In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse Read Online Free PDF Page B

battle?”
    â€œWe call it the Battle of the Hundred in the Hands. The whites call it the Fetterman Battle. Some even call it the Fetterman Massacre.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Grandpa Nyles pointed at the monument. “Come on. Let’s look at that plaque.”
    ON THIS FIELD ON THE 21 ST DAY OF
DECEMBER, 1866,
THREE COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND
SEVENTY SIX PRIVATES
OF THE 18 TH U.S. INFANTRY, AND
OF THE 2 ND U.S. CAVALRY, AND
FOUR CIVILIANS,
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAIN BREVET–
LIEUTENANT COLONEL WILLIAM J. FETTERMAN
WERE KILLED BY AN OVERWHELMING FORCE OF SIOUX,
UNDER THE COMMAND OF RED CLOUD.
THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS
.
    â€œThey got it wrong,” Grandpa Nyles said. “There
were
survivors of this battle: hundreds of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. And Red Cloud wasn’t involved in it.”
    â€œBut it says Red Cloud was the leader,” Jimmy said, pointing to the plaque.
    â€œWell, Crazy Horse was the biggest reason the Lakota and Cheyenne won the battle. December twenty-first, 1866, was the start of winter. The temperature that day was thirty degrees below zero.”
    â€œThat’s really cold, Grandpa.”
    â€œYeah. When it’s that cold, it’s hard to take a deep breath. Imagine what it’s like to ride a galloping horse.”

    The way it was—December 1866
    Smoke rose into the frigid air from eighteen conical lodges, thin undulating columns rising upward. Footsteps crunched on the snow. One by one a few young Lakota men wearing elk-hide robes ducked into a lodge
.
    The lodge was on the west side of the village. The village was one of twenty-three along the Tongue River. This particular lodge was the home of a Lakota medicine man named Worm and his two wives, their daughter, and their two sons. One of the sons was Crazy Horse
.
    Worm had been called Crazy Horse. He was given the name by his father, the first Crazy Horse. So when he passed it on to his son Light Hair, he himself took the name Worm
.
    For the entire day and into the evening, dozens of young warriors came to talk with Crazy Horse. The elders, the old men leaders, had chosen him for a special task. This was part of a plan to defeat the Long Knives stationed in Fort Kearny on Buffalo Creek. Every warrior wanted to be chosen to help him with that task. But he would choose only a few
.
    For several years those Long Knives had been living in Lakota territory. That was against Lakota wishes. Furthermore, the Long Knives were there in violation of their own promises. They had built their fort even though they had promised they would not. All in all, the Long Knives were part of a bad problem for the Lakota
.
    That bad problem was because of gold. A long way to the northwest were the goldfields. Hundreds, if not thousands, of whites used the Bozeman Trail to get to the gold. They traveled by foot, on horseback, and in wagons. And the trail ran straight through Lakota territory
.
    Two other forts stood along the Bozeman Trail: Fort Reno, to the south, and Fort C. F. Smith, to the north. That made three in all, built to protect the gold seekers from the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne—to protect the invaders against those whose home it was. That made the Lakota and Cheyenne angry
.
    What was more, the Long Knives were reluctant to leave their forts. When they did, they did not stay out long. That made it difficult for the Lakota and Cheyenne to engagethem in battle. Therefore, they could not fight them and send them away
.
    After many failed attempts to fight the Long Knives, a new plan was made. First, lure them out of the fort. Second, lure them into an ambush. Young Crazy Horse was given the second task. It was a dangerous assignment. If successful, it could mean the defeat of the Long Knives. And, once defeated, they might leave Lakota territory. So every young warrior wanted to be selected to help him
.
    Crazy Horse’s part of the overall plan was simple. There was a ridge several miles from the fort.