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Bloody Knife

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Bloody Knife
Bloody Knife
Bloody Knife
Bornca. 1840
Dakota Territory
Died(1876-06-25)June 25, 1876
Montana
Place of Burial
Red Cloud Cemetery
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Army
Years of service1868–76
RankScout
Unit7th U.S. Cavalry
Battles/warsAmerican Indian Wars

Bloody Knife (Sioux:Tamena Way Way or Tamina WeWe; Arikara:Nes I Ri Pat or Nee si Ra Pat;[1][2] ca. 1840 – June 25, 1876) was an American Indian scout and guide for the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. He was the favorite scout of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and he has been called "perhaps the most famous Native American scout to serve the U.S. Army."[2]

Born to a Hunkpapa Sioux father and an Arikara mother around 1840, he was abused and discriminated against by the other Sioux in his village because of his mixed breed, in particular by Gall, a future chief. When Bloody Knife was a teenager, he left his village with his mother to live with the Arikara tribe. His brothers were killed by a Sioux raid led by Gall in 1862. He found employment as a courier and hunter for the American Fur Company and later served under such officers as Alfred Sully before scouting for George Custer on several military expeditions. He died on June 25, 1876, during the Battle of the Little Bighorn from a bullet to the head.

Early life

Though his exact date and place of birth are unknown, Bloody Knife was likely born between 1837 and 1840 in Dakota Territory.[1][2] His father was a Hunkpapa Sioux and his mother a member of the Arikara tribe, also known as the Ree. He lived with his father's tribe for the early years of his life. Since he was of mixed blood, and the Sioux were traditional enemies of the Arikara, he was often discriminated against and treated poorly by the other Sioux. Consequently, he developed a hatred for the Sioux tribe and a feud evolved between him and a fellow Sioux named Gall. A man who was like an older brother to Gall, Sitting Bull, also abused Bloody Knife. When he was about fifteen, he and his mother left his father and the Sioux to return to the Arikara at an American Fur Company trading post called Fort Clark, which was located close to modern day Stanton, North Dakota, on the Upper Mississippi River.[1]

While living at Fort Clark, Bloody Knife was in constant danger. Arikaras, who wandered too far from the fort, were often attacked by Sioux war parties. Despite his partial Sioux ancestry, Bloody Knife was subjected to these attacks and was once ambushed by Gall and several other Hunkpapas during a trip to visit his father. They beat him severely, stripped him of his clothing, spat on him, mocked him, hit him with coup sticks and musket ramrods. Then in the fall of 1862, two of his brothers were killed, mutilated, and scalped by Sioux war party led by Gall. Their bodies were left to be eaten by wolves.[2][3][4][5] During his time at Fort Clark, Bloody Knife worked delivering mail to other forts in Missouri and to Fort Totten in North Dakota. The Sioux killed several men on these routes, however, Bloody Knife almost always delivered the mail on time.[1]

First years as a scout

After working for the American Fur Company, Bloody Knife accompanied Brigadier General Alfred Sully in 1865 as a scout on his Sioux expedition. Bloody Knife proved useful to the group of Galvanized Yankees, prisoner soldiers from the Confederate States Army who served the Union in the America West instead of serving time in a prisoner-of-war camp at Fort Berthold. He also assisted as a messenger, helping the garrison of troops communicate with other military units in the area which was still controlled mainly by the Sioux. In the winter of that year, Bloody Knife held a meeting with Captain Adams Bassett of Company C, Fourth U.S. Volunteer Infantry, letting him know that Gall had recently arrived near Fort Berthold. He told Bassett that Gall was not peaceful and had already killed white men along the Missouri River. Captain Bassett sent a lieutenant of his with a platoon and Bloody Knife to capture Gall or kill him if he would not surrender. Bloody Knife then led the group of soldiers to the Hunkpapa village, south of the fort where Gall was staying. The men attempted to arrest Gall upon arrival, but when he tried to escape he was bayoneted and forced to the ground, before receiving two more bayonet stabs. Soon afterward Bloody Knife intended to shoot Gall in the head, but just as he was about to pull his trigger, the officer in command knocked his gun away from Gall's face and claimed he was already dead. Furious with the officer, the two exchanged heated words before leaving. Gall, however would survive the incident and go on to become a Sioux war chief.[1][2][5]

Pictured above, to the far left, kneeling is Bloody Knife next to George Custer, seated in the center[6]

