Chief Gall

good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome once again the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument my name is Steve Adelson and this morning we're going to talk about one of the characters and some of the events that shaped this epic battle we're gonna talk about the warrior chief Gaul but before we do that we want to tell you where we are this morning as we're filming live on location we are on the crest of Calhoun Hill and Calhoun Hill will play a pivotal role in what happened here in the sense that James Calhoun Custer's brother-in-law will dismount and form some skirmish lines here with upwards of eighty to a hundred soldiers and for forty to forty-five minutes he will try to hold warriors back in a desperate attempt to hang on and survive in any event he will be killed in this fight and be able to be identified only by the gold fillings in his teeth but before we finish the chapter on Calhoun Hill I want to focus and go back in time and talk about Gaul this fearsome warrior who would become a dominant force in the Battle of the Little Bighorn as a young boy Gaul was introduced to this world and shortly discovered that it was a painful and agonizing place for him a very young age he lost two of his parents and he was borned Sitting Bull put his arm around Baal and began to mentor and tutor him at a young age and as Gaul began to learn the skills of a hunter-warrior he also began to develop a physical stature that dominated all of the other youth in the tribe by the time he entered his teenage years he had a massive chest in bulging arms and he used those physical attributes to make war on crows and Shoshones and other tribes the participated in inter tribal warfare at the age of 24 already with a growing reputation as a warrior Gul would go to Fort Buford to trade with his band and it Fort Buford another individual who would play a prominent role in Custer's life as a scout Custer's favorite Scout to scout bloody knife bloody knife would hear of Gauls arrival and he would tell military officers at the post that Gaul was a dangerous man that he'd murdered white people and he needed to be arrested and incarcerated because you see there was bad blood between bloody knife and gall galls existence as a young boy and as a powerful individual he tended to bully people at times anny bullied bloody knife in war games and other simulations and pounded on bloody knife and tortured and tormented him to the point where bloody knife actually left and went to live with his father amongst his own people in the end bloody knife never forgot that youthful experience and so he wanted to punish Gaul the army came out to arrest Gaul and began to drag him out of his teepee Gaul resisted but they threw him on the ground a dozen soldiers and they bayonetted him three times the officer looked down upon him and said he's dead but bloody knife wanted to make sure the job was finished so he loaded his shotgun and pointed it at Gauls head as blood ran out of his mouth cocked his shotgun and just before he was going to pull the trigger the officer in charge pushed him back and said leave him alone he's dead we don't want to start a riot it's the end of that exchange fortunately for Gaul because he lived he was nursed back to health an Indian woman who applied healing medicines and he recovered from his wounds and went on to live in the culture that he existed in which was a hunter-warrior culture and he was extremely adept at all of those things on the day of this battle jun 2015 17 gaul is going to arrive in the battle late and the reason for that tardiness is that he will find out when the first gunshots from major Reno's attack are launched in the village gaul will find out that the Arikara scouts have killed his two wives and three little girls you can imagine how stunned he was when he found out that information he said it made my heart bad and I fought back with a hatchet gall boiled out of the village with other Wars he crossed the river at Medicine tail Coulee he came up deep Cooley with a horde of warriors behind him and if you'll notice today is our director woody who will pan about this site it's quiet here right now 144 years ago on the back of this Ridge it was far from quiet gunfire smoke yelling screaming cursing it was apocalyptic the assault Gaul would bring upon Calhoun Hill will overwhelm 100 soldiers and crushed them to death in Gaul will advance to the north through the Keo sector along with Crazy Horse and white bull eventually he will get to Last Stand Hill and he will be one of the Warriors that sees the death knell of George Armstrong Custer and forty five men on Last Stand Hill Gaul would leave this battlefield with great deal of memories and ten years later at the reunion the Alaskan how long did the battle last he said about as long as it takes for a hungry man to eat his dinner six months after the fight Gaul will go to Canada with Sitting Bull he'll remain up there for several years trying to exist in harmony with the Canadians and the Canadian government and other tribes that resided there but food will eventually run out and Gaul will return and surrender onto the reservation bitterly bitterly upset did not want to surrender but recognize the futility of further existence in the free way of life a life that Sitting Bull will continue to pursue until he's all alone Gaul would transition into that reservation life and become a farmer he will convert to Christianity and eventually he will become a tribal judge unfortunately for Gaul health issues would overcome him he would gain a substantial amount of weight approaching 300 pounds probably suffered from heart disease diabetes and other afflictions associated with obesity he was prescribed some medicine to try to reduce his weight he drank the whole bottle and died the next day all would be remembered as a warrior primarily for courage and stealth and power he would be buried in South Dakota in episcopalian Cemetery Gaul destroyed Calhoun where we stand today Steve Adelson thank you for watching appreciate your comments have a good day

Channel: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Views: 19,825

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Id: d2gxbG22z0Y

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020