Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer is a book about the life of a Northern Cheyenne Indian, Wooden Leg, who fought in several historic battles between US forces and the Plains Indians, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The book is of great value to historians, not only for its eye-witness accounts of battles, but also for its detailed description of the way of life of 19th-century Plains Indians.[1]
First published in 1931 under the title A Warrior Who Fought Custer, it was later reprinted with its current title by the University of Nebraska Press.[2] The book was written by Thomas Bailey Marquis, who went on to write several other books on the participants and events of those times. Marquis relates the story as it was told to him by Wooden Leg, merely placing the narrative in historical order. The book could therefore properly be called an autobiography with Marquis the editor and translator. The 2003 edition bills Marquis as interpreter; however, he describes himself as author in the book's original preface.[3]
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Marquis wrote the book in 1930 at the age of 61, but had begun researching it in 1922. In this year Marquis, as an M.D., came into contact with the Northern Cheyenne when appointed agency physician on their reservation in Montana. His initial aim was to collect first-hand accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn since there had been no white survivors and obtaining the Indian accounts was thus all the more important for writing the historical record. However, it took him many years to fully gain the trust of the Indians and he did not complete the task until 1930. In the meantime the project grew from recording the events at the Little Bighorn to the broader conflict and from there slowly metamorphosed into the biography of Wooden Leg, his principal informant.[4]
The issue of trust was difficult to overcome. Wooden Leg himself relates the attitudes of the Cheyenne at a peace feast organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary (1906) of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In the presence of many US soldiers the Cheyennes were questioned about the battle.[5] It is clear they answered with extreme caution and many facts, particularly the deaths of soldiers, were avoided. Despite the long passage of time since the battle, they feared that they were being trapped into incriminating admissions. They also chose not to reveal many soldiers had died through suicide or at the hands of their comrades, an issue the Cheyennes knew to have made soldiers angry in the past. They left most of the talking to one boastful Indian[n 1] who gave a colourful, but entirely inaccurate, account. The others elected not to contradict him since this allowed them to remain silent. Marquis slowly broke down the barriers and eventually persuaded all the Cheyenne survivors, not just Wooden Leg, to open up to him.[4]
Some sixteen hundred Northern Cheyenne were at the battle of the Little Big Horn. For all of the intervening period of more than fifty years between the battle and Marquis' interviews, the Cheyenne had lived in Montana overlooking the sites of the battle. In Marquis' view, this made them the most reliable of witnesses because their continual retelling of the stories was always anchored in the visible reality of the locations before them.[4]
Wooden Leg spoke little English and Marquis spoke no Cheyenne. They communicated mainly through Plains Indian Sign Language and only occasionally used an interpreter. Wooden Leg provided maps and sketches as well as narrative. The book is an amalgam of material from Wooden Leg along with support and corroboration from many contributors. Amongst these contributors were most of the seventeen Northern Cheyenne participants of the Battle of the Little Big Horn still alive at the time of the interviews. From these, Marquis gives specific credits to Limpy, Pine, Bobtail Horse, Sun Bear, Black Horse, Two Feathers, Wolf Chief, Little Sun, Blackbird, Big Beaver, White Moon, White Wolf, Big Crow, Medicine Bull, and the younger Little Wolf. The last is a different person from the more well known Chief Little Wolf who led the escape from Oklahoma.[4]
Wooden Leg was born in 1858 in the Black Hills. His father was previously known as Many Bullet Wounds. Warfare was common and the narrative is soon describing a conflict with the Crow. Wooden Leg took his own name from an admired uncle of the same name who was a tireless walker, an ability which Wooden Leg shared. The meaning is that his legs must be made of wood since they feel no pain no matter what the exertion.[7]
