Black Coyote

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Black Coyote was a Lakota-Sioux who refused to give up his weapon at the battle of Wounded Knee and unintentionally triggered the terrible massacre.

In an account from an Indian, Turning Hawk, who was present at the massacre and was sympathetic to the U.S. Government, claimed that Black Coyote was "a crazy man, a young man of very bad influence, and in fact a nobody." (New York Times, 12 February 1891 "Indians Tell Their Story")

Another account from 1LT James D. Mann detailed the massacre, and the following unattributed supplement was added to the journal after his death (Mann died two weeks following the Wounded Knee Massacre of wounds he obtained at the Drexel Mission skirmish):

"... Mann failed to mention ...Black Coyote, a youth who was later recalled by his own people as a troublemaker. He stood waving his rifle, declaring that he had given money for it and no one was going to take it unless he was paid...."

The "Into the West" miniseries suggests that Black Coyote was deaf. This attribution has no basis in the uncovered facts about the massacre. However, the claim was supported in the Native American history "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown, who appears to be quoting an eyewitness account by survivor Dewey Beard.