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.
According to some accounts, Rain In The Face was among the warriors who attacked Custer’s unit during the battle. He may have even struck the final blow that killed Custer, though this claim is disputed among historians.
The exact circumstances of Custer’s death remain unclear. Rain In The Face later surrendered to U.S. forces and spent time in prison.
After his release, he became an advocate for Native American rights and a popular figure in Wild West shows, where he would recount his experiences in battle.
For years, army officers and government agents tried to get Rain In The Face to talk about the fight, but he would not say a word. They tried everything, from making promises to threatening him, but it did not work.
Rain In The Face was famous for killing Custer, and the poet Longfellow even wrote about him. So it was a surprise when Rain finally told his story.
Two years before the big battle, Gaul and Sitting Bull had their camp at Standing Rock. All the Indians there were against the government.
One night, a girl dared Rain In The Face to go to Fort Lincoln and kill a white man. He accepted the challenge, 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 and his men were riding back about 100 yards away.
Rain 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. Rain did not have time to scalp the men he killed. He jumped on his pony and yelled at them to catch him.
The next winter, Rain went to the agency store at Standing Rock. The storekeeper, One Arm, was there.
One Arm snuck up behind him, and 30 soldiers piled on him. They threw Rain in a wagon and held him down until they got him to the guard room at Lincoln.
He was treated like a woman, not a chief. They put him in a room, chained him, and gave him only one blanket.
Once, Little Hair let him out, and the soldiers told him to run. Rain 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.
Rain was chained to a white man, and one night they got away. 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 got away, but he knew they would be looking for him.
He rejoined Sitting Bull and Gaul, but they were afraid to come get him. Rain sent Little Hair a picture of a bloody heart on buffalo skin so he knew he did not forget his vow.
When asked about a sketch of Custer’s last charge, Rain burst out laughing. He said the picture was a lie.
Soldiers did not fight with swords but with guns and revolvers. They fought on foot with every fourth man holding horses.
Rain said the Indians tied themselves to their ponies and fought in a circle. They stripped naked and painted themselves and their ponies.
The soldiers’ guns only shot once with shells stuck inside. Rain said he saw dozens of guns on the battlefield with shells still in them.
When the Indians saw the soldiers’ guns would not work, they used their war clubs to knock them down. It was easy, like killing sheep.
Some soldiers begged for mercy, but the warriors showed none.
Rain turned the paper over and drew a large sideways S shape with a pencil. 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 courier and gave a big speech.
He said the Great Spirit told him the soldiers were coming, but they would defeat them. The speech made the warriors happy.
The next day, runners told them the soldiers were coming. Sitting Bull had the women set up empty lodges to trick the Rees scouts.
Gaul was the head chief. Crazy Horse led the Cheyenne, and Goose led the Blackfeet.
Rain In The Face was not a head chief, but he led a band of fierce Hunkpapas.
They knew the soldiers’ horses were tired and that they were fooled by the empty lodges. The soldiers thought the Indians were just a small group.
The warriors were ready for them and fought bravely. They knew the soldiers made a mistake when they split up.
Gaul took most of the Indians up the river to cut them off. When they saw the Rees scouts stay back with Long Yellow Hair, they were glad.
They let the soldiers come over the bluffs, and some young men cut them off from behind. Then they showed their line, and the soldiers charged.
The soldiers fell back under fire, and the young men behind them opened fire. The soldiers dismounted, and every fourth man held the others’ ponies.
The warriors 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 their flag. His pony fell dead.
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 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 is when he saw Little Hair and remembered his vow.
He was frenzied, fearing nothing, knowing his white weasel tail charm would protect him. He shot Little Hair with his revolver.
He jumped off his pony, cut out his 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 did not scalp him. He had fulfilled his vow, and that was all that mattered.
Rain did not 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 could not find him, as he wore no uniform and had cut his hair.
That night, they 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 Gaul disputed this, saying they did the fighting while Sitting Bull only made medicine. This caused tension between them.
Rain In The Face said they could have defeated the others on the hill, but Gaul and Sitting Bull’s quarrel stopped them. Both wanted to be leader, and some Indians sided with each.
Rain did not care. He led his own group and did not obey either. He was tired of fighting and wanted to dance.
When asked who killed Long Yellow Hair if he did not, Rain replied, “I don’t know. No one knows. It was like fighting in the dark.”
When asked why Long Yellow Hair was not scalped like the others, Rain 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.”
Regarding Curley, the Crow scout who claimed to have escaped, Rain said, “Curley is a liar. He wasn’t in the fight. His pony broke down and he ran away like a coward.”
Rain In The Face was then about 60 years old and was 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 understand almost anything said in English.
Even at 60, 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.