Brule Participants at LBH?

[markland]

While reading The Old Iron Road last night, the author was going into the visit of Crown Prince Alexi? to the Plains. I wasn't aware of this but he states that Brule were hired to put on shows/exhibitions for the guests, including Sheridan and GAC. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the braves who participated in that exhibition and whether any later participated at LBH?

And yes, I am fully aware out what happened to that damned cat!

Thanks,

Billy

[Dietmar]

The only name I found out yet is that of Spotted Tail. He was definitly not at LBH. See also this article:
www.buffalocommons.org/docs/smenu1/dukealexis.html

Best Regards
Dietmar

[Dietmar]

Interpreter Nick Ruleau named as the leader or chief of the Rosebud/Brule Sioux at the LBH one Flying Chaser (Ricker interviews). I never heard of this man elsewhere. I wonder if he was just a headman of his family group or maybe a minor war leader.

The most prominent Brule - as far as I know - at the LBH was Hollow Horn Bear, son of Iron Shell, who later became a chief of his people.

Does someone know more Brule participants of the battle?

Dietmar

[ephriam]

Dietmar:

He Dog (in Hammer, Custer in '76, p. 206) notes: "Good many Brules there. More than twenty lodges was reported to me. Flying Chaser -- Wakuya Kinyan was the head man of Brules but not a big chief."

I have not tracked down all the families yet, but no doubt most of them surrendered in spring of 1877 at the Spotted Tail Agency. Some did flee north into Canada with the Oglala in late 1877 and early 1878. After the surrender of the northern bands in 1881, a total of 41 families (206 people) were listed as Brule in the Sitting Bull Surrender Census. The headman of this group in 1881 was Bull Dog.

Another document which lists the name of Brule, many of whom may have been at the LBH, is a letter of transfer from Agent McLaughlin to the agent at the Rosebud Agency. He noted that 18 families (68) people had slipped away to the Rosebud Agency prior to July 1881 when the northern bands were transferred from the military at Fort Yates to the agent at Standing Rock Agency. These included:

1. Flying Alone [=Flying Above?]
2. White Whirlwind
3. Red Medicine Woman
4. Medicine ghost
5. Walking Bull
6. White Hawk
7. Shell Boy
8. Mollie
9. Bad Whirlwind
10. Crier
11. Lame
12. Soldier
13. Gey Cow Eagle
14. Little Wolf
15. Bear in the Woods
16. Looking Elk
17. Red Eagle
18. Eagle Woman

A total of 24 Brule families were transferred from the Standing Rock Agency to the Rosebud Agency in May 1882:

1. Bull Dog (chief)
2. Running in the Midst
3. Red Buck Elk
4. No Judgment
5. White Calf
6. His Horse Chasing
7. Came and Sat Above
8. Black Bull
9. Blue Haired Horse
10. Kill the Pawnee
11. Pretty Dog
12. Yellow Horse
13. Eagle Dog
14. Crows Head
15. Sitting Buck Elk
16. White Bull Cow
17. Ghost Head
18. Four Bears
19. Black Wolf
20. Man With Horns
21. Red Leaf
22. Red Around the Face
23. One That Strikes
24. Charging Hawk

Hope this helps!

ephriam

[Dietmar]

Thank you Ephriam!

It seems that although there were some Brule at LBH, there was no really renown leader among them. The big chiefs like Spotted Tail, Two Strike, Swift Bear, etc. were all at the agency.
Do you know what Brule bands Flying Chaser or Bull Dog belong to?

[kingsleybray]

On Brules at the Little Bighorn:
Flying Chaser's band affiliation is unknown to me. Bull Dog (born ca. 1830) was a Wazhazha. He is listed in the Red Cloud Agency register as surrendering there on March 14, 1877, with or at the same time as the No Water outfit. The Wazhazha band had been enrolled at Red Cloud Agency since 1871, but in spring 1877 chief Red Leaf and the band council requested to be transferred to Spotted Tail Agency. On April 21-22 some 203 Wazhazhas were officially transferred from Red Cloud Agency (approximately 270 people, chief Day, chose to remain at Red Cloud Agency). Included in the transfers was the family of "Dog Bull". In the Spotted Tail Agency census conducted during May-June, "Dog Bull's" family continues to be listed in the Wazhazha band. However he does not appear in the new census conducted in December 1877, after the removal of Spotted Tail and Red Cloud agencies to new sites on the Missouri River. From this fact I opined (in "We Belong to the North") that Bull Dog was a leader in the fall breakouts to Canada. As Ephriam shows Bull Dog was considered the leader of the Brules surrendering from Canada, interned at Standing Rock in 1881, and transferred home to the new Upper Brule tribal agency of Rosebud in spring 1882.

