Bernard Bravo (Gibbon Scout)

[Diane Merkel]

Our LBHA member from Finland needs some help, please:

I'm especially interested in the scout of Custer in '76 (Montana, Dakota and Wyoming Column). I've found info on many scouts, but on Bernard Bravo (Gibbon scout) I have not found very much. Can you help me? Can anybody in LBHA tell me what happened to Bravo? When he died? Where? How?

I thank you beforehand.

[Diane Merkel]

Here's some additional information. If you know more, please help.

Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight in 76 states that Bernard Bravo was also called Bernard Prevo, and Camp interviewed Prevo on Feb. 23, 1911 and Sept. 28, 1913.

In John S. Gray's Custer's Last Campaign, it states that Bernard's wife's name was Mary Prevo.

[harpskiddie]

Diane:

I knew that I had read something about Bravo somewhere, and just recently found it while re-reading a source. This is a little long-winded, so I will edit it as I go along. Bernard was also known as Barney [several references], and Bonnie [Vanishing Race]. The following is from Weibert's 66 Years in Custer's Shadow.

"Art Bravo is another old Indian who had relatives who were very active in Custer's time. One of Art's relatives is the same Bravo..told about in Lt. Bradley's Journal...a white man who lived with the Crows...these were the scouts for the trip down the Yellowstone....Bravo was...a Squaw Man, that is to say he...had taken an Indian woman as his partner. This, in itself, would cast some shadow upon the man....he was thought to be a deserter from the army. Bradley knew about this, but because of his association with the Indians, he was never picked up for desertion....This same man was there when the Far West had just reached the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and the scouts WMRH, GA, and HM brought news of Custer's total defeat. He was the interpreter who translated the message to the white soldiers. The whjite men...accused him of lying. Then they accused the three scouts of running away...there were bad feelings about this report. Shortly after the troops left, the scouts and..Bravo did it again. They deserted and headed back to the Crow reservation......

More coming

Gordie

[harpskiddie]

Bravo...cont'd

...It should be pointed out that he was also the man who swam the Yellowstone at Pompey's Pillar when it was in flood stage and traveled through Sioux infested country to get some horses that were needed [some Sioux had stolen the Crows' horses]. No one else dared do this at the time..this is..in Bradley's Journal, even though Lt. Bradley did not like the Squaw Man.....and now we have the white man, Bravo, being accused of lying about what the three scouts are telling him. I think he just gets fed up and leaves. He doesn't have that much love for the army anyhow......I feel there is more there than meets the eye, and I'm sure we get a bad picture of this man from the government troops."

Since Bravo lived on the Crow reservation, and some descendants were still doing so well into the 20th century, and maybe still are, your enquirer might find more assistance in the Crow census records.

Gordie

[rosannabromero]

Bernard Bravo is my great great grandpa and I’ve been trying to learn more about him

[fred]

Mar 29, 2020 1:10:26 GMT -6 rosannabromero said:

Bernard Bravo is my great great grandpa and I’ve been trying to learn more about him

This may not be exactly what you want to see, but...


Bernard Prevot (also spelled Prevo; aka, Barney Bravo or “Big Nose”; also known simply as “Bravo”)—b. Germany, 1842 or 1843. A “squaw-man.” Interpreter and guide. Served in 2nd Missouri Light Artillery. Went among the Crow Indians in 1865. Not highly thought of by LT James Bradley. Thought to have been a military deserter—some said from the 7th Cavalry—and was regarded pretty much as a rather notorious character. Fred Dustin wrote that he was deemed so worthless the officers did not even bother to pursue him. He “later proved his complete uselessness and utter demoralization” [Dustin, The Custer Tragedy, 72].


Sorry if you are offended by this, but it is the research I have dug up.

If you have any additional information, I would love to see it, including when and where he died.

Best wishes,
Fred.