Struck By Crow (Oyuhpe)

[ephriam]

Interview with Edmond S. Meany:

Wounded Knee
Manderson, S.D. 19 July 1907
Joseph Pourier, Interpreter

Struck-by-Crow Indian
Kan-xi-apapi
60 years .
Ogalala.

13 years old when he went to battle and Black Shield was the leader. It was the same battle as Fast Thunder was in at 19 years of age.

He was in ten battles principally against the Crows.

He counted coup twice: First -- Beyond the Missouri River there was a village of Flatheads which was approached by his party. The Flatheads charged but after a while retreated and they were chasing them. One of them stood his ground. The party rushed on. Three counted coup and then Struck-by-Crow also struck him and counted coup the fourth. Twenty Flatheads and two Sioux were killed in this fight. Second -- In the same battle another Flathead was surrounded. He had a gun but was shot down. He and a companion charged on him as he was getting up and both struck the enemy at the same time.

He was in four battles against white people: First in Phil Kearney fight; then across the Missouri one party on each side; than a military party with Crow and Shoshone scouts at Rosebud River against the Sioux; four days later he was in the Custer Battle.

He considers Crazy Horse the greatest leader of his people and Custer was the greatest leader of the white.

He fasted four times. The successful time he went on a hill in the Big Horn mountains near the Crow Reservation. In the morning about 9 he took 5 tanned buffalo hides to offer to the Great Spirit. He stood up all day and quite a while after the sun went down he lay down. When about half asleep he was near the fork of a river, near which was a ridge, and he saw a man driving a band of horses among which were a number of white horses.

Before he lay down a crow flew around his staff containing his offering crying: "Caw, caw caw."

He lay there all night and the next day at sundown he returned to the village and went into the sweathouse.

A little while after they went on a raid and got some horses among which were some grays. And thus his vision came true.

He got war medicine from Chasing Deer a medicine man who died of old age many years ago. It was rood medicine he got.



Portrait of Struck By Crow, by Edward Curtis.

[carlo]

In Curtis sketch, he says Struck By Crow was eleven years old when he went with Black Shield's war party, lining up perfectly with Fast Thunder's account. However, the Meany interview states he was 13, which would place the fight in 1860 in stead of 1858...

Ephriam, can you please double check for me if the Meany interview really says 13? Thanks!

[ephriam]

Carlo:

I checked. The original handwritten notes clearly says "13", not 11.

ephriam

[carlo]

Thanks for checking, Ephriam.

Quite frustrating though, that there apparently is a gap of 2 years!

[kingsleybray]

There is a list in National Archives Kansas City, in the PINE RIDGE AGENCY SPECIAL CENSUSES AND LISTS file. It is entitled "Ogallala Sioux and Cheyenne Consolidations'. It is undated, but internal evidence suggests it belongs to the mid-to-late 1880s. It lists all families by name of head of family, grouped in numbered clusters (no's 1-116), and each totalling 30 or 31 persons. In other words it's some kind of beef issue record, since a steer or equivalent in weight was given on beef issue day to units of thirty people.

One is headed by Struck by Crow, and reads as follows:

Struck by Crow, 6 [persons]
Drags Rope, 3
Looking Cloud, 2
Cherry Stone, 5
Standing Bear, 6
Bird, 4
White Feather Head, 5
[Total] 31

Again, significant crossover with individuals named in the 1890 census for the Oyuhpe band, Wounded Knee Dist.

[carlo]

Any chance we can figure out Struck By Crow's birth year from other sources (ie. not Meany or Curtis)?

[kingsleybray]

the Pine Ridge 1890 census, conducted in June, gives his age as 43, indicating his birth date was in 1847, or later 1846.

[kingsleybray]

It looks as if the Black Shield war party he and Fast Thunder refer to must be the summer 1859 revenge raid for the killing of Black Shield's son Big Crow.

[carlo]

I'm not so sure Kingsley. That was my first inclination as well, but since the known details of Black Shield's war party after his sons' deaths are very different than the ones in Fast Thunder's description of the expedition, I feel this would be another war party. On Black Shield's revenge in '58, they killed ten or eleven Crows, whereas fast Thunder explicitly recalled no Crows were killed (or even engaged), only two Nez Perces they came across on their return home.

My reading is that 1858 (per Fast Thunder) is incorrect, given that Black Shield was still at peace with the Crows (albeit unilaterally) and it seems that the Oyuhpe Oglalas were not camped with the Miniconjous that spring. Also, 1859 is unlikely given Black Shields aforementioned expedition. To me 1860 is most likely.

[kingsleybray]

carlo, sorry to miss this - rethinking, I agree that the two raids are different. The first was in 1858, no Crows engaged, two straggling Nez Perces killed; the second was 1859, ten or eleven Crows killed. Interesting that both parties were led by Black Shield, the chief of the Miniconjou Eat No Dogs band.

[dT]

ephriam - THANK YOU very much for posting. I am personally not worried at all about small differences in the history of these stories. It is the life story itself that is inspiring - the things that he did ... and really how young he was when he first went with the war parties. His judgment about Crazy Horse and Custer is correct ... I think Crazy Horse was the most impressive of those two people.

But I do have one question about these words ...
"He got war medicine from Chasing Deer a medicine man who died of old age many years ago. It was rood medicine he got."

I think that is supposed to say ... "He got war medicine from Chasing Deer a medicine man who died of old age many years ago. It was root medicine he got"

but what exactly is this talking about? the root was used as a blessing or a charm, or instead the root was eaten or chewed to improve bravery or endurance during war?? does anyone know about this custom?

thanks,
Pete (dT)