Post by ephriam on Jul 13, 2008 8:56:32 GMT -5
Tatanka:
I am not certain that it is accurate to say that Lame Deer "joined" Crazy Horse. Throughout the Sioux War period, various bands linked up together for a time, but soon scattered again to hunt, as traditionally done. During the winter of 1876-77, Lame Deer and other Minneconjou did combine villages with Crazy Horse for brief periods, but always maintained their own autonomy.
By early spring 1877, Lame Deer, Black Moon, and other Minneconjou non-agency bands had seperated from the Oglala. Their camp circle included several agency bands, including that of Touch the Clouds, who had slipped away from the Cheyenne River Agency the previous fall just prior to the Army taking their horses. The Brule chief Spotted Tail visited this large village in an attempt to persuade them to come to his agency to surrender. The majority of this village decided to go in; Lame Deer however chose to remain out.
The size of Lame Deer's village at the time of Miles' attack is estimated at various numbers. Lame Deer's son, George Flying By (c1851-1930), later told Walter Camp that their village included Lame Deer and twenty lodges. White Bull reported 38 lodges; Miles reported 61 lodges.
In terms of the Cheyenne with Lame Deer, Jerome Greene (in his book Yellowstone Command which gives an excellent account of the Battle at Muddy Creek) mentions that Lame Deer had been joined by 15 lodges "of dissident Cheyennes under a minor chief named White Hawk" (p. 201). George Flying By did not describe a band of Cheyenne with his father; rather he told Camp that "There was one Cheyenne tepee belonging to White Hawk." Jerome Greene adds (on p. 206): "Unknown to Miles, about a mile above the Sioux encampment stood one of Cheyennes, containing fifteen tipis. These Indians quickly departed the area when the shooting erupted and apparently played no role in the fighting."
There is also some debate on who actually scalped Lame Deer. Private Anthony Gavin told Walter Camp that it was scout Robert Jackson -- not White Bull -- who scalped the Minneconjou chief. When Flying By and family returned to the battlefield to recover the body of Lame Deer, they found that he had actually been decapitated and his head was never found.
Lame Deer's band, under the leadership of his son Fool Heart, surrendered at the Spotted Tail Agency in September 1877, then fled to Canada that winter. They surrendered in 1880 and were transferred to the Standing Rock Agency in 1881. When counted in the Sitting Bull Surrender Census, they numbered 26 families or 112 people. In the spring of 1882, most of the Minneconjou and Sans Arc were transferred back to Cheyenne River Agency, however, half of Fool Heart's band remained at Standing Rock under George Flying By. According to Hardorff (I have not been able to verify it yet), Fool Heart died in 1882, which might account for why the band split, with half going to Cheyenne River and half remaining at Standing Rock. During the Ghost Dance troubles of 1890-91, some of Flying By's band left Standing Rock to join relatives at Cheyenne River (including Lame Deer's daughter, the wife of First Eagle.)
Hope this helps.
ephriam
I am not certain that it is accurate to say that Lame Deer "joined" Crazy Horse. Throughout the Sioux War period, various bands linked up together for a time, but soon scattered again to hunt, as traditionally done. During the winter of 1876-77, Lame Deer and other Minneconjou did combine villages with Crazy Horse for brief periods, but always maintained their own autonomy.
By early spring 1877, Lame Deer, Black Moon, and other Minneconjou non-agency bands had seperated from the Oglala. Their camp circle included several agency bands, including that of Touch the Clouds, who had slipped away from the Cheyenne River Agency the previous fall just prior to the Army taking their horses. The Brule chief Spotted Tail visited this large village in an attempt to persuade them to come to his agency to surrender. The majority of this village decided to go in; Lame Deer however chose to remain out.
The size of Lame Deer's village at the time of Miles' attack is estimated at various numbers. Lame Deer's son, George Flying By (c1851-1930), later told Walter Camp that their village included Lame Deer and twenty lodges. White Bull reported 38 lodges; Miles reported 61 lodges.
In terms of the Cheyenne with Lame Deer, Jerome Greene (in his book Yellowstone Command which gives an excellent account of the Battle at Muddy Creek) mentions that Lame Deer had been joined by 15 lodges "of dissident Cheyennes under a minor chief named White Hawk" (p. 201). George Flying By did not describe a band of Cheyenne with his father; rather he told Camp that "There was one Cheyenne tepee belonging to White Hawk." Jerome Greene adds (on p. 206): "Unknown to Miles, about a mile above the Sioux encampment stood one of Cheyennes, containing fifteen tipis. These Indians quickly departed the area when the shooting erupted and apparently played no role in the fighting."
There is also some debate on who actually scalped Lame Deer. Private Anthony Gavin told Walter Camp that it was scout Robert Jackson -- not White Bull -- who scalped the Minneconjou chief. When Flying By and family returned to the battlefield to recover the body of Lame Deer, they found that he had actually been decapitated and his head was never found.
Lame Deer's band, under the leadership of his son Fool Heart, surrendered at the Spotted Tail Agency in September 1877, then fled to Canada that winter. They surrendered in 1880 and were transferred to the Standing Rock Agency in 1881. When counted in the Sitting Bull Surrender Census, they numbered 26 families or 112 people. In the spring of 1882, most of the Minneconjou and Sans Arc were transferred back to Cheyenne River Agency, however, half of Fool Heart's band remained at Standing Rock under George Flying By. According to Hardorff (I have not been able to verify it yet), Fool Heart died in 1882, which might account for why the band split, with half going to Cheyenne River and half remaining at Standing Rock. During the Ghost Dance troubles of 1890-91, some of Flying By's band left Standing Rock to join relatives at Cheyenne River (including Lame Deer's daughter, the wife of First Eagle.)
Hope this helps.
ephriam