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tenaciously to protect their home against an inevitable white invasion.On the Little Big Horn Scorched and yellow under the burning sun lay the endless stretches of rolling, grass-covered plains of the Big Horn valley. In one direction the roundedswells rise and fall like the heaving billows of an ocean after a storm has passed; in another the ragged, ravine -seamed soil rears sharp crests like breakers in the wake of a storm’s fury. Through this and bordered by the winding snake-like groves of cottonwood and willHows, wends the treacherous Little Big Horn river, soon to lose itself in the mother stream as both roll on to swell the Yellowstone. .Thick along ^ the level bottomlands stand the cone:shaped dwellings of the hunted nomads—the buifalo-skln lodges, hundreds of them—now the scene ofgreat commotion as tribesmen prepare for a speedy departure. To the right is the famous little hill where Death anhour or two ago held reckless and wanton revelry, relentless and all unnecessary.Scattered over the lower prairies, thick upon this little rise, in coulee and thicket, lie scarred and gruesome the evidence of a terrific battle. Soldier and j warrior alike tell in silent horror of a] terrible combat. IAfter the Battle The dust has Just cleared following the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the great silence unbroken save for the wails of mourners, finds in a lonely sector of this scarred scene a youth bent in griei of soul beside all that remains of his father who had seen fit to take up the fight of the Sioux and Cheyenne. His father had sacrificed his life to a cause to him most just, but this Crow lad is bereft of his greatest living image, all because the onward sweep of a whiteepman's civilization, blinded by its own desires, could not permit Itself to recognize the rights of the redman.Is it to wonder then, that this youth s heart is “bad”; that he is filled with revenge and revolt? He beats his chest; he slashes his thighs; and as he is wont to take up the wlerd death dirge, a voice from out of the air strikes him to silence The Spirit Talks “My son! It Is I, your father, who speaks. You have seen the battle, and terrible it was. It is good that you are sfUi unharmed. Yes, I go to the Shadow Land; but that, my son, is not as bad as other things might be. I could not be a coward and weakling when Sioux. Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Crow alike must fight for a chance to live. y“We were successful today, boy! Yes! But' I fear that what you have seen is but the beginning of the end. It is not so many summers ago that this great game country south of Elk river, was ours (the Crows*) undisputed save for the activity of our always enemies, the Uncpapa Sioux and the Plegans. We lived We thrived or suffered just as our medicine decreed; but this country and what It afforded, we held as our home until the white man came“I recall it all now, my son. and whether or not it could have been prevented,I cannot say. But, at first, when they came in small numbers—one, two or four—to buy our furs in trade, many times for trinkets which we, In our ignorance, thought were of value, we welcomed them and treated them kindly. Many times when some of them would have starved or frozen, we gladly gave them food and shelter.wnite race; and by white men also, whose forefathers were'welcomed and embraced in the land where the poor Indian met and fed them with ears of green corn and with pemmican.The Sioux nation, who were dominant among the foes of General George Armstrong Custer’s command on the Little Big Horn June 25, 1876, are. more than all others of the northwestern tribes, accredited with innumerable acts of cruelty and depredation, covering a period of more than fifty years.The Speech of Bone-Neek-Lace However cruel, however superstitious and childlike may have been the understanding of this nation of aborigines, they were, nevertheless, human; they were fathers and mothers, brothers and sistars; they were home and peaoe-loving. Their story is a long and a sad one. They had made many treaties, only to find them continuously broken by the white people. Yet, despite these injustices, they desired to forego open hostilities against the Invading white race, if war could possibly be avoided. This fact was very ably voiced by the eloquent speech of the Sioux Chief, Bone-Neck-Lace. before the Northwest Treaty Commission at Port Sully, D. T.. In 1866. The aged leader said:‘ FRIENDS: My name is Bone-Neck-Lace Li?l ch[Sj °! the Lower Yanktonnaist°n*ii!e I* not forked. I k1*! and ?ffer you clean handi.Jwlr lt;SSE£Z.J?fl(!?S8 to me* and thlsVSS l H^8duri) 18 my own These medalsS£*k. wcre givcn me b* th«Great White Father s men many Iona summers ago.■ “^ong ago sent my words to our Oreat r» but I have received no annwer Jcan le; me; bi huntln plantii flour i will ki to covlt; frlendl ever si tons slt; T h ears ol the wa The whombut I have received no answer' _ fear they were lost. Every year the GreatFather s white children come out to us with Fords for my people; but that Is alllses with his red children. I see white men touch the Bible when they tell the truth. Italk* plainly*0' t0°' an(* have come here to•The Great Spirit made multitudes of peo-and placed them over the world wherele _ __________ w___le wanted them He placed the red men .iere and gave them these rivers and forests, and rolling plains, with elk and buffalo for their living. But now my Great Father issending his white soldiers all over our coun try, and is driving the wild game from myiui ruq is driving childrens mouths. What shall we do?Where sHall we go' On the east of us thlt;pressivi of con Rather it is ex messagi thorltlcIt w(in 18lt; Uncpaf Brules, lands a of the were m scraps coveted eastern In tfc day wh chronicv■Sv *V V'^ jMlf* H* ; • 1L......rsL •tf •*^ iREVO HILL from She east side. It was to these bn aersas the Little Bis Horn by the Northern Cheyennes poll’s t’ncpaps Slows •nrrennded Reno’s detachment ai taaee. Thts photograph was taken ea the tenth annly
Newspaper Details
Hardin Tribune
Hardin, Montana, US
Fri, Jun 17, 1927
Page 3
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 20 Aug 2023
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