Man on Two Ponies (29 page)

Having learned of Merriam's approach, Big Foot's people were already nervous, and being surrounded by troops that night didn't
calm
their fears. In the morning Sumner
had
them divided into
three
groups, each accompanied by cavalrymen, for the march to Camp Cheyenne. The Indians were still agitated, and some of the young warriors were ominously painted and carrying their rifles as
if
they expected trouble.

The first section and its cavalry escort passed through the gate of Narcelle's ranch, but a wagon in the second group caught a wheel on a gate post. The excited women tried to get it loose but got the ponies tangled up in their harness. When an officer rode up and gruffly ordered them to stop blocking the gate, he frightened them even more. At that, Black Fox, Big Foot's surly son-in-law, swung his rifle toward the officer, who backed off.

All of this greatly aroused the warriors, who dashed about in confusion, howling and waving their Winchesters. When the gate was finally cleared they raced through it and along the first section
as if they were leaving. The terrified women threw their belongings out of the wagons to lighten them, and prepared to flee. Lt. Duffy, whose troops led the way, spread them out in a skirmish line and forced the warriors back into the column. Big Foot, at Sumner's request, sent his headmen to calm his people; order was restored, but
all
were on edge, still expecting trouble. That day Big Foot was coming down with influenza, which had spread among the Miniconjus, and he was sick and feverish.

After crossing the river the cavalcade approached Big Foot's village, when the warriors again raced forward. Sumner, fearing a fight was imminent, ordered Duffy to let them pass. Every family now rushed to its own cabin and barred the door. Big Foot hurried to Sumner. “I will go to your camp,” he said, “but there will be trouble if you
try
to force these women and children to leave their cabins. This is their home, where the government ordered them
to
remain. None of my people has committed a single act that would cause you to remove them by force.” Sumner knew he was right; and since Big foot had always kept his word, he felt that he should show that he trusted him.

As he reported later,
“I
concluded that one oftwo things must happen.
I
must either consent to their going to their village or bring on a fight; and if the latter, must be the aggressor, and, if the aggressor, what possible reason could
I
produce for making an attack on peaceable, quiet Indians on their reservation and in their own homes, perhaps killing many of them and offering, without any justification, the lives of many officers and enlisted men?”

Because Big Foot was needed in his village to control his unruly young men, Sumner allowed him to remain with his people. He asked only that Big Foot come to Camp Cheyenne next day to
talk
and to bring the Hunkpapas with him. Big Foot agreed, and Sumner withdrew with his troops to his base camp.

After learning that Big Foot intended to take them to Camp Cheyenne the following day, the Hunkpapas held council. “Big Foot promised we would come peacefully,” one said. “We must do it.”

“No!” said another. “They'll kill us like they did Sitting Bull.” They argued while Pawnee Killer listened. Since he wasn't a
Hunkpapa, he knew he could stay with Big Foot. The Hunkpapas finally asked his opinion.

“Big Foot took us in and fed us when we were starving,” he told them. “It isn't right for us to abandon him now and make trouble for him. He says he trusts Col. Sumner.” The Hunkpapas frowned. “My brothers,” Pawnee Killer continued, “I don't know what I would do if he told me I had to surrender to the soldiers. It is something each man must decide for himself. Big Foot is sick, and I intend to stay with him.” The Hunkpapas slipped away during the night.

That same night a weary courier from Fort Meade brought Sumner a message from Miles, who was now directing the campaign from Rapid City, South Dakota. “I
think
you had better push on rapidly with your prisoners to Ft. Meade, and be careful they do not escape, and look out for other Indians.” Sumner glumly replied: “Did not succeed in getting Indians to come to my camp on account of want of shelter for women and children. Did not feel authorized to compel them by force to leave their reservation.” He added that if Big Foot failed to come to his camp the following day as promised, he would seize him.

He waited anxiously the next morning for Big Foot to appear, and finally sent two scouts to his village to report. By noon neither Big Foot nor the scouts had come, and Sumner was in a quandary. There was still a possibility that hostiles were approaching from the north. And if he arrested Big Foot, as he supposedly had already done, in the ensuing fight most of the Miniconjus might scatter, join the hostiles, and launch an indiscriminate war on whites. His only hope was to persuade Big Foot to take his people to the agency. “All thought of these Indians going south had been abandoned by me,” he admitted later, “and I supposed they would either go peaceably to the agency or fight.”

While Sumner pondered what
to
do, a red-bearded rancher named John Dunne, who lived a few miles away in the ceded lands, came to camp with butter and eggs to sell. Redbeard, as the Indians called him, was fluent in Lakota and well acquainted with Big Foot. He reluctantly agreed to visit the Miniconju village along with interpreter Felix Benoit, and to convey Sumner's order to Big Foot to take his band to the agency. He was also to tell
him that Sumner would be following to make sure his order was obeyed. Sumner and his cavalry followed at a distance and halted five miles from Big Foot's cabins to bivouac.

At the village, Benoit stopped to question Sumner's scouts about why Big Foot had failed to come, while Dunne went on alone to Big Foot's cabin. The Hunkpapas had left during the night, the scouts told him. Big Foot was sick and also embarrassed to face Sumner.

Dunne delivered Sumner's orders to Big Foot. According to what the Miniconjus said later, he also told him he'd overheard the officers at Camp Cheyenne say they were going to send 1000 soldiers into Big Foot's village at night. They would seize
all
of them and then send the men far away to the east where they'd be held on an island. The only way to prevent a fight was to flee immediately to Pine Ridge. Big Foot protested, but Dunne insisted. He was telling them this because he was their friend, he said but they must not tell Sumner he had warned them, for he would
be
angry.