Many other conflicts, both with other Indian tribes, most especially the neighbouring Crows, but also the Shoshone, and US soldiers are documented in which Wooden Leg took part from a very young age. His elder brother was killed in the fight at Fort Phil Kearny during Red Cloud's attempt to clear the Bozeman Trail of US forts.[8]
The hardships of hunting in the snow as a boy with minimal clothing are described as are the unique Indian methods of transport during camp moves. In his young life Wooden Leg travelled all around the Black Hills region, and the Tongue and Powder Rivers.[7]
According to Wooden Leg, at the top of the tribal organisation were four "old men" tribal chiefs, and under these were forty "big chiefs". The Northern Cheyenne, along with other Plains Indian tribes, had a number of warrior societies; each of these was led by a warrior chief helped by nine little warrior chiefs. In Wooden Leg's time, there were three Northern Cheyenne warrior societies; the Elk, the Crazy Dog and the Fox. The tribal chiefs would delegate executive authority to one or the other of the warrior societies. These would put into action war, hunting expeditions, and camp moves as decided by the tribal chiefs. The currently designated warrior society also acted as police.[9]
Wooden Leg joined the Elk society at the age of 14, a big event in the young boy's life. By the rules of Cheyenne society, the currently "on duty" warrior society had sole prerogative in the task at hand. Nobody else was allowed to get in front of their scouts in a camp move, nor to approach the buffalo in a hunt. Of course, teenage boys are wont to push the boundaries and Wooden Leg was no exception. Several episodes are related where he and his friends are reprimanded and narrowly avoid serious punishment.[9]
Sport events and betting were usually between the warrior societies and there were a great many contests of all kinds. If the Cheyenne happened to be travelling with Sioux, then their warrior societies would take part also. Chief Little Wolf, who had been a great distance runner in his youth, was once jokingly challenged by an Ogallala Sioux when he was in his fifties. Little Wolf accepted this challenge and won by intelligent pacing of the distance despite being behind for most of the race.[10]
Many mythological or magical stories are found in the book. This includes a Cheyenne version of the great bear which is supposed to have put the claw marks in the side of Devils Tower, the feature later seen in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[10] Much else of Cheyenne life is documented, a guide to arrow recognition, marriage customs, the entitlement to wear warbonnets amongst many others. Wooden Leg puts all this in perspective by comparison with other Plains tribes. In the process, the reader also learns much about other tribes, especially the Sioux.[9]
The Cheyenne deity is called by Wooden Leg The Great Medicine. A sacred tepee in the camp holds the tribal medicine object, in the case of The Northern Cheyenne, a Buffalo Head. Because of this, buffalo heads often appear in Cheyenne myths and ceremonies.[9] Wooden Leg first "made medicine", an important event for him, at the age of seventeen under the supervision of an experienced old medicine man.[11]
After the Indians were driven out of the Black Hills,[n 2] Wooden Leg's family chose not to live on the reservation, but instead took advantage of the Fort Laramie treaty provision of hunting grounds for the Indians between the Black Hills and the Bighorn River. They decided to live permanently in the hunting grounds, as far as possible staying out of contact with the white man. Other Cheyenne and Sioux also took this attitude, but most spent at least the winter on their reservations. When "reservation" Indians arrived in camp with rare goods such as tobacco and sugar it was a cause for celebration.[12]
In February 1876 they received news that the US intended to make war on all Indians who did not return to their reservations. In the subsequent fighting Wooden Leg took part in nearly every major engagement. The report was initially not believed; they were not fighting the white man and were only acting within the treaty. However, after similar information was brought by respected chiefs, the Cheyenne started keeping good lookouts and it was not long before Wooden Leg and his friends were in a skirmish with a party of soldiers.[12]
