Where
the girl saved her brother
In
the summer of 1876, the two greatest battles between
soldiers and Indians were fought on the plains of
Montana. The first fight was called the Battle of the
Rosebud.
The
second, which was fought a week later, was called the
Battle of the Little Bighorn, where General Custer was
defeated and killed. The Cheyenne call the Battle of
the Rosebud the Fight Where the Girl Saved Her Brother.
A hundred years ago, the white men wanted the Indians
to go into prisons called "reservations," to
give up their freedom to roam and hunt buffalo, to give
up being Indians. Some tamely settled down behind the
barbed wire of the agencies, but others did not. Those
who went to the reservations to live like white men
were called "friendlies." Those who would not
go were called "hostiles."
They
weren't hostile, really. They didn't want to fight; all
they wanted was to be left alone to live the Indian
way, which was a good way. But the soldiers would not
leave them alone. They decided to have a great roundup
and catch all "hostiles," kill those who
resisted, and bring the others back to the agencies as
prisoners.
Three columns of soldiers entered the last stretch of
land left to the red man. They were led by Generals
Crook, Terry, and Custer. Crook had the most men with
him, about two thousand. He also had cannon and Indian
scouts to guide him. At the Rosebud he met the united
Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
The Indians had danced the sacred sun dance. The great
Sioux chief and holy man, Sitting Bull, had been
granted a vision telling him that the soldiers would be
defeated. The warriors were in high spirits.
Some
men belonging to famous warrior societies had vowed to
fight until they were killed, singing their death
songs, throwing their lives away, as it was called.
They painted their faces for war. They put on their
finest outfits so that if they were killed, their
enemies would say: "This must have been a great
chief. See how nobly he lies there."
The old chiefs instructed the young men how to act. The
medicine men prepared protective charms for the
fighters, putting gopher dust on their hair or painting
their horses with hailstone designs.
This
was to render them invisible to their foes, or to make
them bullet-proof. Brave Wolf had the most admired
medicine-a mounted hawk that he fastened to the back of
his head. He always rode into battle blowing his
eagle-bone whistle-and once the fight started, the hawk
came alive and whistled too.
Many proud tribes were there besides the Cheyenne: the
Hunkpapa, the Minniconjou, the Oglala, the Burned
Thighs and the Two Kettles. Many brave chiefs and
warriors came, including Two Moons, White Bull, Dirty
Moccasins, Little Hawk, Yellow Eagle, and Lame White
Man. Among the Sioux was the great Crazy Horse, and
Sitting Bull - their holy man, still weak from his
flesh offerings made at the sun dance-and the fierce
Rain-in-the-Face.
Who can count them all! What a fine
sight they were!
Those who had earned the right to wear war bonnets were
singing, lifting them up. Three times they stopped in
their singing, and the fourth time they put the bonnets
on their heads, letting the streamers fly and trail
behind them.
How good it must have been to see this!
Crazy Horse of the Oglala shouted his famous war cry:
- "A
good day to die, and a good day to fight!
- Cowards
to the rear, brave hearts - follow me
The fight started. Many brave deeds were done, many
coups counted. The battle swayed to and fro. More
than anybody else's, this was the Cheyenne's fight.
This was their day. Among them was a brave young
girl, Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman, who rode proudly
beside her husband, Black Coyote.
Her
brother, Chief Comes-In-Sight, was in the battle too.
She looked for him and at last saw him surrounded, his
horse killed from under him. Soldiers were aiming their
rifles at him, while their Crow scouts circled around
him and waited for an opportunity to count coups. But
he fought them off with courage and skill.
Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman uttered a shrill, high-pitched
war cry. She raced her pony into the midst of the
battle, into the midst of the enemy. She made the
spine-chilling, trilling, trembling sound of the Indian
woman encouraging her man during a fight. Chief
Comes-in-Sight jumped up on her horse behind her.
Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman laughed with joy and the
excitement of battle, and all the while she sang.
The
soldiers were firing at her, and their Crow scouts were
shooting arrows at her horse, but it moved too fast for
her and her brother to be hit. Then she turned her
horse and raced up the hill from which the old chiefs
and the medicine men were watching the battle.
The Sioux and Cheyenne saw what she was doing, and then
the white soldiers saw it too. They all stopped
fighting and watched the brave girl saving her
brother's life. The warriors raised their arms and set
up a mighty shout - a long undulating war cry that made
one's hair stand up on end. And even some of the
soldiers threw their caps in the air and shouted
"Hurrah!" in honor of
Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman.
The battle was still young. Not many men had been
killed on either side, but the white general was
thinking: "If their women fight like this, what
will their warriors be like? Even if I win, I will lose
half my men." And so General Crook retreated a
hundred miles or so.
He
was to have joined up with Custer, Old Yellow Hair; but
when Custer had to fight the same Cheyenne and Sioux a
week later, Crook was far away and Custer's regiment
was wiped out. So in a way, Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman
contributed to that battle too! Many who saw what she
had done thought that she had counted the biggest coup
of all-not taking life, but giving it. That's why the
Indians call the Battle of the Rosebud the
"Fight
Where the Girl Saved Her Brother."
The spot where Buffalo-Calf-Road-Woman counted her coup
has long since been plowed under. A ranch now covers
it. But the memory of her deed will last as long as
there are Indians. This is not a fairy tale, but it
sure is a legend.
Told
by Rachel Strange Owl, Birney Montana,
- with the
assistance of two or three others.
