Crazy Horse's Account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

[Music] hello and welcome to the past times media series today I want to share with you Crazy Horse's personal account about the Battle of the Little Bighorn as it appeared in the Bismarck Tribune on June 11th 1877 it is believed that this is the first published Indian narrative of the battle and the article is as follows the Custer fight an Indian version of the massacre from the lips of Crazy Horse himself the village was attacked by strong force at 11 o'clock in the morning at the upper end of the village this was a force commanded by major Reno and very shortly afterward the lower end of the village was attacked by another strong force that commanded by Custer the village was divided into seven different bands of Indians each commanded by separate chief and extended in nearly a straight line the bands were in the order mentioned below commencing from the lower end where Custer made his attack first the Luke Papa's under Sitting Bull second the oglalas under Crazy Horse third the miniconjou under Fabul fourth the SANS arc under Red Bear fifth the Cheyenne under Ice Bear sixth the Santee and Yankton a on the red point of the Santee seventh the Blackfeet under scabby head the village consisted of 1800 lodges and at least 400 wickiups a lodge made of small poles and willows for a temporary shelter each of the wickiups contained four young bucks and the estimate made by Crazy Horse's that each Lodge had from three to four warriors an estimate of the three made a fighting force of 7,000 Indians this is the lowest estimate that can be made for there were a good many Indians without shelter hangers-on who fought when called upon and the usual number was much above 7,000 the attack was a surprise and totally unlooked-for when Custer made the charge the women pupusas children and in fact all that were not fighters made a stampede in northerly direction Custer seen so numerous Abadi mistook them for the main body of Indians retreating and abandoning their villages and immediately gave pursuit the Warriors in the village seen this divided their forces into two parts one intercepting Custer between the non combats and him and the other getting in his rear numbering him as they did they had him at their mercy and the dreadful Massacre ensued horn horses that the smoke and dust was so great that foe could not be distinguished from friend the horses were wild with fright and uncontrollable the Indians were knocking each other from their steeds and it is an absolute fact that young bucks and their excitement and fury killed each other several dead Indians being found killed by arrows horn horse represented this hell of fire and smoke and death by inter running his fingers and saying just like this the Indians and white men these Chiefs say that they suffered a loss of 58 killed and over 60 wounded from their way of expressing it I should judge that about 60% of their wounded died while this butchery was going on Reno was fighting in the upper part of the village but did not get in so far as to get surrounded and managed to escape they say it had he got in as far as Custer considering over half the village could join the northern portion and besieging him the Indians claimed that but for the timely arrival of General Terry they would have got Reno they would have surrounded and stormed him out or would have besieged him and eventually captured him from what I know of Crazy Horse I should say that he no doubt is capable of conducting such a siege in both the Rosebud fight and the Custer massacre the Indians claimed he rode unarmed into the thickest of the fight and hoping the blessing of the Great Spirit on him that if he was right he might be victorious and if he was wrong that he might be killed to get the complete article I would encourage you to visit fort Lincoln calm this article appears in full in the Custer fight Crazy Horse's testimony of the seventh defeat Fall issue of the pastimes volume 15 number three for the pastimes media series I am Dakota [Music]

Channel: FortAbrahamLincoln

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Id: OU9iyFim4sA

Length: 5min 17sec (317 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 20 2008