Towards the end of winter, the Cheyenne camp on Powder River was attacked and destroyed; however, most of the Indians escaped.[n 3] Because they now had no possessions during winter, the Cheyenne moved to join their allies, the Ogallala Sioux led by Crazy Horse. Together, they moved North-East to join the Uncpapa Sioux led by Sitting Bull at Chalk Butte.[12] At some time the camp was also joined by the Minneconjoux Sioux under Lame Deer. The Indians had to continually move camp to find enough game and grazing for the large numbers of people and horses. Arrows all Gone Sioux[n 4] then joined and then the Blackfeet Sioux. Small groups of other tribes also joined, such as the Waist and Skirt Indians[n 5], the Assiniboines and Burned Thigh Sioux. Even Chief Lame White Man was there with a small group of Southern Cheyenne.[13]
In Wooden Leg's mind, there is no doubt that this gathering of the tribes into one place was intended by the tribal chiefs for defence, not as a preparation for attack on the Whites, despite many of the young men being keen to do just that.[13] On the other hand they were making no attempt to hide. Wooden Leg says "our trail...could have been followed by a blind person" since it was between a quarter and half a mile wide. Wooden Leg, in a group on a scouting mission, spotted soldiers coming from the South[n 6] towards their camp on the Rosebud River. Wooden Leg took part in the ensuing Battle of the Rosebud in which the soldiers were driven off.[14]
The Indians were not expecting further trouble from the soldiers; they were relaxing and recuperating. Wooden Leg was at an organised social dance the night before the Custer fight.[17] On the day of the battle Wooden Leg was sleeping after bathing and was awoken by a commotion to find the camp in a panic because of an attack by soldiers.[n 7] Wooden Leg was torn between the desire to join the battle quickly and the need to first put on his best clothes and paint his face (it was the Indian custom to always look one's best if there was any possibility of ending up in the afterlife) and was only stopped from oiling and braiding his hair as well at the urging of his father to hurry.[18]
The Indians drove back these Reno soldiers and had them pinned down, but they then spotted other soldiers[n 8] making their way along the hills to the side of the Indian camps. Most of the Indians broke off the current fight at this point to engage this new threat from the Custer soldiers. Wooden Leg went back through the camp in the river valley rather than directly towards the soldiers. When there, his father tried to dissuade him from further fighting on the grounds that he had already done enough, but Wooden Leg would not hear of it, even persuading others to rejoin the fight.[18]
After the Custer fight Wooden Leg helped to save Little Wolf from being killed by Sioux who were angry that he had arrived after the fight and accusing him of coming to help the soldiers, though it was the actions of Little Wolf's small band that had provoked Custer into a premature attack. Wooden Leg, who was a good Sioux speaker, presented Little Wolf's case for him as he could not speak Sioux.[18]
Even though Custer's command had been wiped out, the Reno soldiers were still present. Wooden Leg returned to fight them that night,[18] and again the next morning with a handful of comrades. Initially firing from high ground without success, Wooden Leg then descended to the gulch, where he could lie in wait for soldiers coming to fetch water and succeeded in killing a man.[n 9][19]
Wooden Leg describes many objects recovered from dead soldiers which the Indians did not understand, such as a compass and a pocketwatch. Wooden Leg himself threw away paper money, not realising its value; he also gave away coins which he did realise were of value, because he had no wish to trade with white men. When a new column of soldiers was observed approaching,[n 10] the council of Chiefs decided not to fight these soldiers also. At this point the Indians disengaged and the entire camp was packed up and moved.[19]
The tribes travelled together for some weeks, camping at various locations in the Bighorn Valley, Rosebud and Tongue Rivers. After arriving back at the Cheyennes' starting point on Powder River it was decided to split up the tribes. It was becoming too difficult to hunt enough food to feed everyone and the danger seemed to be over.[20]