Trying to establish Brule numbers and band identities at the Little Bighorn is something of a guessing game. The Spotted Tail Agency census of May-June 1877 does not specifically identify surrendering Indians. However if we assume that all the enumerated Miniconjous (489 people), Sans Arcs (512), and Hunkpapa (18) are surrenders, we have a sub-total of 1019 people. In his annual report military agent Lt. Jesse M. Lee stated that 1372 "hostiles" surrendered at Spotted Tail through May 31. As a working hypothesis I think it's worth considering the difference of 353 people to be Brules. By my 6 people: 1 lodge ratio that is about 60 lodges. Some Brules also surrendered at Red Cloud Agency - including as we saw Bull Dog. Weighing up the evidence I think maybe 22 Brule lodges were included in the Crazy Horse village surrender of May 6, a smaller number with previous Red Cloud Agency surrenders - so as a working guess I'd say 85+ lodges of Brules surrendered at the two White River agencies from December 1876 through May 1877. If a few Brule lodges did go directly to Canada without prior surrender (as per Ephriam's reconstruction above), then we may looking at a maximum 'out' figure of ca. 100 lodges in fall 1876. The number available at the Little Bighorn could have been less than that, if (as at other agencies) some people fled Spotted Tail Agency during fall 1876 due to the Black Hills crisis/pony confiscations/military takeover etc. etc.

On band identities most 'hostile' Upper Brules would have been drawn from the two bands who prior to the 1868 Treaty habitually hunted in the Powder River Country: the Wazhazhas and the Orphans. It's significant that two named Brules at the Little Bighorn - Hollow Horn Bear and Crow Dog - were of the Orphan band.

I'll return to this and to the Brules involved in the Duke Alexis buffalo hunt.

Kingsley Bray

[kingsleybray]

Continuing from the above: You're right, Dietmar: none of the major Brule chiefs were present at the Little Bighorn. The influence of Spotted Tail was so great that only a small number of Upper Brules was identified with the Northern non-treaty bands. Also, traditional Brule hunting grounds focussed south of the Black Hills, so only small numbers of Northern Brules - those Wazhazhas and Orphans I talked about in the above post - had an interest or claim in the Powder River Country.

This is reflected also in the fact that there seems to have been no formal Brule camp-circle at the Little Bighorn. The evidence is a bit scattered, but there seem to have been some Brules camped with the Oglalas, some with or near the Sihasapa (the latter tribal division also had a band called Wazhazha - Kill Eagle's band - so that may be the linkup), some straggling between circles - and also a small camp on the east side of the river upstream from Medicine Tail Coulee.

On the 1871-72 Lakota buffalo hunt on the Republican River, which hosted Grand Duke Alexis. According to Red Cloud Agency records the following bands left that agency on September 22, 1871, to spend the winter hunting on the Republican:
Spotted Tail 120 lodges Brules
Little Wound 120 lodges Southern Oglalas
Red Leaf 30 lodges Wazhazha Brules
Young Man Afraid of His Horse 20 lodges Payabya band Oglalas
Dull Knife 25 lodges Northern Cheyennes (departed Sept. 30)

The Oglalas seem to have appointed four Deciders (Wakicunze) to oversee the hunt and camp moves:
Little Wound - Kiyaksa band
Black Bear - Iwayusota band
Pawnee Killer - Spleen band
Trail Agent Frank D. Yates (known to the Lakotas as Cut Foot), placed in charge by Red Cloud agent Wham.

There were already some Southern Oglalas on the Republican (Whistler's band of Kiyaksa). Due to internal difficulties, this group seemed to have joined with the Brules in organizing hunts etc.

The Brules, accompanying Trail Agent Todd Randall, also appointed a village organization, recognizing the following "headmen" (probably both Deciders and akicita police):
Spotted Tail
Two Strike
Windy [Ass]
Black Crow
No Flesh
Roaster
Crooked Foot (aka Shooting Tiger).

According to contemporary newspapers, Duke Alexis's party arrived on the Union Pacific at North Platte in the morning of January 13. They departed to join Spotted Tail's Brule village, located on Red Willow Creek (a northern tributary of the Republican) on the 15th. "Spotted Tail, Two Strike, Cut Leg, White Bear, Little Eagle, and other Sioux chiefs, with about 1,300 warriors [sic!], accompanied by their squaws and papooses, are now assembled on the Red Willow, waiting the arrival of the palefaces." The hunt climaxed on the 16th when Spotted Tail and "eight selected warriors" joined Duke Alexis, Phil Sheridan, G.A. Custer, Bill Cody and the rest in a grand buffalo chase. Two Lance, a brother of Southern Oglala chief Whistler, is known to have been among these hunters.

