Black Elk Speaks

His father tells him to guard the horses and to be prepared to come back quickly to camp. As the day goes on, he gets hot and goes swimming. As he is in the water, with his cousin watering the horses nearby, criers from various camps ride in and warn that chargers (the U.S. Seventh Cavalry on horseback) are advancing. His father orders him to take a gun to his brother, who rode to join the Hunkpapas. They join many of the Hunkpapas who take refuge in the woods, where soldiers shoot at them (Neihardt notes that these soldiers are with Major Marcus Reno's detachment). The cry goes up that Crazy Horse is coming. The scene is one of pandemonium with Indians, whites, and horses grappling with each other and fighting in the water. A Lakota shoots a white man (probably Captain French, Neihardt notes) who was very brave. Black Elk is ordered to scalp a man who is down, and Black Elk shoots him in the forehead. Far off, Indian warriors are in a whirl of dust; Custer has attacked from the north end, Neihardt notes. Black Elk goes home to show his mother his first scalp. Standing Bear adds to the story: Sixteen years old at the time, he was in the Minneconjou camp, the third from the south of the seven Indian camps along the Little Big Horn River. He had eaten and was swimming when his father told him to look after the horses. He saw Reno and his men riding into the Hunkpapa camp just south of the Minneconjous. He, his brother, and his uncle ride out to fight Custer's detachment coming from the north. The battle scene was chaotic. There were so many Indians that Standing Bear says they needed no guns; the horses' hooves would have done enough damage. They were all crazy and regretfully tell of one Indian scalping another dead Indian. The battle continued until sundown when the Indians drove the soldiers into the hills. It resumed the next day when Indians and soldiers shot at each other as the soldiers came out of the hills to get water. The Indians finally rode back to their camps when General Terry's troops came to the aid of the survivors. The troops did not pursue the Indians.