As winter approached, Wooden Leg joined a small war party on a raid into Crow territory. On the return journey they visited the site of the Little Bighorn battle, mainly looking for rifle cartridges but also whatever else they could scavenge. Wooden Leg remarks that there were a large number of soldier boot bottoms; this was because the tops had previously been taken by Indians, but they had no use for complete boots.[20]
As they came down the Tongue River valley, the group was surprised by the sight of the entire Northern Cheyenne tribe on the move. They had been attacked at the Powder River camp by soldiers and Pawnee Indians, the camp had been destroyed and they had lost all their possessions. The tribe was searching for the Ogallala Sioux under Crazy Horse, who they eventually found at Beaver Creek. The Ogallala welcomed them and together they journeyed to Tongue River. At Hanging Woman Creek, at the beginning of 1877, they had decided to separate as the Cheyenne had now replenished sufficiently, but while they were in the process of doing so, they were attacked by soldiers.[n 11] Wooden Leg's sister was captured in this engagement. Wooden Leg rode to attempt a rescue but was driven back by fire from the soldiers. Most of the Indians escaped down Tongue River; the soldiers did not follow and the Cheyenne hunted peacefully for several months.[20]
As spring approached, the Cheyenne received envoys from Bear Coat[n 12] inviting them to surrender. They received encouraging reports from released prisoners that they were being treated well. The chiefs decide to move the tribe nearer to Fort Keogh at the mouth of Tongue River without yet committing to a surrender. At Powder River they stopped and waited for the result of negotiations with a delegation of chiefs sent to the fort. While negotiations were proceeding, Wooden Leg heard of the suicide of his sister, Crooked Nose, who was still a prisoner in the fort.[21]
After some time in discussion, the tribal chiefs decided they would go to their agency and surrender there instead, which was the same agency as their friends the Ogallalas. Most of the tribe followed the chiefs, but everyone was left free to make their own decision. A few chose not to surrender at either place, and Wooden Leg and his brother, Yellow Hair, joined one such group led by the Fox warrior society chief Last Bull even though the rest of his family had gone to surrender at the agency. The small band, however, were not hunting sufficient food and slowly became weaker. Eventually, they too travelled to the agency to surrender.[n 13] At first, they were satisfied with their situation, but then came the shocking news that they were to be moved south to Oklahoma. Wooden Leg, along with many others, was extremely angry about this. They had all expected to be able to continue to live on their homeland. However, there was nothing that could be done since they had all given up their guns and horses on entering the agency.[21]
The journey to Oklahoma began in May 1877 and took 70 days.[22] A few Indians fled the agency when the news was announced, amongst them Wooden Leg's brother Yellow Hair. While in Oklahoma he received news that Yellow Hair had been killed by white men while out hunting. Wooden Leg hunted on the reservation, but there was no large game to be had and the Indians were not allowed to go off. Nor were they being fed as promised and there was much sickness. Little Wolf campaigned for action. Finally, he and Dull Knife led a great part of the tribe off the reservation and fought their way back North.[23]
Wooden Leg and his father stayed on the reservation hoping that food would eventually be provided. Wooden Leg had much contact with the Southern Cheyenne during this time. He learnt from them who Custer was (the Southern Cheyenne were familiar with him since he had previously fought a campaign against them) and of their attempt to come north to join them in the summer fighting of 1876. Finally, Wooden Leg took a wife from amongst the Southern Cheyennes.[23]
After six years in the South, the Northern Cheyenne were given permission to leave, either to join Little Wolf or to go to the Pine Ridge agency (formerly White River agency). Wooden Leg's father had died in the South but he and the rest of his family went first to Pine Ridge and later to the Tongue River country where the main part of the tribe were living.[23]