In 1866, President Andrew Johnson authorized a force of Indian scouts when he signed the Indian Scout Enlistment Act.[7] In May 1868, Bloody Knife enlisted at Fort Stevenson with the U.S. Army's Indian scouts as a corporal. Bloody Knife developed a serious alcohol addiction at this time which could have led to his desertion in September of that year. In 1872, however, he was made a lance corporal.[1] Aside from Fort Berthold, Bloody Knife served at several other forts such as Fort Buford, Fort Rice, and Fort Lincoln. In 1872, he was involved in the Yellowstone Expedition. The next year at Fort Rice he met George Armstrong Custer for the first time. The two soon became friends and Custer admired Bloody Knife's talents as a scout.[2] Though he is said to be have been insolent toward whites and ridiculed them, he often amused Custer by ridiculing his marksmanship. Custer occasionally gave him rewards such as a silver medal he had ordered for Bloody Knife in Washington with his name on.[4] He would go on to become Custer's favorite scout very quickly.[1] On the next Yellowstone Expedition, Bloody Knife joined Custer and fought a few battles with the Sioux.[2] Bloody Knife helped to discover an abandoned Sioux village which he estimated to have held 1,000 warriors. The group ended up following the trail and led to a battle at the Yellowstone.[1]

Black Hills Expedition

Pictured from left to right are Bloody Knife, George Armstrong Custer, Private John Noonan, and Captain William Ludlow posing after killing their first grizzly[8]

In 1874, the scout took part in another expedition called Black Hills Expedition.[2] The expedition included over a thousand men, including geologists, infantry, cavalry, two miners, several reporters, and sixty-five Arikara scouts.[6] Shortly before the beginning of the expedition, the Sioux attacked the Arikara village at Fort Berthold, killing five Arikaras and one Mandan. One of Bloody Knife's sons was killed in the attack and another scout, known as Bear's Ears, or Bear's Eye, had a brother killed in the same attack.[9][10] Bloody Knife blamed the death of his son on Gall.[11] Many of the Arikara on the expedition were eager to avenge the attack and when signs of a Sioux band in the Black Hills were found they began to sing war songs and put war paint on their horses and themselves. However, Custer, who was not interested in solving tribal feuds, ordered the scouts not to attack any Sioux unless fired upon first.[9][10] Bloody Knife and twenty-five other Arikaras were then sent out for more scouting and found a small camp of five lodges. The scouts waited for Custer to arrive with Louis Agard, his interpreter, before taking any actions. Although some reports had suggested that thousands of warriors would be in the hills preparing to attack, and most of the soldiers and civilians thought that a fight would occur soon, the group Bloody Knife came across was made up of only twenty-seven Oglala Sioux. This group of Sioux had been cutting lodgepoles and hunting in the Black Hills before intending to return to the Red Cloud Agency, which was one hundred miles south of their location. The group had no knowledge of the soldiers in the area and all but one Oglala ran away when Agard and some of the scouts approached them.[10]

During the expedition on August 7, Bloody Knife encountered a grizzly bear roughly seventy-five yards from where Custer was finding a campsite. Custer, having had a lifelong dream of killing a grizzly bear,[12] shot the animal in the thigh with his Remington rifle. Custer shot at the bear again and Bloody Knife and William Ludlow helped bring it down. Bloody Knife put his knife into its jugular to make sure the grizzly had died. The bear was an old male with broken teeth, covered in scars,[13] and weighed 800 pounds (360 kg).[12] Though Custer would take credit for the kill, some believe that the fatal bullet was fired by Bloody Knife himself.[14]

At one point during the Black Hills Expedition, several wagons became stuck at a bank. Custer asked whose fault it was for the stoppage and a scout named Charley Reynolds blamed the incident on Bloody Knife. Custer drew out his revolver and fired a few shots in the direction of the two scouts. Bloody Knife and Reynolds took cover behind trees. Bloody Knife then came to Custer and stated, "It is not a good thing you have done to me; if I had been possessed of madness too, you would not see another day." Custer replied, "My brother, it was the madness of the moment that made me do this, but it is now gone. Let us shake hands and be friends again." Bloody Knife eventually did agree and shook Custer's hand.[15]

While most Indian scouts were making a sum of $13 a month (the same amount of pay the troops were receiving), Custer managed to get Bloody Knife a job with the quartermaster as a guide where he made $75 ($2,020 at today's prices) per month.[3][11]

On November 30, 1874, Bloody Knife was discharged as a private[1] and for his efforts in the Black Hills Expedition, he would receive an additional $150 for what was called his "invaluable assistance".[2]

The Battle of Little Bighorn and his death

In 1876, during the Little Bighorn campaign, Bloody Knife repeatedly and unsuccessfully warned Custer there were too many Indians to fight. Consequently, he ignored Custer's plea for him to stay out of the battle. By some accounts, before the battle began, Bloody Knife signaled to the sun with his hands, "I shall not see you go down behind the hills tonight."[4]

Bloody Knife was assigned to Major Marcus Reno, who had a command of 140 soldiers, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. During the battle, Custer had directed Bloody Knife, along with the other Arikara and Crow scouts, to drive off the herds of Indian ponies in the Sioux camp. After Reno and his men retreated into the timber near the river during an early part of the confrontation, Bloody Knife was killed by a gunshot to the head. He was mounted on his horse at the time and may have been hit with more than one bullet.[1][7] Reportedly, he was standing next to Reno during this segment of the battle. Reno had motioned for Bloody Knife to come near him so he could ask him what the Indians would do when his command began to move away from their village when Bloody Knife was shot and his brains and blood splattered onto Reno's face. Reno was traumatized and began to panic. Reno then set in motion a series of frantic actions and many of his troopers would die as a result.[1][16] Bloody Knife was one of three Arikara scouts assigned to Reno to die in the battle, the others being Little Brave (also known as Bear's Trail or Little Soldier) and Bobtail Bull.[17] The battle would become a huge defeat for the U.S. Army.[18]

