Iron Hawk's 2nd Kill "Headstone"

[montea]

Can anyone direct me to the battlefield marker (or former thread that already discussed this) identified by the Hunkpapa warrior Iron Hawk as the site of his second kill of 6/25/76?

Accord "Mystery of E Troop," p. 93, he told John Niehardt in 1931 that it was at "the little creek going up there . . .(near where) . . . one of the soldiers got killed by Brings Plenty."

The soldier was one of two fleeing on horseback and Iron Hawk knocked him from his mount with his bow, then beat him to death. He later identified the soldier's stone on the battlefield, saying "There are headstones all over there and the furthest one shows where the second man I killed lies (sic)."

Can't be too many stone markers on the field with that sort of special identification, and it would be interesting to look for and at in July 2010 when, say, I'm wandering around wondering why Gordie told me he would be there but isn't. MA

"Early to bed and early to rise . . . is symptomatic of chronic depression."

[biggordie]

Monte:

That specific stone is going to be hard to locate and identify - there will be nothing on it to indicate tha the soldier who "Fell Here" was killed by ayone in particular. I used to think tht he was referring to the two markers that used to be [but aren't any longer] some 200 yards NW of the monument. Sharrow was one of them, some say. I have no info on the other.

Of course, there are numerous markers off by themselves on the battlefield, and any number of "little creeks" which are sometimes there and sometimes not. He could be talking of marker 174 which is up by the boundary fence NE of the Keogh group. This might have been a guy trying to get away, or maybe markers 5 and 6 down near Deep Ravine, or one of the string between the bottom of SSL and Greasy Grass Ridge.

This hill, that bluff, this ridge , that little creek, that depression over there, that other hill, the deep ravine, the deep coulee, the middle coulee, the river, not that river, dummy, the gully, the gulch , the wadi, where the rubber meets the road....

Gordie

PS Gordie says you can count on him in 2010, and he rarely lies to me....

PPS Use the search feature at the bottom of the page to find references to Iron Hawk on either this forum "proboards" or on Google.

[biggordie]

Monte:

The self-same Iron Hawk [the Hunkpapa, not the Mnicoujou of the same name], who was interviewed by Neihardt in 1931,,was also interviewed by Judge Eli S. Ricker in 1907. Iron Hawk was born in 1862, making him about 14 at the time of LBH, 45 when interviewed by Ricker, and 69 when interviewed by Neihardt.

Iron Hawk could not speak English when Riocker intervewed him, and used sign language, which was "translated" by Archie Sword. Interestingly Iron Hawk "stated" that he was in the camps attacked by Reynolds on 17 March 1876, but said that HE WAS NOT AT THE ROSEBUD FIGHT [See the Sixth Grandfather].

In his account to Ricker, he does not claim to have killed anyone [the subject didn't come up, I guess], and he stated that he was on the side of the ridge nearest the river, between that ridge and the river. He actually "speaks" mostly in the third person [or Ricker wrote it down that way], with no "I did this, or that other"]. He does speak of knowing that Keogh and his men were over in the little ravine, but otherwise confines himself pretty much to events on Custer Hill.

I would guess that that rules out marker 174, and probably anything on the Keogh/Calhoun side of the ridge - and any markers down Calhoun ridge to the Finley positions. That still leaves SSL, the string over to Greasy Grass Hill, and Custer Hill.

Frankly, it bothers me that he didn't mention the "kills" which one would normally expect, and of which he would have been proud [and sung at all the special dances].

Anyway.............

Gordie

For the sticklers: Voices of the American West, Volume I: The Indian Interviews Of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919, Tablet 45, pp 314-318.

[montea]

Thanks Gordie. Guess that rules out stepping off the tour bus and seeing a guide point out and discuss the appropriate stone.

Had searched for Iron Hawk threads and found some, but none about the stone; rather surprised you were the only one who commented. C'est la guerre. MA

"There is only so much crap up with which I will put."--some "Cheers" episode I think I saw once

[biggordie]

Monte:

Having reread the Ricker interview a couple of times, I would now amend my posting to add that Archie Sword undoubdtedly translated most of the interview for Ricker, and that it was only when talking of the Custer Hill fight that Iron Hawk grew more animated and gestured using sign language. This makes the omission of the kills even more surprising.

BTW - The first part of the interview is interesting in that Iron Hawk goes to some lengths to speak of his religious beliefs.

If you go to www.American-Tribes.com, you might find more info on him.

Gordie

[Diane Merkel]

I don't believe we have much about this Iron Hawk on the American-Tribes site, but we would welcome a posting about him to see what others may contribute.

[ephriam]

The two interviews mentioned above (one with Eli S. Ricker and one with John G. Neihardt) are actually with two different people: one the father and the other is the son.

Ricker interviewed the elder Iron Hawk Cetan Maza (c1834-1908). He was reputedly the son of the prominent early Oglala headman Smoke. By the time of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, he was living in the Soreback Band of Oglala (see my article in Greasy Grass 2006 about the Soreback Band's role at the Little Bighorn). Iron Hawk was in the Northern Cheyenne village with He Dog that was attacked by Colonel Reynolds in March 1876 but he apparently did not participate in the Rosebud battle. He was wounded during the Little Bighorn. He was the primary spokesman in the spring of 1877 when peace delegates visited the village and he surrendered with He Dog and Crazy Horse in May 1877. Later that fall or early winter, he fled the Red Cloud Agency with other northern Oglala bound for Canada. He returned in 1880, was transferred to the Standing Rock Agency in 1881 and to the Pine Ridge Agency in 1882. He appears several times in Amos Bad Heart Bull's pictographic manuscript. Iron Hawk died on the Pine Ridge Reservation on April 20, 1908.

His son, known later as Homer Iron Hawk, was born about 1864. He was originally called Oksan Inyanka or Runs Around. As pointed out above, he was a young boy, perhaps twelve years old, at the time of the Little Bighorn. Unlike his father, he was apparently at the Rosebud battle. "Of course, me, I ran for my life," he told Niehardt. "It was all mixed-up fighting... This was a pitiful long stretched-out battle." At the Little Bighorn, he joined the fight somewhat late. He had difficulty getting his horse after the herd had stampeded; he succeeded in getting one with help from his brother Killed by Night. Then it took him some time to get dressed for the battle -- "it took me a long time to put an eagle feather on my head!" By the time he was ready, Reno's men had already been pushed back across the river. He joined in the fight against Custer's battalion, killing the soldier as described above. In later years, he had a saber which he claimed came from the battle. His movements after Little Bighorn mirror that of his father. He settled on the reservation and married late in life. Homer Iron Hawk died July 4, 1950.

ephriam

[biggordie]

Great stuff, as usual, Ephriam. Unfortunately does not get us any closer to the marker location.

Gordie