessions and cutting off their boots for leather. They even cut off fingers to get rings more quickly. They searched for Long Yellow Hair’s scalp but could not find him, as he wore no uniform and had cut his hair.
That night, the warriors celebrated with a feast and scalp dance. Sitting Bull spoke, saying his medicine had made them brave, and took credit for winning the fight. Gall disputed this, saying they had done the fighting while Sitting Bull only made medicine, which caused tension between them. Rain-in-the-Face said they could have defeated the others on the hill, but the argument between Gall and Sitting Bull prevented it.
Both wanted to be leader, and the Indians were divided. They heard more soldiers were coming with big guns, so they moved north. They crossed the border and stayed there until Sitting Bull returned. Rain-in-the-Face came back with him and was glad to be home.
When asked who killed Long Yellow Hair if he did not, Rain-in-the-Face replied, “I do not know. No one knows. It was like fighting in the dark. ” He said no one is too brave to be scalped, and the women wondered why they could not find him, suggesting he must have been concealed under other bodies.
He dismissed the Crow scout Curley’s claim of having escaped, saying Curley was a liar and was not in the fight. He said Curley’s pony broke down and he ran away like a coward. Rain-in-the-Face was about 60 years old at the time and was described as the only chief still alive to tell the story of the Custer fight. He could write his name in English but did not understand its significance.
His English vocabulary was limited to about 30 words, but he could comprehend most of what was said. Despite his age, he remained strong and physically imposing. He was described as brave but lacking morals, yet he kept his promises, though it took patience to get him to make one.