Yes, Grouard was undoubtedly a dazzling personality.
That's what i have on him
Frank Grouard (20 September 1850 – 15 August 1905) was a Scout and interpreter for General George Crook during the Indian Wars of 1876.
Between 1891 and 1893, Grouard dictated his life to journalist Joseph DeBarthe. He told DeBarthe that he was born in the Society Islands in the South Pacific, the second of three sons born to Benjamin F. Grouard and a Polynesian woman. That he was raided by the Crows, saved by Hunkpapas and that Sitting Bull adopted him as brother [! SB was dead then an could not confirm his words!].
Grouard’s father Benjamin Franklin Grouard (1819–1894) was one of the earliest Latter Day Saint Missionaries to what is now French Polynesia. In 1846, Grouard landed on the Tuamotu Islands. When the other missionaries left, Grouard stayed and married a native woman, Nahina.
In 1852, Grouard and his family returned to California USA, where his parents divorced about 1855. About that year, Frank Jun. was adopted into the family of Addison and Louisa Barnes Pratt, fellow Mormon missionaries of his father. In her diary Louisa referred to the child as her “little island boy”, but he never really fit into the family. Finally, Grouard moved with the Pratt family to Utah, where he ran away at age 15. He worked as an express rider and stage driver.
Although his family background was in dispute, according to “Witness” by Waggoner / Levine and Robert M. Utley (with regard to the Addison and Louisa Pratt Papers) “… Grouard’s parentage and early life are no longer mysterious”.
However, Utley and Levine rate DeBarthe’s “Frank Grouard” as “… informative yet often fanciful …”.
About 1869 Grouard was captured by Crow Indians in Montana, who took all his possessions and abandoned him in a forest. Later Hunkpapa Indians picked him up. Because his Polynesian features resembled those of the Sioux, he was adopted into the tribe. Grouard related to DeBarthe that Little Assiniboine and White Eagle (Gray Eagle?) guarded him closely for 16 months, before he was released from this custody. He definitely knew SB, e.g. he reported SB’s well-defined limp. Grouard claims that SB adopted him as brother. But he was the only one who mentioned this adoption. Grouard’s book was published in 1894, years after SBs death and the WK massacre. Grouard could claim whatever he wanted. There was no one who would contradict.
Grouard married a Sioux woman and learned to speak the Sioux language, taking the Indian name “Yugata” (“Sitting-with-Upraised-Hands” or “Grabber”); some called him “Standing Bear” as he had been captured wearing a bearskin. About six to seven years he lived in the camps of Sitting Bull (from 1869) and Crazy Horse (from 1873? - 1875) until he managed to escape.
Grouard uses the word "escape" for his departure. This contradicts his claim that he has been adopted. Then he would have been free to go when and where he wanted. Adoption by SB is unlikely; this would have required a formal ritual. Of this, nothing is known yet. More likely, he has been accepted as an additional hunter and provider in the camp, especially as he was a good shooter and definitely not white.
Over the years, Grouard gave differing accounts of his reasons for leaving the Lakotas. One was that he had married a Sioux girl and “a misunderstanding with his wife’s relatives made the village too hot for him.
Grouard claims that he spoke Lakota fluently. But this was contested by Louis Bordeaux, the son of James und Marie “Huntkalutawin” Bordeaux. Louis said of Grouard that he “spoke Indian very broken” (Voices of the American West: The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker ..., Band 1, p. 292). Louis said this in connection with Grouard's role as translator for the Agency officials, days before Crazy Horse's escape to the Spotted Tail Agency.
However, starting in 1875/76, Grouard worked as a scout for the US military. A year later, he accompanied Gen. Crook in the Rosebud battlefield and then led the military to the LBH battlefield.
Later Grouard reported that he saw smoke from signal fires indicating that Custer's command was then engaged, outnumbered, and being badly pressed. The officers who used their field glasses took no notice of the smoke and laughed at the idea that a "half-Indian" might have noticed something.
Grouard was married several times. Very likely he had one or two unions with Lakota women. However, we know no names. After fleeing the Lakota camp, he arrived at the Pine Ridge Agency in fall 1875, where he accepted jobs with trader J.W. Dear before working as scout.
There he also met Sally, Billy Garnett’s older half-sister, and married her according to Indian custom.
Then there was an additional marriage to Eulalia “Lalie”, sister to fellow scout and half-breed Baptiste Garnier a.k.a. Little Bat (1854 -1900).
Finally, on April 10, 1895 Grouard married Lizabell "Belle" Ostrander (1862-1912). At least one son, possibly two, seem to have been the result of this union.
(Sources: some books I have to look up
and the Internet):