heard a cry from the hilltop; an Indian
was on the hill crying as hard as he could, telling us to make the charge
at once. Then one of their number was killed outright. The occasion of
the shots was that four or five of our Sioux had gone around us and had
gone into the soldiers' camp and stolen some horses, and the soldiers were
firing at the horse-thieves; four of them escaped, one being killed. This
was the screaming we heard. We no sooner heard it than we made a dash. I
cannot tell you the number of our Indians. There were the different bands
of the Sioux, and the entire tribe of the Cheyennes. The charge we made
was enough to scare anybody. As we got on top of the hill the soldiers,
who were already after the horse-thieves, knowing that we outnumbered
them, all fled back. The cavalry supported by a file of infantry stopped,
and we also stopped and had a great battle there. We simply circled them,
and did not give them a chance to charge, as we greatly outnumbered them.
We killed a great many soldiers, shot down a good many of their horses,
for there were lots of them lying on the ground, wounded and dead. This
battle the Indians called the Battle of the Wolf Mountains, known to the
soldiers and the Crows by this name, and to the Sioux as the Battle of the
Head of the Rosebud. The general sentiment was that we were victorious in
that battle, for the soldiers did not come upon us, but retreated back
into Wyoming. We understood that General Crook was in command of the
United States troops, led by Crow scouts. They called General Crook,
'Three Stars.' When our Indians made the charge upon the United States
troops we found the Crow scouts standing between us and the troops. If it
had not been for the Crow scouts we would have charged right through to
the soldiers. The Crow scouts were in between us, and received the fire
from both sides. After the battle ended and the soldiers returned, we got
home to our camp without any fear. We spent the whole of the next day in
camp at the Little Rosebud, and the day after we came over on to the
plains by the Custer Battlefield."

[Scouts passing under cover of the Night]

Scouts passing under cover of the Night

The most graphic Indian story of the Custer fight is told by
Runs-the-Enemy in the chapter on "The Indians' Story of the Custer Fight."
Chief Runs-the-Enemy continued:

"A great event in changing my life was marked wh