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Weasel Bear's Story of the Battle
A Northern Cheyenne's account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

"LATE IN THE spring of 1876 rumor came to our camp that the white soldiers were coming out to put us on a reservation. This we did not like. And when the grass was high enough to feed our ponies and let them get strong, we moved up Tongue River with the idea of joining Sitting Bull on the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn). About a week before we moved to join Sitting Bull, we received word that some white soldiers were coming from the south to fight the Sioux. So word was sent to Crazy Horse. We Cheyenne had fifty-seven in our band, and we made a forced ride, and surprised the soldiers at the Big Bend of the Rosebud. In this fight the Great Spirit was with us, and we whipped the white soldiers and drove them back south and they did not molest us any more.

"After this fight our two villages moved over to the Greasy Grass and joined the Sioux, who were led by their great chief, Sitting Bull. We Cheyennes were led by Two Moons.

"I had been herding horses down the river from our camp when some one came out shouting, `The soldiers are coming.' I helped drive the pony herd back west, and then galloped to my tepee and got my gun. Reno's men had dismounted by this time, and were lying down in skirmish line. We charged, and soon Reno mounted and led his men on the run from the edge of the woods. He crossed the river and rode up a steep bank to a hill. Some of us started after the soldiers.

"Then Chief Little Wolf rode among us shouting, `Come back! More soldiers are going to attack us down the river.' My friend Kills-in-the-Night had lost his horse, and I got him up behind me, and we rode as fast as we could. We crossed the river and followed a ridge. We saw a loose horse, and my friend dropped off my horse and caught this one. There was lots of dust, and pretty soon much smoke from the guns.

"We ran into some soldiers and I had my horse killed. At the same time I was shot through the foot and the shoulder. I lay there stunned. Then my friend, Kills-in-the-Night came and picked me up, and we went on into the fight: It was soon over after that. There were Indians all around the white men, and we finally ran over them.

"That night there was a big celebration. We had seven Cheyenne killed. We Cheyenne were the ones who killed Custer. . . . Early that night there were reports that more soldiers were coming up the Greasy Grass. Next morning I joined my band across the river where we fought Reno's men some more. My foot was swollen and pained me, but I kept it pulled up with a rope. A little after noon we broke camp and went up the river towards the Big Horn Mountains..."

I Fought With Custer: The Story of Sergeant Windolf, Last Survivor of the Little Big Horn, as told to Frazier and Robert Hunt, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1947 p 216 - 217

Weasel Bear was a member of the Fox Warrior Society.