There were many changes in the North. Cheyennes were now acting as scouts for the US Army in the same way as previously had been done by the hated Pawnees, Crows and Shoshones. Little Wolf had had his chiefship revoked after a drunken killing. In 1889, at the age of 31, Wooden Leg himself joined the army scouts at Fort Keogh. There was not much to do; he spent most of his time learning to drink whisky. The following year the Cheyenne scouts were involved in a campaign against rebellious Sioux. Wooden Leg was present at Wounded Knee. The Cheyenne scouts had prepared themselves to fight (on the US side) but were not called upon to do so.[24]
Wooden Leg befriended the exiled Little Wolf towards the end of that great chief's life. Wooden Leg says that no-one had bad hearts against Little Wolf; even the dead man's brother, Bald Eagle, said "Little Wolf did not kill my brother, it was the white man whisky that did it". Little Wolf was interred standing upright in a pile of stones overlooking the Rosebud valley.[24]
Wooden Leg attended a "peace feast" at the Little Bighorn to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the battle. Some Cheyenne veterans would not go, fearful of retribution from the soldiers present. As late as 1926 there were still Cheyennes who would not go to the 50th anniversary.[25] Wooden Leg himself did not attend the 50th anniversary, not out of fear, but because the site was now on Crow land, to whom he still felt much animosity. He resolved "never again to go to any place where I might be called upon to shake hands with a Crow". This was very different to his attitude to other former enemies, the Shoshones for instance, to whom he travelled on a friendly visit. In 1913 Wooden Leg was part of a Cheyenne delegation to Washington. He also visited New York and Philadelphia during this trip.[26]
Around 1908 he was baptised a Christian. However, he still privately prayed to the Great Medicine, feeling more comfortable praying this way. From 1927, the Cheyenne were again allowed to hold their annual Great Medicine dance. Other customs were still forbidden: practising Indian medicine could end in jail. Wooden Leg was appointed a judge on the agency by Washington. In this capacity he was obliged to enforce a ruling against multiple wives. He found this difficult, not least because he had two wives himself and felt obliged to set an example by being the first to send away a wife. After ten years, clearly struggling with his conscience, Wooden Leg resigned the post, but was later persuaded to take it on again by a new Indian agent.[26]
Wooden Leg had two daughters and had hopes that they would have a more comfortable life than his own. The younger, however, died unexpectedly of an illness. Later the other also died. Wooden Leg then adopted his grand nephew, Joseph White Wolf, and brought him up as his own. The story ends with Wooden Leg an old man becoming increasingly unable to farm his land, but still well off in relation to most Cheyennes as he had a pension from his scouting days and his pay as a judge.[26] He appreciates the comfortable life he now has but thinks much about the old days when "every man had to be brave".[27]
Wooden Leg is an important original source of information on the Cheyenne and Plains Indians in general and on the Custer fight in particular. Many hundreds of books have been written about the Great Sioux War, its battles, and its characters. A large number of these books have looked to Marquis to provide source material. This is especially true of the Custer fight, where there is a shortage of eyewitness accounts from the United States side. There are also books on social issues and archeology which find usable material in Wooden Leg when their book is discussing Plains Indians. A small selection of the hundreds of books that use Wooden Leg as a reference are listed at the end of this article.
Wooden Leg is also regularly cited in papers in academic journals. Those addressing social and educational issues are found just as often as those in historical journals. Again, a selection of such papers is given at the foot of this article.
As well as source information for Cheyenne military and social history, the book is also a rich source of anecdotes. There is the incident where Wooden Leg and Little Bird are chasing a fleeing Reno soldier. Neither Indian was willing to shoot a fleeing man as it "seemed not brave" to do so. This did not prevent the soldier from shooting Little Bird, after which Wooden Leg clubbed the soldier off his horse;[28] there are the screams of his mother when presented with a scalp as a present;[29] Wooden Leg sitting in the lodge with his friend, Noisy Walking, dying of his battle wounds, wanting to support his friend but not knowing what to say;[30] and many more equally memorable.
