Chapter 2 - THE STORY OF CHIEF FLYING HAWK'S LIFE
"I was born four miles below where Rapid City now is, in 1852, about
full moon in March. "My father was Black Fox and my mother's name was
Iron Cedarwoman. "My father was a chief. In a fight with the Crows he
was shot below the right eye with an arrow; it was so deep that it
could not be pulled out, but had to be pushed through to the ear. "My
tribe was the Ogalalla clan. Our family roamed on hunts for game and
enemies all about through the country and to Canada. My father died
when he was eighty years old. He had two wives and they were sisters.
My mother was the youngest and had five children. The other wife had
eight children, making thirteen in all. Kicking Bear was my full
brother, and Chief Black Fox was my half brother and was named for our
father. "When ten years old I was in my first battle on the Tongue
River—Montana now. It was an Overland Train of covered wagons who had
soldiers with them. The way it was started, the soldiers fired on the
Indians, our tribe, only a few of us. We went to our friends and told
them we had been fired on by the soldiers, and they surrounded the
train and we had a fight with them. I do not know how many we killed of
the soldiers, but they killed four of us. "After that we had a good
many battles, but I did not take any scalps for a good while. I cannot
tell how many I killed when a young man. "When I was twenty years old
we went to the Crows and stole a lot of horses. The Crows discovered us
and followed us all night. When daylight came we saw them behind us. I
was the leader. We turned back to fight the Crows. I killed one and
took his scalp and a field glass and a Crow necklace from him. We
chased the others back a long way and then caught up with our own men
again and went on. It was a very cold winter. There were twenty of us
and each had four horses. We got them home all right and it was a good
trip that time. We had a scalp dance when we got back. "We soon moved
camp. One night the Piegans came and killed one of our people. We
trailed them in the snow all night. At dawn we came up to them. One
Piegan stopped. The others went on. We surrounded the one. He was a
brave man. I started for him. He raised his gun to shoot when I was
twenty feet away. I dropped to the ground and his bullet went over me;
then I jumped on him and cut him through below the ribs and scalped
him. We tied the scalp to a long pole. The women blacked their faces
and we had a big dance over it. "The next day I started out again with
some men and we ran into a Crow camp. We got into that camp by
moonlight, but we got caught. They started to fire on us. We all ran
into a deep gulch. We got out, but when it was day we saw them coming
with a herd 'of horses, going back to the Crow camp. We got in front of
them and hid in a hollow. When I looked out I saw they had Sioux horses
which they had stolen from our camp. "A big Crow was ahead and the
others were riding behind. I took a good aim at the big Crow and shot
him in the chest. The rest of them left the horses and ran away. The
big Crow was still living. I took another shot at him, then I took his
scalp. We took all the horses they had stolen. There were sixty-nine
head that time. "Some time after we went to hunt buffalo. All the men
went on this hunt. While we were butchering the kill some Piegans were
coming. We went to meet them and had a fight. Some missed their 'horses
and were running on foot. I was on a good fast horse. I ran over one
and knocked him down and fell on him and scalped him alive (ugh).
Another one of my people was close by and he shot the one I scalped.
This fight was below where Fort Peck is. "More Piegans came. More of
them than us. We were attacked by the Piegans. I kneeled down beside a
sage bush. A Piegan shot at me but missed. I shot at him and hit his
horse. It went down. Then I turned back and ran into a Piegan. Four of
them were butchering buffaloes. I shot at them but missed. The Piegans
ran and left their horses, and I took them all. We killed three of the
Piegans. They shot one of our horses through the head. The fight was
over and the Piegans went to a hill. "On the way back we ran into a lot
of Crows and we had a fight on horseback. We chased them but no one was
killed. We had a scalp dance on the Piegans.
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