Kingsley Bray

[Dietmar]

Thank you Kingsley,

today I read again Leonard Crow Dog´s book "Crow Dog - Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men".
I found a statement, that both Ghostdance leaders Short Bull and his friend Kicking Bear "had been with Crazy Horse at the Custer fight". If this is true, we have another Brule name!

In didn´t find a definite statement about Crow Dog´s presence at the LBH, it seems in the book he was not.

But Leonard Crow Dog presented a interesting story about his ancestor when Sitting Bull went to Canada:
"Crow Dog and a few others went to join Sitting Bull there. They told the people on the reservation that they were going hunting. (...) They stopped at a place called holy Medicine Rocks, where Sitting Bull had held a sun dance just before the Custer fight. (...) It was near Medicine Rocks that Crow Dog ran into a party of white soldiers. (...) Crow Dog took two bullets, one in his belly near the groin... He had a fast horse and made it back to camp. There a medicine man named Sitting Hawk took care of him."

What do you think of this?

[markland]

What do you think of this?

Gads, you guys are fantastic is what I think of this!!!

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Thanks for the education.

Billy

[charlie]

To every Siuox experts: at which band belonged Spotted Tail (Sinte Galeska)? George Hyde stated that the father was named Cunka (Tangle Hair) and was a Sihasapa; the mother was named Walking with Pipe and belonged to "Wazhazha" band of Sichangu.
We know that the principal chiefs of the Wazhazha were the two brothers Conquering Bear and Red Leaf, not him. The trader Beauvais said that in 1866 Spotted Tail succeeded to Little Thunder as chief of the "Ring" band, without named the Indian's name of this band.
I'm very confused. And then: Red Leaf (born? dead?) was an important or a minor chief? Thanks.

[jinlian]

Unfortunately, in the 1868 treaty of Fort Laramie there's no mention of names of the different Brulé bands.



Spotted Tail's name comes fourth, after Iron Shell, Red Leaf and Black Horn's.

As for Red Leaf, he was the main leader of the Wazhazha (Wajaja, Waźaźa) band, and certainly he was indeed regarded as an important leader by his people.

[kingsleybray]

Spotted Tail (ca. 1823-1881) spent his formative years in the band of his mother, the Wazhazha band of Brules. His father, a Sihasapa, had married into the Wazhazha band, and seems to have settled among his wife's people - he was what Lakotas called a 'buried man'. Spotted Tail rose to prominence as a warrior during the 1840s, and remained one of the leading warriors of the Wazhazha band. As such he helped his cousin Red Leaf avenge the death of Scattering Bear, and was subsequently interned at Ft Leavenworth and Ft Kearney in 1855-56. After his return to the Brules, he shifted his allegiance. He left the Wazhazhas and married into the newly emerging Southern Men band, led by Little Thunder, which hunted in southwest Nebraska (the Wazhazha range centred between the upper White and South Cheyenne rivers). This must be partly due to emerging political differences between the Brule bands, with Little Thunder's leadership stressing co-operation with the Americans - something that Spotted Tail's detention led him to believe was imperative. However I have been told by a modern Brule historian that the reason was due to the band leadership within the Wazhazhas remaining hereditary - hence the succession of Red Leaf to the chieftainship. Spotted Tail was ambitious, and the new Southern Men band council elected its chiefs. With its enhanced scope for leadership, the Southern Men attracted in people from several Brule bands - including Spotted Tail, who in 1867 succeeded Little Thunder to the band chieftainship.

The new Southern Men band had attracted many of its people from the old Middle Village (Choka-tunwan) band, known as the Brules proper. The term ho-choka refers to the circular space or 'Ring' in the middle of a camp-circle - hence, I'm sure, the usage 'Ring Band' which is recorded in 1867.

Interesting in the 1868 treaty how Spotted Tail is listed fourth, but the treaty negotiators were favouring the leaders of the Northern Brules, those bands i.e. the Wazhazhas and Orphans, who had been involved in the Bozeman Trail war on the Powder River. Although considered by American officials as the Brule head chief from 1866 onward, this played distinctly badly with the Northern Brule leadership - especially Iron Shell, who was bitterly resentful of Spotted Tail's preferment. Over succeeding years, Spotted Tail was able to cement his position as the Brules' principal leader - but in 1868 it remained distinctly moot.

Hope this helps

Kingsley

[jinlian]

May 20, 2008 7:13:23 GMT -6 kingsleybray said:

However I have been told by a modern Brule historian that the reason was due to the band leadership within the Wazhazhas remaining hereditary - hence the succession of Red Leaf to the chieftainship. Spotted Tail was ambitious, and the new Southern Men band council elected its chiefs. With its enhanced scope for leadership, the Southern Men attracted in people from several Brule bands - including Spotted Tail, who in 1867 succeeded Little Thunder to the band chieftainship.