Bloody Knife's corpse had been mutilated by the opposing Sioux. According to the testimony of Bloody Knife's sister, her daughters had found his body on the battlefield, unaware that it was the body of their uncle, cut off his head and brought it back to the Hunkpapa village. The head was put on a pole and displayed in the village.[19] When she saw the head and recognized it to be the head of her brother she was horrified[20] and according to David Humphreys Miller, an interviewer who talked with many of the participants and witnesses from the battle, she cried out: "Gall has killed him at last!" However, other accounts of the story do not mention Gall and no historians have recorded how the sisters reacted when they discovered that it was the head of their uncle that they had brought back.[4] Bloody Knife's body was buried on June 27 by Colonel John Gibbon's troops on the battlefield. A scalp was found in an empty Sioux lodge by one of Gibbon's men and the Arikara identified it as the scalp of Bloody Knife due to the gray streaks in the hair.[1][2]

Years after his death on April 14, 1879, Bloody Knife's widow, She Owl, arrived at Fort Berthold. She went to Thomas Ellis, an agent at the fort, and stated she was "the sole and only legal representative of said Bloody Knife," and wished to receive money that was owed to him for his services. In 1881, she received $91.66 in wages from the United States government.[4]

Personal life and legacy

In 1866, Bloody Knife married an Arikara woman named She Owl (also known as Owl Woman), with whom he had several children. One of his sons was supposedly murdered by his own wife in 1904. His daughter passed away at a very young age and was buried at Fort Buford. Her grave marker claims that she died on December 28, 1870, from disease.[1]

Following his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the remaining Arikara scouts composed a song in his honor.[2] In the 1991 television mini-series Son of the Morning Star, Bloody Knife is portrayed by Sheldon Peters Wolfchild.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hatch, Thom (2002). The Custer companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian Wars. Stackpole Books. pp. 114–115. ISBN 0811704777.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Logt, Mark Van de (2011). Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 78–79. ISBN 9781851096978.
  3. ^ a b Donovan, James (2008). A Terrible Glory: Custer and The Little Bighorn—The Last Great Battle of the American West. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316029117.
  4. ^ a b c d e Connell, Evan S. (1984). Son of the Morning Star. North Point Press. pp. 12–18. ISBN 0865475105.
  5. ^ a b Larson, Robert W. (2007). Gall: Lakota War Chief. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 9780806138305.
  6. ^ a b Lehman, Tim (2010). Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780801895005.
  7. ^ a b Cowan, Wes. "Sticks and Stones Can Break Your Bank". True West Magazine. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  8. ^ Mitchell, Steven T. (2011). Nuggets to Neutrinos. Xlibris. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9781456839475.
  9. ^ a b Elliott, Michael A. (2007). Custerology: The Enduring Legacy of the Indian Wars and George Armstrong Custer. University of Chicago Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 9780226201474.
  10. ^ a b c Powers, Thomas (2010). The Killing of Crazy Horse. Random House. pp. 81–82. ISBN 9780375414466.
  11. ^ a b Thackeray, Lorna. "Fate, feuds led Bloody Knife, Custer's close friend, to Battle of the Little Bighorn". Billings Gazette. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  12. ^ a b Domek, Tom (2004). Custer State Park. Arcadia Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 0738534056.
  13. ^ Jackson, Donald Dean (1966). Custer's Gold: The United States Cavalry Expedition of 1874. Yale University Press. p. 94. ISBN 0803257503.
  14. ^ Merrit, Jim (July 1999). "Custer Goes Hunting". Field & Stream. p. 66. The fatal bullet was probably fired by Bloody Knife
  15. ^ Libby, Orin Grant, ed. (1998). The Arikara Narrative of Custer's Campaign and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 194. ISBN 0806130725.
  16. ^ Nichols, Ronald Hamilton (1999). In Custer's shadow: Major Marcus Reno. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 180. ISBN 0806132817.
  17. ^ Tucker, Spencer C. (2011). The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 35. ISBN 9781851096978.
  18. ^ Campbell, Ballard C. (2008). Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History: A Reference Guide to the Nation's Most Catastrophic Events. Infobase Publishing. pp. 142–143. ISBN 9780816066032.
  19. ^ Hardorff, Richard G. (2005). Indian Views of the Custer Fight: A Source Book. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 89. ISBN 0806136901.
  20. ^ Larson, Robert W. (2007). Gall: Lakota War Chief. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780806138305.
  21. ^ "Rich Saga "Morning Star" Sheds Some Light on Custer". The Fresno Bee. 1 February 1991. Retrieved 13 November 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

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