Benoit found a noisy crowd of warriors in front of Big Foot's cabin. The chief quieted them. “I'm ordered to go down to Fort Bennett tomorrow morning,” he told them. “We must all go to Bennett; if we don't Redbeard says the soldiers will come tomorrow and make us go or shoot us if they have to.” He turned to Benoit. “Does Redbeard tell the truth?” he asked.

“Yes.”

As soon as the scouts, Dunne, and Benoit departed, leaving a scout to watch the village, Big Foot and his headmen held a hasty council. “We must go to the agency,” some said.

“No! Go to Pine Ridge!” others shouted. Big Foot hesitated. The fact that Sumner was coming from one direction and Merriam from another made Dunne's warning credible. Finally they agreed to move up Deep Creek into the hills and wait to see if soldiers came.
If
none appeared in three days they could return home.
If
troops did come after them, they could scatter and flee to the south.

The scout Benoit had left watching the village reported that the Miniconjus were excited and preparing to start for the agency at once. Sumner sent another scout to order Big Foot to remain until morning. He soon returned with the news that the Miniconjus were
already on their way south. Sumner sent two scouts to follow them, while he hoped desperately they were headed for the agency. In the meantime, Big Foot's scouts had discovered that Sumner was camped only five miles from the village. They held another hasty council, for they were now convinced that Redbeard spoke with only one tongue. Over Big Foot's objections, the headmen insisted they go to Pine Ridge. He had no choice but to accompany them, although he was almost too sick to travel.

Scout His-Horse-Looking caught up with Big Foot's people traveling south along the Deep Creek Road about midnight. Warriors immediately surrounded him. “Kill him! He works for the soldiers!” they shouted. Big Foot silenced them, then spoke to the scout. “Tell my friend Sumner I'm sorry about what I've done,” he apologized. “I wanted to go to Bennett, but my headmen made me go to Pine Ridge.” They traveled on, moving as rapidly as possible in the blowing snow of the dark, frigid night. By early morning they had covered thirty miles, and stopped in the shelter of cliffs near the forks of the Bad River, where they rested until dawn.

In the morning of the 24th, His-Horse-Looking rode into Camp Cheyenne with the unwelcome news. Sumner glumly inspected the deserted village. He hadn't heard further reports of hostile Indians in the north, but he couldn't help worrying about them, since
everything else was going wrong for him. Still unsure what he should do, and seeing his military career hanging in the balance, he took his troops back to Camp Cheyenne. A rider soon arrived with a message Miles had sent the previous day.

“Report about hostile Indians on Little Missouri not believed,” it said. “The attitude of Big Foot has been defiant and hostile, and you are authorized to arrest him or any of his people and take them to Meade or Bennett. There are some 30 young warriors that ran away from Hump's camp without authority, and if an opportunity is given they will undoubtedly join those in the Bad Lands. The Standing Rock Indians also have no right to be there and they should be arrested. The division commander directs, therefore, that you secure Big Foot and the Cheyenne River Indians, and the Standing Rock Indians, and if necessary round up the whole camp and disarm them, and take them to Fort Meade or Bennett.”

When he learned that Big Foot had escaped and fled south Miles was outraged at him and at Col. Sumner, and bombarded his field commanders with orders. Unaware of the circumstances surrounding Big Foot's hasty flight, Miles wanted to subject Sumner to a court of inquiry. Sumner was spared that ordeal because he hadn't actually received a direct order to arrest Big Foot until December 24, by which time he was already on his way to Pine Ridge.

Fear of what might happen if Big Foot and his renegades joined the diehard Ghost Dancers in the Stronghold just as efforts were being made to persuade them to surrender generated an all-out campaign to track them down. Col. Eugene Carr of the Sixth Cavalry, a bearded veteran Indian fighter whose base camp was at the mouth of Rapid Creek, appeared to be in the best position to intercept the fugitives. On the morning of the 24th a message from Sumner informed him that Big Foot's band was moving south, and that by a forced march to the east he could cut off their escape. With four troops of cavalry and two Hotchkiss guns, Carr headed east at a trot, dividing his force to cover more territory. By late afternoon they were on the northern rim of the Badlands, where they spent a miserable Christmas Eve in weather so cold the pools of alkaline water froze solid. A wide reconnaissance on Christmas Day convinced Carr that his prey had already passed to the east of his troops; he called in his patrols and returned to his base camp.

Early on the 24th Big Foot's weary people resumed their flight. The sky was clear, but an icy gale blew clouds of choking alkali dust in their faces making travel almost impossible. Even though Big Foot was too weak to ride and had to
be
carried in a wagon, he kept his people moving. Late in the afternoon they made the difficult descent of the rocky slope from the Badlands to the White River and camped on the south bank. They were only a few miles from one of Carr's patrols before it was ordered back to camp. By now Big Foot was suffering from pneumonia, and they traveled only four miles on the 25th, while Carr scoured the country to the north. Big Foot sent three young men to Pine Ridge to inform the chiefs that he was seriously
ill
and came in peace.

Major Guy Henry
and
a force of Ninth Cavalry from Pine Ridge
now
guarded
the eastern
trail
to
the Stronghold, where 500 friendly Oglalas
had
spent a week pressuring Short Dull's followers
to
accompany them
to
the agency. In
the
evening of
the
27th, Henry's scouts reported that the Ghost Dancers
had
loaded their wagons and started across the plateau, apparently on their way
to
Pine Ridge.

On
learning that Big Foot was south of the White River and heading for the agency, Brooke dispatched four
troops
of the Seventh Cavalry under Apache fighter Major Samuel Whitside
to
intercept him. “I do not think there will be any mistake made with Big Foot if we get
him,”
he grimly wired Miles of the 25th. “My orders
to
Whitside are to dismount
him
and destroy his arms and hold
him.”