Rain in the Face was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief and warrior who played a prominent role in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry were defeated. He was known for his courage in combat and was believed to hold a personal grudge against Custer, whom he accused of killing his brother and sister in an earlier conflict.
Some accounts suggest Rain in the Face was among the warriors who attacked Custer’s unit and may have delivered the fatal blow. Historians continue to debate this claim, and the exact circumstances of Custer’s death remain uncertain.
Rain in the Face eventually surrendered to U.S. troops and served a prison term. After his release, he became an advocate for Native American rights and performed in Wild West shows, where he shared his wartime experiences.
For years, army officers and government agents tried to get Rain in the Face to speak about the battle. He refused to say a word. They tried kindness, offers, and threats, but nothing worked. It was a shock when he finally agreed to tell his story.
He was a large man, standing 5'9" and weighing 195 pounds. Captain Tom Custer, George Custer’s brother, was smaller in stature. Rain in the Face was known as the killer of Custer, and the poet Longfellow even wrote verse about him.
Rain in the Face began his account two years before the major battle. Gaul and Sitting Bull had established a camp at Standing Rock. Every Indian present was opposed to the government. They were Hunkpapa Sioux, and they feared nothing.
He described a time when a girl challenged him to go to Fort Lincoln and kill a white man. She called him a coward when he hesitated. That was a provocation he could not refuse.
He painted his face black, collected his gun, bow, and pony, and slipped out of camp under darkness. He traveled 45 miles to Fort Lincoln and waited two days for an opportunity. He wanted to bring back a soldier’s brass buttons to prove his courage.
He rushed up, shot a storekeeper, and hit a horse doctor with his war club. He shot them full of arrows and cut off some buttons. Long Yellow Hair, as the Lakota called Custer, heard the shot and charged back. Rain in the Face had no time to scalp the men he killed.
He jumped on his pony and yelled at the soldiers to catch him. They chased him to the Cannonball River.
The next winter, he went to the agency store at Standing Rock. He had not signed the peace treaty, so he received no rations. A storekeeper named One Arm was there, along with 30 soldiers under Little Hair, a name used for Tom Custer.
They sneaked up on him and piled on him. They threw him in a wagon and held him down until they reached the guard room at Fort Lincoln. He was treated like a woman, not a chief. They chained him and gave him only one blanket. Snow blew through the cracks all winter long.
On one occasion, Little Hair released him, and the soldiers told him to run. Rain in the Face understood they wanted to shoot him in the back. He told Little Hair that he would break free, cut out his heart, and eat it.
He was shackled to a white man, and one night they escaped. The soldiers shot at them, but they fled and hid on the bank of the Heart River. The white man sawed through the chains with a knife, but he was captured the next day. Rain in the Face got away.
He sent Little Hair a picture of a bloody heart drawn on buffalo skin, so he would know the promise was remembered. He said that the next time he encountered him, he took his heart.
When asked about the battle itself, Rain in the Face rejected the common depictions. He said the soldiers did not fight with sabers but with rifles and pistols. They fought on the ground, with every fourth soldier holding the horses.
He said the Indians fastened themselves to their ponies and fought in a circular formation. They removed their clothes and painted their bodies and their ponies. The soldiers’ rifles could only fire once, and cartridges jammed inside. Rain in the Face said he saw dozens of firearms on the battlefield with shells still lodged in them.
When the soldiers’ guns failed, the warriors used war clubs to strike them down. He described it as simple, like slaughtering sheep. Some soldiers pleaded for their lives, but no quarter was given.
He sketched the battlefield as a big sideways S-shape, representing the Little Bighorn River. The lodges were arranged along the banks like a curved bow. There were many, many times ten lodges, meaning at least a thousand. The Indians numbered between four and six thousand.
Sitting Bull performed powerful magic on a hill. He delivered a speech saying the Great Spirit had told him the soldiers were coming but the Indians would overcome them. The speech made the warriors joyful.
The next day, scouts reported the soldiers were approaching. Sitting Bull had the women construct empty lodges to deceive the scouts. The brush and the river’s curve concealed the real lodges.