Kingsley

Hi Kingsley,

very interesting information about the Wazhazha having a hereditary band leadership. I wonder what was their own concept of "hereditary": was it referred to a whole tiyospaye or was it more similar to the American-European idea of it? If we give credit to Thomas Twiss' statement (reported by George Hyde) that Spotted Tail's father was a brother of Scattering Bear and Red Leaf's own father and that these two brothers had married two sisters, this would make Spotted Tail part of the leading tiyospaye and therefore his lineage wouldn't preclude him from trying to get the Wazhazha leadership.

On the other hand, Scattering Bear's family tree appears to be a rather complex one. By the way, according to some of Hyde's informants, Crow Dog, who later murdered Spotted Tail, was a nephew of Scattering Bear as well and later joined the Wablenicha band (by marriage?).

Jin

[charlie]

Kingsley: thank you for your clear informations. But i'm greedy of notices: when you tell us something about RED LEAF?

[kingsleybray]

charlie, I'll try and set down a few details here on Red Leaf. He was born about 1815, and he crops up in one of the Rosebud Agency censuses, maybe 1886 or '87 (with a 30 year-old wife!), but I can't find him after that. Perhaps Ephriam can help with his census data.

He was a presumably younger brother of Scattering Bear (Mato Wayuhi - I've had wayuhi explained as like a bear digging in the earth and scattering roots). They belonged to one of the leading families within the Wazhazha band, a large tiwahe with very extensive connections. As early as 1844-45 trader David Adams considered Scattering Bear as the leader of one constituent sub-band of the Wazhazhas. SB dealt directly with Adams and rival traders as the 'chief' of this group. In January 1846 a group of Brule chiefs - they seem largely to be Wazhazhas - signed a petition to be presented to the President, requesting recompense for the loss of resources to the emigrant traffic along the North Platte River. Scattering Bear was signatory no. 1.

In 1851 SB was selected by treaty commissioner David Mitchell as the head chief of the Lakotas during the councils for the Horse Creek Treaty. The council of Lakota leaders then validated Mitchell's choice, and SB - reluctantly - agreed to act as the principal intermediary between Americans and the Lakotas. Red Leaf during this period is unmentioned in the sources, but it is likely that he was one of his brother's aides - I suspect the Lakota term would be kolaya. He may have served as an akichita or police officer. After the killing of his brother in the Grattan fight of 1854 Red Leaf and several kinsmen, inluding brother Long Chin and cousin Spotted Tail, avenged the death in the mail coach raid of November 1854. In the fallout from this raid, the Wazhazha band council - temporarily united around a peace agenda under the headman Stabber - drove out Red Leaf and his adherents. With 26 lodges of Wazhazhas (about one third of the whole band) they were part of the camp attacked by Harney at the Blue Water in Sept. 1855. The surrender of the mail coach raiders was one of Harney's demands for peace, and after prolonged negotiations run by Agent Twiss and the peace party Lakotas, Red Leaf, Long Chin, and Spotted Tail surrendered in October. They were sent to Ft Leavenworth for several months in the winter. President Pierce pardoned them in January 1856, and they shortly were moved to Ft Kearney on the Nebraska frontier, where they stayed throughout the spring and summer of 1856.

After return (Sept. 1856) to the Brules, Red Leaf was selected as the band chieftain (Wichasha Itanchan) of the Wazhazhas. Reading and hopefully not over-reading Woman Dress statement to JR Walker, I suggest he was taken into the Brule chiefs society (Nacha Okolakichiye). He did not succeed to his brother SB's unique position as head chief (Billy Garnett's account inidicates that the dying SB had passed it on to Man Afraid of His Horse of the Oglalas - a case of a poisoned chalice?). He remained the most widely influential Wazhazha leader through the next generation. One thing I've detected in council proceedings is how often Wazhazha spokesmen were younger men - Red Leaf spoke comparatively rarely. Far from being a symptom of weakness, I suggest that Red Leaf's tactic of engaging the rising men was a successful strategy. How else explain the almost unprecedented growth in the Wazhazha band - eighty lodges in 1854 (about 500 people), to just under 200 by 1875. This means that people from other bands were attracted to join the Wazhazhas. There was quite a spurt during the Bozeman Trail war period - reflecting Wazhazha involvement in the profitable stock raiding - but it continues right into the years that the band settled at Red Cloud Agency (1871-77), when Red Leaf's leadership continued to attract new adherents. Chiefs with bigger names today - Red Cloud, Man Afraid of His Horse, Little Wound, and so on - couldn't match this - so our friend RL was 'doing something right'.

OK - I'll post some more later

Kingsley