"The next fight I remember was when seven of us went on a hunt of the enemy. We met Crows. The Crows killed one of our men, and we chased them a long way but got none of them. We got back.


"Twenty-two of us went out to the head of the Yellowstone on foot on hunt of the enemy. The Crows saw us first. They came onto us all at once, yelling and shooting as fast as they could. They killed one Lakota; they had firearms then. Kicking Bear started after them and I went with him. I took good aim and shot one of their horses. The Crows made a charge on us. We took hiding in the rocks. One boy of our band thirteen years old was shot in the elbow, and one was shot in the back and killed. Another one of our band was shot in the breast but got well. They kept crowding us fast but we kept in the rocks. We made a big yell and started for the Crows. They left their blankets, but we failed to get any of the Crows this time. They had horses but we were on foot, but we got all their blankets and supplies. The Crows quit and we buried the boy on the hill among the rocks. We took the wounded man along. "Next morning we went into a hill to see if any of the enemy was around. We had field glasses then. We saw a band of the Crows killing buffaloes. All had packed up but one. The one not ready yet I took a shot at but missed him. He ran to his horse and jumped on him. The horse was tied to a stake and when he tried to run away the horse fell back from the tied rope and he fell off. We followed him on foot. He was crying. I shot him and he fell. We ran to him. He had a gun ready and before we could scalp him he shot at one of our men and hit him above the knee. I wounded him but he got up and ran. My brother Kicking Bear shot at him and he fell in a hole. He kept shooting at us. Just then a band of Piegans came after us while we were shooting and we had a battle there. Then a big storm came. It got dark and we got away. We got home all right.


"Soon after that I took a band of seven on foot and we went to look for a fight with the Crows. We ran into a big bunch of Crows just below where we fought Custer. We lay until dark. Then we got into the Big Horn among the timber. We marched single file and stopped along among the trees. I was ahead. I whistled like a whippoorwill. This way we got into the camp of the Crows without raising them. They always kept their horses close to the lodge. We got a bunch of horses and got them away from the camp. I held five of our men to bring the horses. I got a white horse. It had a sheet used for rain. I spread it over myself and the horse. The horse was white too, and so I went back into the Crow camp. I hooted like an owl so the Crows did not know I got back into camp again. I got some more ponies but could get only two of them across the river. I had to swim them over. The other five who 'had the first lot of horses got them home. We did not see them until we got back and met them at home. That time we got thirty- nine horses.


"On another trip I took twenty-three of my men on foot and went north of Custer field to Bear Buttes--a long way. We camped twenty times. Every morning we went to the highest hill to look out for enemies. On top of a mountain we saw a camp of Piegans. Then we felt something bad would happen. We stuck needles into our arms and cut a slit in them to learn if we would have good luck in a battle. This we did that morning. After that we waited until dark, then we went down to the camp. They were not expecting an enemy and they had their horses all loose. We got among them and whistled like a whippoorwill to keep them quiet. This time we got a lot. There was one Sioux boy that Kicking Bear got a horse for. We travelled all night with the horses. Next morning when it was light we stopped and counted them. We had a hundred and thirty-nine for this trip. We had to travel at night to keep safe.


previous page table of contents next page