|
American Horse served as a principal military leader at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Following their decisive victory over George A Custer and his 7th Cavalry in June 1876, the Lakota war parties split up, each doing what they thought best for their own safety.
Crazy Horse's band headed for the Little Bighorn Mountains, while Chief Sitting Bull and his people headed for Canada. A third group of 40 lodges (Indian family groups) commanded by American Horse, decided to go to an agency (reservation) assigned by the United States. As they traveled to the agency, American Horse's band crossed paths with troops commanded by General George Crook and Captain Anson Mills, at Slim Buttes.
Without warning, Crook ordered his men to attack the Lakota despite the fact the natives were proceeding peacefully across land guaranteed to them by treaty. A few escaped to join Sitting Bull's camp, but many in American Horse's band died. Near the end of the fight, American Horse, four warriors, and 15 women backed into a cave, but five remaining warriors refused to surrender.
During the shooting, American Horse was mortally wounded by a shot through his abdomen. He writhed in excruciating pain as army surgeons struggled to save his life, but the wounded man refused their help.
Chiefs Sitting Bull and Gall mustered a rescue party to secure American Horse’s release, but did not reach him before he died at the age of 76. Following his death, cavalry soldiers scalped him.
Following the massacre, Sitting Bull visited the site and was sickened by the sight of the bodies of slaughtered women and children. American Horse died as he had lived, free and fighting to secure his homeland from invaders. That and other defeats led to a Lakota surrender in 1877. |
(Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith)
Native American Sioux Chief. He was born Washicun-Tashanka, son of Old Smoke, Oglala Sioux chief. American Horse opposed the white settlement of Sioux land his entire life. With his cousin Chief Red Cloud, he fought in many of the battles to keep settlers off of the Bozeman Trail.
After the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 was broken, he traveled with Red Cloud to Washington to meet with government officials but talks broke off when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874.
In 1876, American Horse sought to make the US Government live up to its treaty and took up arms when miners began to overrun Sioux land. Together with Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, he was one of the principal war chiefs during the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
After the battle rather then follow other tribes into the Black Hills, American Horse made the decision to take his lodges to a US treaty agency in Dakota Territory. As they traveled, he crossed path with troops commanded by General George Crook. On September 9, 1876, at Slim Buttes, near the present town of Reva, South Dakota, 3rd Cavalry Captain Anson Mills and 150 troopers surrounded American Horse's village and attacked.
Taken by surprise, the camp was destroyed and American Horse killed. He died as he had lived attempting to secure his homeland from invaders. American Horse was buried according to Indian custom, placed on a scaffolding poles along with other tribe members near the battle site.
In 1888, the US Army collected the scattered Indian remains and exhumed the buried soldiers. A memorial monument was erected at the Slim Buttes Battlefield. |
