He seems very much attached to one of his daughters, who ran away from him last winter, eloping with a young brave who had become tired of taking his rations of buffalo meat on the open prarie in the deep snow, and wisely concluded to come in and partake of Uncle Sam's hospitality at an agency provided especially for him and his people.
It is said that he mourned very much over the elopement, and at times would writhe in anger, claiming that she and " Pretty Plume," his wife, were the two handsomest squaws among the Sioux; and in fact we may truthfully say that " Pretty Plume " is really a handsome and queenly-looking squaw, and if she were a white woman, and favored with the usual facilities for an education and moral training, eta, etc., she would be a reigning belle in society. The chief claims that white people induced his daughter to elope, and before he had surrendered, some scalawag had led him to believe (at least he so pretended) that our officers at " Fort Yates " had her confined in irons, and in one of his statements regarding his surrender, he said he did not want to come in to surrender, but came to see his girl who was in irons at " Standing Rock Agency," and now wants the government to let him go back; but as we have said before, he makes a great many statements, and as a general thing no two are alike.
All there is about it, nothing but starvation and nakedness among his people ever forced him and his remnant band of followers to come in and surrender. He made up his mind to take the step he did, not because he wanted to, but because he and his people were starved out. There was no game, no, nothing, absolutely nothing, for them to live on.
He had wandered around and over a desolate country,, where thousands of buffalo and antelope once roamed, and now not a track to be seen. Eighteen or twenty years he has waged unceasing warfare against the whites, and it is admitted, not only by his own people, but by our military authorities, and Western men generally, who have had means of knowing the facts, that he is the boldest, most malignant and artful of all the cunning war chiefs, from the Eio Grande to the Northern boundary line. But the chief has surrendered, thus relinquishing all his rights to the sturdy pioneer and ranchmen of the Western plains. In order that you may form an idea of an Indian chant, poetry and the " prayer of a squaw," we furnish the exact words, as translated by an interpreter soon after the final surrender of the chief:
"Be brave, my friends, be brave. The white men have brought us food; They will not hurt us ; Their hearts are full of pity for us, My father and my mother, be not afraid, Your hunger once more is stayed, And there is still food in abundance. My brother and my sister, comb your hair, And paint your faces with vermilion, For the Great Spirit has softened The hearts of our enemies, and they feed us with food.
He has, within the writer's knowledge, given three distinct accounts, and no two of them alike, of Custer's last battle against him in the valley of the Little Big Horn,, and there can be no doubt as to his first report being in the main correct. It was about as follows :
He heard the long-haired chief and his soldiers were coming, and he sent out thirty young men on the day before the battle, and that night twenty of them returned and reported the white soldiers coming, and he then told his braves and all his old and young men to get ready for battle* On the morning of the battle seven more of the young men came in and said the soldiers were closing in upon their village, and not long afterwards the remaining three came in and reported the whole column of cavalry in sight, and he then sent the women and children away, and before they had been gone long the white soldiers made their first charge, and just at this time his wife came running back, saying she was so badly scared that she forgot her baby. He at once brought the little one from his tepee, and giving it to his wife and telling her to run, he then turned toward his braves, who were just resisting a bold and gallant charge made by Custer at the head of his men. He then raised a pole with a flag, and at the top of his voice shouted, " I am Sitting Bull, the big chief and leader of all the Sioux warriors." His men had but little trouble in driving our column back, and every charge that was made by our men after that was met and checked by his braves, and those not killed on the field were driven back into new positions; and when the cavalry was finally reduced in numbers to a handful of men, they all rallied to where Custer stood, and then the fighting was soon over, they all falling nearly at the same time.
He then gave orders to go over to the other band, meaning " Major Reno's command," leaving the squaws on the field, which was near their village.
It is supposed by those who came upon the field first after the battle, that just at this period some one of the chiefs gave orders not to mutilate Custer's body, and also made a mark across his nose and cheeks for a notice to the squaws to that effect, which was obeyed; hence we find Custer's body not mutilated.
The chief further stated in this report that Reno and his whole command would have shared the fate of Custer had it not been for the arrival of "Terry and Gibbon" with reinforcements.
Another report he gives about as follows: saying he sent his wife and child out back to hide and then started to go over where they were fighting, and just then a heavy shock of thunder and many sharp streaks of lightning struck the whole of Custer's command, and that was what killed so many men, and when the thunder was over, his warriors killed all there was left.
Another statement is, that after his braves had killed nearly all of Custer's men, he told them to cease firing, as they had killed men enough, but they still insisted upon wiping out the whole command, and then Custer's men made such fearful charges they had to kill them all in order to save their own lives and their women and children. Now, it is more than probable that his first report is the nearest correct, as it compares very favorably with the two made by " Crow King and Low Dog," at Standing Bock, only a few days after the surrender of the chief. It is doubtful if we ^ver arrive at the actual facts in relation to that battle any nearer than is embraced in those three reports, which includes the first one made by the chief, and those two by Crow King and Low Dog respectively, who were leading war chiefs in the fight.
We have never, up to this time, heard of thunder and lightning making an attack on a battalion of cavalry, nor are we willing to believe that Sitting Bull ordered his warriors to cease firing, at the same time telling them they had killed men enough, and that the soldiers were not to blame, as they were told to do so and were fighting under orders from their government, etc., etc.
Such action on his part is not one of his characteristics, nor is it consistent with his mode of warfare against either white men nor his red brethren, for only a month or six weeks before his surrender he annihilated a small band of .Nez Perces, some seventeen in number. This, however, has recently come to light. In 1877, when the Nez Perces surrendered to General Miles, a small band escaped and fled to Sitting Bull's band across the boundary line, and it appears of late they drifted away from the Sioux warriors. "We are at the present time unable to get the exact facts in regard to the trouble, but, as far as we can learn, a sudden quarrel broke out in the lodges and the Nez Perces were killed to a man.