Sitting Bull departed to perform more medicine and did not return until the battle was over. He was a great leader, but he did not participate in the fighting that day. Gaul was the principal war chief. Crazy Horse commanded the Cheyennes.
Rain in the Face said he was not a head chief, but he guided a group of fierce Hunkpapa warriors. They knew the soldiers’ horses were exhausted, and the soldiers were deceived by the vacant lodges. They believed the Indians were only a small party.
The soldiers divided their forces, which was a mistake. Gaul led most of the Indians up the river to block their path. When the warriors saw that the scouts had remained behind with Long Yellow Hair, they were pleased.
They allowed the soldiers to come over the bluffs. Some of the younger warriors isolated them from the rear. Then the line was revealed, and the soldiers attacked. They retreated under gunfire, and the young men behind them began to shoot.
The soldiers got off their horses, and every fourth soldier held the others’ mounts. The warriors tightened the circle, surging forward like an ocean wave upon the shore. They shot the horse holders and spooked the ponies by shaking blankets.
Rain in the Face said he had sung the war song and breathed the gun smoke. His heart was vicious. He was like a man who had lost his mind.
He charged in and seized the flag. His pony was killed beneath him. He cut the strap, leaped up, and struck the flag bearer with his war club. He ran back to the line carrying the flag, filled with pride.
The soldier’s blood and brains splattered on his face, feeling hot and tasting bitter. He was consumed by fury. He found a fresh pony and charged back in, shooting, cutting, and slashing. That pony was also shot, so he acquired another.
It was then that he saw Little Hair and recalled his promise. He was in a frenzy, afraid of nothing, certain his white weasel tail charm would keep him safe. He did not know how many he killed while trying to reach him.
Little Hair knew who he was. Rain in the Face laughed and screamed at him. He saw his lips forming words, but the din was too great to hear his voice. He said Little Hair was terrified.
When he was near enough, he shot him with his revolver. He leaped from his pony, cut out his heart, bit a piece from it, and spat it into his face. Then he rode away, waving it about.
He was content and weary from the battle, so he did not take his scalp. He had kept his promise, and that was the only thing of importance.
He did not go back to the battleground after that. The women arrived later to finish the wounded, taking their possessions and cutting off their boots for the hide. They even severed fingers to remove rings more quickly.
They looked for Long Yellow Hair’s scalp but could not identify him. He wore no officer’s coat and had shortened his hair.
That evening, a celebration was held with a feast and a scalp dance. Sitting Bull addressed everyone, saying his magic had given them courage. He claimed responsibility for the victory.
Gaul contested this, arguing that they were the ones who fought. Sitting Bull only performed magic. This created friction between them.
Rain in the Face said they might have destroyed the remaining soldiers on the hill, but the argument between Gaul and Sitting Bull prevented it. Both wished to be the sole leader, and various Indians supported each one.
Rain in the Face was unconcerned. He commanded his own band and followed neither. He had grown tired of fighting and wished only to dance.
Word arrived that more soldiers were approaching with large cannons, so they traveled north. They were pursued until they crossed the border. Rain in the Face remained there until Sitting Bull came back, and he returned alongside him.
He said he was happy to be home.
When asked who killed Long Yellow Hair if he did not, Rain in the Face answered, “I do not know. Nobody knows.” He compared it to battling in the darkness.
When asked why Long Yellow Hair was not scalped like the rest, he said no one is too courageous to be scalped. The women were puzzled why they could not locate him. He must have been concealed beneath other corpses.
He also dismissed the account of Curly, the Crow scout, who claimed he got away. Rain in the Face called him a liar. He said Curly did not participate in the battle. His pony gave out, and he fled like someone without courage.
Rain in the Face was approximately 60 years old at the time of his account. He was the sole surviving chief who could tell the story of the Custer engagement. He could sign his name in English but did not understand its meaning.
His knowledge of English words was small, but he could grasp most of what was spoken to him. He remained powerful and physically impressive, even at 60. He was a man of his word, though it required immense patience to secure a commitment from him.