Ernie Lapointe Family Oral History of Little Big Horn Battle

this was a story go that comes from my granduncle they were part of the family of my great-grandfather but they were children that came with my great-grandmother's you know and my great-grandfather married two sisters one of them was seen by our nation which is my great-grandmother and then her sisters names for roles and they were married before they married a great grandfather to another man named bear louse and each had a son from him and my grand uncle from Sitting Bull from seen by our nation's lineage his name was refuses them but he was a deaf-mute and when he was with Cody they gave him the name John Sitting Bull which he wasn't Sitting Bull son biologically and the other one's name was little soldier who was four of his son it needs to were in a matter of speaking you might say there could be brothers they could be cousins you know because they got the same father but different mothers and the mothers were sisters but they were at the Little Bighorn Battlefield as as young boys during the battle and well it was really a battle it was just a cab big enchantment and and it started out around the Rosebud River up there Creek you know and what he is is the the cam got turned a big you know the the horses actually then people have more horses than they did people so the we eating of the grass so they decided and then the food was coming running scarce or the send scouts out to look different places there's any game and they found a whole game of envelope at the what they call the valley of the greasy grass so they moved the cam moved it was it wasn't like the historians say you know your glove as many clothes as hoof but there were just people who came who left the agencies to join my great-grandfather because he wanted to have counsel he wanted to talk to them about the encroachment of the Black Hills in 1874 here so the he wanted to help counsel what work they're going to do about it - the non-treaty natives that were out here or those that were within the confinements of these agencies if they have compassion for a traditional way of life to come and join him and that incumbents try became as individuals or his families and they kept showing up and there wasn't that many people I mean was more horses because people have more horses than they did you know family so some guy would have to three horses you know maybe someone would have five horses depending on on his expertise as a tear taker of raids and whatever so the horses were eating up the grass so they moved to the greasy grass which is a Little Bighorn River area and had a big feast er you know the hunter had the hunts of the antelope that's Aaron they weren't expecting custardy shot because you know they didn't really it was just going to have an organized a whole council there and all of a sudden here comes Custer's June 25th and he split his command up and the first ones attack was Reno on the south and in the bigger of the villages that were there was the Hunkpapa because you know there was my great-grandfather's bad the bad bowl back and there were others that's around there they would show up at the area it might be a little Armenia cause you or Cheyenne and they would show up and they would see somebody they know you know let's say they put your teepee here so they camp next to him so they weren't like like you know like the historian see the little all over here honey cause you were here the hoof bob or the soft it's like a comely become you see come you see they're they're just trying to equate it to a military type of a thing which isn't that and they also try to call there are our society's warrior societies like your military that's not what the societies were the Strongheart society was a chant 1800 Kolok each is how they said in Lakota is a group of vulnerable men who consisted of the compassionate generosity yet their bravery they showed the exhibited list and they were invited to become part of this society so they weren't just there were there were caretakers providers of the of the camp is what they were you know this was what a society was it wasn't that they were all the warlike as I say you know the most warlike ones are the Americans you know they always coming after you and all you're doing is protecting the homeland and so when RINO attacked everybody was fighting him you know going after him at the same time my grand uncle's were telling me the story little soldiers when he told the story because he could speak him and Easter when soon when I was a little kid growing up on a reservation it needs to come to the house on summertime and come visit because John the definite John a symbol stayed with us and his brother would come along with Dewey beard and they would sit around in the shade of the house and they'd put up a little lean-to out there because I stayed away from us because they were traditional you know and they just you know they reminisce about the old days and my mother would hang in with him and you know usually they were talking sign language she could talk exciting like me and they would tell stories and she would tell it to us at night you know my sister and I you know we was like bedtime stories she tell us what these guys are talking about a lot of it was humor you know a lot of sets that's the Lakota culture it's human everything has to have laughter you know you have to laugh and they were telling us that these young boys were were commissioned to watch the horses which are in the northern part of the village said they have more horses there than hat people so they to him what these horses too scattered because of the fight down south of Reno and all of a sudden they said now the story that they told me it coincides with some other guys a story that they that their ancestors told him the Cheyennes have a similar story and but they're the the point is that there was a column of soldiers that coming from the east what they call the deep ravine which is the south of the of the where that cemetery is or the visitor center is and that's where kind of like toward the northern end of the village he was coming in and and also said these soldiers are right at the edge of the river there when they seen him and yelled I'll alert you know to everybody a lot of alarm you know to the soldiers you can cross the river so here comes some warriors that left out this area of some guys and he came under strategies rifles and they started shooting out and they said all of a sudden there's two at the front of the column was shot off the horses and then the next bunch grabbed one of them put them back on a horse and he said and he was telling me like Hotez his heart aches you know out there to tell it you know it was kind of dramatic the way he told it in a lot what he said all of a sudden he said it was just a rout he said they just turned around he said usually he said from his experience watching soldiers he said they would you know they were going columns you know they would be in you know he said they just turn around he said it just scattered and they started trying to get to the top of the hill and he said they didn't make it he said it was he said oh you know the funny part one funny part of the story he's talking about was one of these young boys come up he's about nineteen years old he had three horses he had them over in his end you know one of them was his his uh his war pony I guess you might say you know he wanted to get on his war pony but it was kind of a feisty horse he said kept running around circles uh gave his weapons to little soldier to hold for him he said he finally got on the back of his horse there and he got his weapons back and he went across the river go join the fighting was over he said that's how fast it was he said bout time the young man got on his horse went rock and he said they all went across and they didn't realize who the guy was of a shot but they thought it was they found Custer up the hill had a bullet hole in his chest he had one in his temple and the the reason they had that hole in his head they think is either he did it himself or his brother did it for him you know he killed him just not to get captured or something and there's so many scenarios but he told it he said that the Lakota I didn't scalp him or take anything of him because a man who is a coward you don't want to take anything from him because it's you disrespect yourself if you take anybody who who killed himself and he don't take his head or you know take anything of him because you don't want his energy to affect you being being a coward like he was but that bullet hole in his chest they think and they had his hair cut short and he wasn't dressed in his regular buckskin outfit that day after a Little Bighorn there I think the the as I'd always said when you're walking towards the dog and he's backing up could be the most friendliest dog around but his tail touches the wall he knows he can't back up no more he's gonna come at you I think this is what happened at the Battle Little Bighorn because the people were pushed to the limits and they had to retaliate but they went against division was very grandfather and after the battle was over my grandfather rode through there my great-grandfather rode through the battlefield he knew what was going to happen I already knew what was in store for his future generations because they went against the vision the reason said leave him as dead lay do not take anything that belongs to him to scale up the food clothes nothing do not cut him open or nothing but he did and he knew what was in story they were going to sort his future generation are going to suffer that the descendants and the relatives of these soldiers who were really you so this is what what lay in store for us Oh

Channel: Raechel Donahue

Views: 698,807

Rating: 4.9006338 out of 5

Keywords: Sitting Bull, Ernie La Pointe, Greasy Grass, Montana, Indian, Lakota, Sioux, battle, Custer, last stand, Little Big Horn, oral history Indian, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Protected Site), Battle Of The Little Bighorn (Event)

Id: u-3NIrXW92s

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 24 2014