The review in the New York Times after the book's first publication finds Marquis' writing praiseworthy. The reviewer notes that the details of the Cheyenne lifestyle are "deeply interesting". However, most of the review is taken up with challenges to the factual accuracy of the Indian account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.[31]
Despite the only surviving eyewitnesses to these events being from the Indian side, and the passage of time since the battle, it is clear that many of the details given by the Indian participants were still controversial and not believed (Custer's widow Libbie, who had dedicated her life to enshrining the memory of her husband as a hero and who attacked anyone offering a different point of view, was still alive). Special exception is taken to the claim that many of Custer's men committed suicide when defeat seemed inevitable. The claim that Tom Custer's body was decapitated by the Indians is also disputed for reasons that are not clear. It should be noted that the identification of the headless body as Tom Custer is not from Wooden Leg himself, who at the time of the battle knew nothing of either George Armstrong Custer or his brother Tom, but rather, it is a footnote from Marquis. Wooden Leg had merely described the markings he saw on the body.[32] Tom Custer's biography,[33] on the other hand, describes the decapitation as a fact without dispute, saying that the body was identified from tattoos.[31]
Dr. Richard Littlebear, a Northern Cheyenne himself, provides an introduction to the 2003 edition of the book. He is president of Chief Dull Knife College and an educator writing on Indian culture and language.[34] He describes how he read an earlier edition of the book while an undergraduate and was inspired in his career by it.[35]
Littlebear is most struck by the rapid transition of a free and independent people to a society restricted to reservations and dependent on the federal government. He expresses bitterness against the US government and shows some expression of shame at the part played by Cheyenne scouts after their surrender, for instance their role in locating the position of Chief Joseph during his epic, but ultimately futile, attempt to escape from US government control. He identifies this sense of shame in the words of Wooden Leg himself when Wooden Leg is writing about the later part of his life.[36]
Littlebear believes that the book can help explain how modern attitudes amongst the Northern Cheyenne to other tribes originated in their history. For instance the Crow are traditionally enemies of the Cheyenne and the Sioux are traditional allies. Littlebear says that although he knew of these prejudices, he did not understand the underlying reasons until he read this book.[37] Ted Rising Sun's humorous claim that the alliance with the Sioux was only because the Cheyenne "needed someone to hold the horses" only emphasises their friendship. This claim, repeated by others, may possibly have originated as a reference to the Sioux having originally obtained horses from the Cheyenne after the Sioux's migration into the Black Hills region.[38] Ted Rising Sun is a descendant of Chief Dull Knife, a major figure in Cheyenne history and a contemporary of Wooden Leg.[39]
The theory that Custer's soldiers committed suicide en masse toward the end of the Battle of the Little Bighorn has been controversial right from the very start, and the discussion still rumbles on to the present day. Marquis was a keen advocate of this theory and developed it most fully in a later book, Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself. This was so controversial, however, that he could not find a publisher and it did not appear in print until long after his death.[40]
Marquis has many critics saying either that he has exaggerated the role played by suicide or is entirely mistaken; Hardorff says that his theory is discounted by most academics.[41] Hardorff suggests that Marquis may have made errors due to the use of sign language which, he claims, cannot convey the nuances of language.[42] There can be no doubt, however, that Wooden Leg is indeed relating a tale of mass suicide. In the book he discusses at length what may be the cause of the soldiers' suicide.[n 14] The effects of whisky was a common theory amongst the Indians, but Wooden Leg believed the prayers of medicine men to have been the cause. Wooden Leg's only taste of whisky up to the time of the battle had been a mouthful from a captured bottle which he had immediately spat out. In later life Wooden Leg changed his mind and subscribed to the whisky theory after experiencing the effects alcohol could have.[18] Despite this criticism, Hardorff still maintains that Marquis' work is of great importance.[42]
Fox and others note that while Wooden Leg's version is corroborated by the oral tradition of other Cheyenne witnesses, notably that of Kate Bighead, there is no corroboration in the oral tradition of the Sioux.[43] Fox concludes that "quite simply, the contention is nonsense. A few troopers undoubtedly took their own lives, but it is hard to know what factors fostered the idea of wholesale suicide".[44] Fox in his turn has been criticised for selectively using Indian oral tradition when it suits him, but discarding it as nonsense when he finds it disagreeable.[45]
Another suggestion is that the Cheyenne warriors were still reluctant to admit to killing soldiers for fear of punishment, but at the same time were being pressed to recount details of the Custer battle. A simple way out of this dilemma was to say when questioned by non-Indians that most of the soldiers died at their own hands.[46] Wooden Leg is said to have retracted the claim in later life;[47] this would have been in extreme old age, as he had still not recanted at the age of 73 when the book was written, other than recanting his original theory in favour of the whiskey theory.[48]
Archaeologists have attempted to test the theory, particularly by the examination of the remains of skulls, but have been unable to reach any definite conclusion. The suicide theory cannot be ruled out by the archaeological evidence, but there is no evidence to support it either.[49]