What happened to Touch the Clouds?

[Diane Merkel]

The following query was sent from Ontario. Please reply if you can provide information. -- Diane

Hello to the LBHA,
My son and I went to the 125th anniversary of the Battle of the Greasy Grass and have a good story to tell. It would be impossible for anyone going there not to be affected by it. It is a place I will never forget. Just came across your website today and have about a million questions but I will ask only one. Why is there no history about people like Touch the Clouds after the murder of Crazy Horse? What happened to him? Is it because no one cared or is it that this history is kept a secret?

[Walt Cross]

I don't think the history is "secret" but there doesn't seem to be a good deal about him at least on the web. Nor do I recall him mentioned in connection with the Little Big Horn battle or any other fight for that matter. His name in Sioux is "Mahpiya Icahtagya". He stood 7 feet tall and was a cousin to Crazy Horse. All I've seen about him is the phrase "He fought with Crazy Horse".
There is a good photograph of him on the net taken by Julius Ulke in 1877.

Walt

[Ephriam Dickson]

Touch the Clouds was the son of the prominent Minneconjou headman Lone Horn (who died shortly before the Sioux War of 1876-77). Touch the Cloud's uncle, Lame Deer, was one of the last Minneconjou to hold out.

Touch the Clouds was not at the Little Big Horn. Rather, he and his band were living at the Cheyenne River Agency on the Missouri River in June 1876, where documents show that he was counseling the Army: "Have compassion on us. Don't punish us all because some of us fought when we had to." (Touch the Clouds, in council at Cheyenne River Agency, July 29, 1876).

When the Army began preparing to surround the friendlies to confisgate their horses and arms in the fall of 1876, many of the Minneconjou fled the agency, including Touch the Clouds. They joined the hostiles about the first week of October 1876. The arrival of influential Minneconjou headmen like Touch the Clouds, Roman Nose, Bull Eagle and Spotted Elk introduced a more moderate element into the leadership within the northern village.

After the hostile camp scattered, Touch the Clouds' band settled on the Little Missouri River where Spotted Tail found them in February/March 1877 and persuaded them to come in. They accompanied the Brule chief to the Spotted Tail Agency where they surrendered their horses and guns in mid-April 1877. Touch the Clouds remained at this agency for the remainder of the year, serving as a sergeant in the Indian Scouts and accompanied Crazy Horse to Camp Robinson at the time of his death. When the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies were moved to the Missouri that fall, Touch the Clouds camp joined the Oglala at Red Cloud. He returned to his own agency at the Cheyenne River Agency in January/February 1878. Agent Irwin at Red Cloud wrote (Jan. 21, 1878): "I have the honor to state that the following named Indians (Minneconjous) have asked to be transferred to your Agency. Touch the Cloud, chief has been very obedient and orderly during his stay with me and with his band remained behind when all the others left here. Owing to his conduct I consider him as deserving of attention and respectfully request that the transfer meets with your approval." The list included Touch the Clouds and son, with 1 woman and 2 girls.

Touch the Clouds lived the remainder of his life as a prominent leader of his band at Cheyenne River.

He was photographed several times in 1877, including several photographs by Mathew Brady and one image attributed to Ulke which he later used as the basis for his painting of Touch the Clouds.

e

[shatonska]

www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/BAE/Bulletin164/plate32d.htm

his photo

[Agnes]

Dear Group!

I'm new here. My question that Touch-the-Cloud was a relative of Crazy Horse? And Crazy Horse mother's was brule or miniconjou? What was their name?
Many thanks in advance.

Agnes

[Ephriam Dickson]

Hi Agnes:

Richard Hardorff, in his book The Oglala Lakota Crazy Horse: A Preliminary Genealogical Study (p. 27) wrote that Crazy Horse's mother was Rattle Blanket Woman. He identified her as a Minneconjou, related to the Lone Horn family though not certain how.

Touch the Clouds was the son of one of the later men named Lone Horn.

So yes, they were related, though the precise genealogy is not known.

Ephriam

[Agnes]

Dear Ephriam!

Many thanks for Your answer. Somehow I feel that the mother must be a Miniconjou, not Brule. It seems that Crazy Horse was close friend with Touch-the-Clouds. But he wasn't Crazy Horse's uncle?

Thanks again.
Sincerely:
Agnes

[shatonska]

Guest-Ephriam said:

Hi Agnes:

Richard Hardorff, in his book The Oglala Lakota Crazy Horse: A Preliminary Genealogical Study (p. 27) wrote that Crazy Horse's mother was Rattle Blanket Woman. He identified her as a Minneconjou, related to the Lone Horn family though not certain how.

Touch the Clouds was the son of one of the later men named Lone Horn.

So yes, they were related, though the precise genealogy is not known.

Ephriam

i have always knokn that crazy horse mother was a sister of sinte gleska , spotted tail , a brule'!
#nosmileys

[Don Blake]

Spotted Tail's sister was Crazy Horse's step mother. After Rattle Blanket Woman died (hung herself), Worm married the two sisters of Spotted Tail. I think Little Hawk's mpther was one of those sisters.

Crazy Horse was, indeed, related to the powerful Lone Horn family of the Miniconjou. which included, by marriage, Kicking Bear, of Ghost Dance fame.

[Carl C Dupree]

Touch The Clouds was my grandmothers brother. He was Crazy Horses first cousin. Lone Horn AKA One Horn was Rattling Blankets Brother. I have the full family tree.
Chief Black Buffalo children were Affraid Of Her, Hump, One Horn, Lone Horn, Pretty Woman, Rattling Blanket.

[shatonska]

thanks so much !
hump or probably his son was the hump friend of crazy horse or the hump minniconjou leader ?

[Agnes]

Dear Carl C. Dupree!

Please, can You share with us the family tree?

Sincerely:
Agnes

[Don Blake]

In the back of my mind somewhere, I can remember seeing a picture of several Lakota dressed in agency issue clothing in, I think, Newcastle, Wyoming. One of them was Touich The Clouds. I'm guessing it was taken in the 1890s. Wasn't Touch the Clouds some kind of Indian judge at that time?

[lakotaburd]

I am new to the Board, so please bear with me if I make a few mistakes. I would like to direct this message to Mr. Carl Dupree, who is related to Touch The Clouds. I have been studying your grandmother's brother for many years now. I feel an unmistakable bond with TTC, and it has led to my visiting Cheyenne River twice now, and mourning him at his grave. My bond is spiritual, I believe he is my spirit guide. I have had many strange mysteries occur due to this connection, and he led me to the people of Cheyenne River. I would like to learn as much about him as I can, if your family and the elders are willing. A Native American friend of mine (Creek) asked me to approach the elders about him. Ever since I told her about your relative, she could not get him out of her mind, same as myself. We want permission to write his story. She and I are writers of children's books, and when I told her of my spiritual connection, she requested that I try and contact the tribal elders to ask permission to seek this information. We would like to co-author his story. A friend at St. Joseph's sent me this website, and here was the topic I have been looking for since 1996! Any help you can give us would be most appreciated. I know I am stating this badly, but my heart is good. Pilamaya.

[Scout]

In regard to TOUCH THE CLOUDS, one myth I keep reading about over and over is that he was 7 foot tall. I don't know where this nonsense started. There is a photo of TTC standing with the Dakota Delegation in Washington, DC dated October 30, 1877. He stands to the far right in the photo and is the same height as all of the others. If he had been 7 ft. tall he would have been a giant and probably toured with Cody or Barnum.
He was of average height.

The name Touch The Clouds is a spiritual name.

Mike N.

''Hire the Mule Skinner!""