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 Regiment was defeated. Known for his bravery and strength in battle, Rain In The Face was also said to have held a personal vendetta against Custer, whom he believed had killed his brother and sister in a previous battle.
For years, army officers and government agents tried to get Rain In The Face to talk about the fight. They tried everything, from being nice and making promises to threatening him, but he wouldn’t say a word. That changed when he finally told his story to an interviewer, with McLaughlin translating.
Rain In The Face began his account two years before the big battle, when Gall and Sitting Bull had their camp at Standing Rock. All the Indians there were against the government. They were Hunkpapa Sioux and weren’t afraid of anything. The Yanktonais were friendly Indians who hung around the agency trying to get food and supplies.
One night, a girl dared Rain In The Face to go to Fort Lincoln and kill a white man. He told her it was too dangerous with soldiers always on guard and Rees scouts nearby. But she challenged his bravery, saying a brave man isn’t afraid and that she would ask someone else who was daring in the Sundance.
Rain In The Face accepted the challenge. He went to his lodge, painted his face black, and took his gun, bow, and pony. He snuck out of camp under cover of darkness and went to Fort Lincoln, 45 miles north. He waited for two days looking for a chance to shoot a soldier.
One morning, he saw the storekeeper and a horse doctor go to a spring. Long Yellow Hair, as the Indians called Custer, and his men were riding back about 100 yards away. Rain In The Face rushed up, shot the storekeeper, and hit the horse doctor with his war club. Then he shot them full of arrows and cut off some buttons. Long Yellow Hair heard the shot and charged back, but Rain In The Face jumped on his pony and yelled at them to catch him.
The next winter, Rain In The Face went to the agency store at Standing Rock. He hadn’t signed the peace treaty, so he didn’t get any rations. The storekeeper, One Arm, snuck up behind him, and 30 soldiers piled on him. They threw him in a wagon and held him down until they got him to the guard room at Lincoln.
Rain In The Face was treated poorly. They put him in a room, chained him, and gave him only one blanket. The snow blew through the cracks all winter. Once, Little Hair let him out and the soldiers told him to run. Rain In The Face knew they wanted to shoot him in the back. He told Little Hair that he would escape and cut his heart out and eat it.
One night, Rain In The Face got away with a white man he was chained to. They fired at them, but they ran and hid on the bank of the Heart River. The white man cut the chains with a knife, but they caught him the next day. Rain In The Face got away and rejoined Sitting Bull and Gall. He sent Little Hair a picture of a bloody heart on buffalo skin so he knew he didn’t forget his vow.
When shown a sketch of Custer’s last charge, Rain In The Face burst out laughing. He said the picture was a lie. Soldiers didn’t fight with swords but with guns and revolvers. They fought on foot with every fourth man holding horses. Rain In The Face said the soldiers’ guns only shot once with shells stuck inside. He saw dozens of guns on the battlefield with shells still in them.
When the Indians saw the soldiers’ guns wouldn’t work, they used their war clubs to knock them down. Rain In The Face said it was easy, like killing sheep. Some soldiers begged for mercy, but the Indians showed none.
Rain In The Face drew a large sideways S-shape to show how the battle really looked. This was the Little Bighorn River. The lodges were along the banks, shaped like a bent bow. There were around 4,000 to 6,000 Indians, so at least 1,000 lodges.
Sitting Bull made powerful medicine on a hill. He brought it back in a bag on a horse and gave a big speech. He said the Great Spirit told him the soldiers were coming, but they would defeat them. The next day, runners told them the soldiers were coming.
Sitting Bull had the women set up empty lodges to trick the Rees scouts. The brush and bend in the river hid their real lodges. Sitting Bull left to make more medicine and didn’t return until the fight was over. Gall was the head chief that day, and Crazy Horse led the Cheyennes.
Rain In The Face led a band of fierce Hunkpapas. They knew the soldiers’ horses were tired and that the soldiers were fooled by the empty lodges. The soldiers thought the Indians were just a small group. The Indians were ready for them.
When the soldiers split up, Gall took most of the Indians up the river to cut them off. The Indians let the soldiers come over the bluffs, and some young men cut them off from behind. The soldiers charged but fell back under fire.
The Indians heard the Rees singing their death song. The soldiers dismounted, and every fourth man held the others’ ponies. The Indians closed in around them, rushing like a wave at the sand. They shot the pony holders and stampeded the ponies by waving their blankets.
Rain In The Face rushed in and took the soldiers’ flag. His pony fell dead, but he cut the thong, jumped up, and hit the flag man with his war club. He ran back to their line with the flag, proud of his brave deed.
The fighting was intense. Rain In The Face said the soldiers’ blood and brains splashed on his face, feeling hot and tasting bitter. He was enraged, so he got a new pony and charged back, shooting, cutting, and slashing. That pony was shot too, so he got another.
That’s when he saw Little Hair and remembered his vow. He was frenzied, fearing nothing, knowing his white weasel tail charm would protect him. Little Hair recognized him, and Rain In The Face laughed and yelled at him. When he got close enough, he shot him with his revolver.
Rain In The Face jumped off his pony, cut out Little Hair’s heart, bit a piece off, and spit it in his face. Then he rode off shaking it. He was satisfied and tired of fighting, so he didn’t scalp him. He had fulfilled his vow.
Rain In The Face didn’t return to the battlefield after that. The women came later and killed the wounded, taking their belongings and cutting off their boots for leather. They even cut off fingers to get rings faster. They searched for Long Yellow Hair’s scalp but couldn’t find him, as he wore no uniform and had cut his hair.
That night, the Indians celebrated with a feast and scalp dance. Sitting Bull spoke, saying his medicine had made them brave. He took credit for winning the fight, but Gall disputed this, saying they did the fighting while Sitting Bull only made medicine. This caused tension between them.
When asked who killed Long Yellow Hair if he didn’t, Rain In The Face replied, “I don’t know. No one knows. It was like fighting in the dark.” When asked why Long Yellow Hair wasn’t scalped like the others, he said, “No one is too brave to be scalped. The women wondered why they couldn’t find him. He must have been hidden under other bodies.”
Rain In The Face also dismissed the story of Curley, the Crow scout who claimed to have escaped. He said Curley was a liar and wasn’t in the fight. His pony broke down, and he ran away like a coward.
Rain In The Face was about 60 years old at the time of the interview and was the only chief still alive to tell the story of the Custer fight. He could write his name in English but didn’t understand its significance. His English vocabulary was limited to about 30 words, but he could understand almost anything said in English.
Despite his age, he was still strong and physically imposing. His redeeming feature lay in the fact that you could depend upon any promise he made, but it took a world of patience to get him to promise anything.