Ashes of Heaven (55 page)

Phil Sheridan and His Army,
by Paul Andrew Hutton

The Pitman Notes on U.S. Martial Small Arms and Ammunition, 1776-1933,
by Brigadier General John Pitman

Sharps Firearms,
by Frank Sellars

Sioux Indian Religion—Tradition and Innovation,
edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Douglas R. Parks

The Sioux—Life and Customs of a Warrior Society,
by Royal B. Hassrick

The Sixth Grandfather—Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt,
edited by Raymond J. DeMallie

Spotted Tail's Folk—A History of the Brule Sioux,
by George E. Hyde

Vestiges of a Proud Nation,
edited by Glenn E. Markoe

War Cries on Horseback—The Story of the Indian Wars of the Great Plains,
by Stephen Longstreet

We Are The Ancestors Of Those Yet To Be Born,
by Bill Tall Bull

William Jackson, Indian Scout,
by James Willard Schultz

Wolves For The Blue Soldiers—Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-90,
by Thomas W. Dunlay

Wooden Leg—A Warrior Who Fought Custer,
interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis

Yellowstone Command—Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877,
by Jerome A. Greene

To close, I want to restate that this long and protracted campaign against the warrior bands of the Northern Plains impacted far more than the 408 lives accounted for in the official army record of the Great Sioux War. Killed were 283 officers and men (which included Indian scouts), most of whom died at the Little Bighorn. Only 125 were wounded. But those are not the whole of the costs.

In the midst of recovering from the devastating costs of the Civil War, finding itself staring squarely into the teeth of an economic depression, the battered federal government accounted for $2,312,531.24 it spent defeating the Lakota and their allies. As author Charles M. Robinson points out in his book
A Good Year to Die,
the full impact of this much money from that era could have built at least nine large steam warships, fully armed and equipped, ready for the sea.

Without argument, the Indian losses for the duration of the conflict are impossible to determine because of the removal of the dead and wounded from the battlefields by their comrades. However, author Robinson explains that a reasonable figure based upon the subsequent testimony of warrior participants places the number at approximately 150 killed and no more than ninety wounded. That means that in some fifteen months the government spent over $9,600 to kill or wound each one of those Lakota and Cheyenne.

Likewise, we have no solid count of those civilians killed outside of the many skirmishes and battles: teamsters, mule-whackers, cattlemen, and prospectors. Nor do we have firm figures for the casualties among noncombatants in the villages attacked by the army during the Great Sioux War. Not only were women, children, and old ones killed in the fighting, but even greater numbers died of starvation or exposure to the brutal temperatures of the Northern Plains.

Perhaps even more telling, for those who survived an attack to escape into the wilderness, their villages and most of what they had owned had just been destroyed. By any reckoning, the economic loss in lodges and robes, blankets and kettles, clothing and weapons was nothing short of devastating.

Their way of life had been brought to an end, crushed forever.

The eventual fate of those who were conquered depended much upon where they chose to surrender. As you've seen, many of the
Ohmeseheso
who turned themselves over to Miles enlisted as scouts and were therefore allowed to remain along the Tongue River where they kept their weapons and ponies, serving the frontier army faithfully across the next two decades.

On the other hand, those Cheyenne who followed Little Wolf and Morning Star south to surrender to Crook at Camp Robinson were not near so fortunate as their kin to the north. Despite their steadfast belief that they would receive a better deal from Three Stars Crook, they were quickly marched to Indian Territory. The removal of those Cheyenne bands created misgivings among the Camp Robinson Lakota who began to suspect that they were next, regardless of Spotted Tail's professions that he had struck an unbreakable deal with Crook.

For some time Congress did in fact resist regional pressure to send the Lakota to Indian Territory, adopting instead a course only slightly less detestable in Lakota eyes: relocation of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies to the west bank of the Missouri River, near the town of Yankton where it would be far easier to supply the defeated peoples by river steamer.

At the same time, the Ponca Indians, a small band long friendly to the government, were uprooted and removed to Indian Territory so their reservation could be given over to the new Lakota agencies transferred to the Missouri. The very thing that Spotted Tail had feared and struggled so hard to oppose was now a reality.

By that May of 1877, as the last of the northern hostiles were escaping into Canada or surrendering at the Nebraska agencies, and as Miles was mopping up Lame Deer's bitter-enders, far away to the west there were rumblings of trouble with the non-treaty Nez Perce of Joseph, White Bird, and Looking Glass. The first group of transferees from the Spotted Tail Agency was being shipped east to the new agencies on the muddy Missouri. However, it is interesting to note that many were allowed to remain at the old agencies for the time being. There, confronted with growing despair and more broken promises, they looked to Crazy Horse to lead them anew. But other Lakota, exhausted by war and the ruin of their culture, feared the Strange Man of the Oglalla.

All around him at the Red Cloud Agency were chiefs growing jealous of the powerful hold Crazy Horse held not only among his own people, but over the white agency and soldiers alike.

It would not be long before the army was forced to turn much of its attention to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, chasing the courageous Nez Perce into Montana Territory as they fled pell-mell for Canada. While the soldier chiefs turned their attention to catching Joseph's people, many of the powerful Lakota leaders would turn their backs on Crazy Horse.

Both of these are dramatic, and ultimately tragic, tales I will chronicle over the next three years in forthcoming volumes of the Plainsmen Series.

Because of the collection of rundown trailers scattered across the ground where Lame Deer's village once sat, because so little remains that would allow me to visualize how the site appeared 120 years ago, I went exploring the countryside around the tiny community of Lame Deer, Montana. While the creek the frontiersmen originally called the Big Muddy is now named in honor of Lame Deer, less than a handful of miles west of the town I ran across present-day's Muddy Creek as it ambled and twisted toward its junction with the Rosebud.

It was there I found hills and a valley closely matching those in that 1901 L.A. Huffman photograph of the battle-site. I turned off the blacktop and onto BIA 209, a gravel road that led me toward the far slopes where it wasn't hard for me to visualize the women and children, the old ones, and eventually the warriors all fleeing in escape that chilly spring morning.

Down in the bottom I crossed the last few yards of the Muddy and turned off to follow the faint parallel tracks of a four-wheel-drive road meandering beside the contorted creekbed. Here in Montana it has been an unusually wet year, so I found the stream running high as I brought the truck to a stop and sat still for a few minutes, stunned at the sudden, all-consuming quiet.

Nothing like that ground where the mobile homes now sit, there beneath that hillside where Lame Deer's bones rest for eternity.

Here, I could step over to the side of the Muddy and settle down in the grass beside the whispering water and the freshly killed carcass of a wild turkey. No downwind tainted smell, the turkey hadn't been here for more than a day. In time the noisy magpies quieted their protests and returned to their feast.

Once more I was struck with the feeling that I was the interloper here. Some critter had killed that fat bird, eaten its fill, then moved on.

Perhaps, I thought, it's part of what I'm being told.

These moments of such quiet are far too rare. Here beside this creek I listen for the whispers of ghosts from that last fight of the Great Sioux War.

Each time the breeze died in the tall grass that brilliant, sunny day as the hours passed, I could once again hear the gentle gurgle of the Muddy across its pebbly bed, make out the trill and whistle of the birds in the brush all around me.

And in those voices of the earth warming, I made out the voices of those who wanted their stories told—stories of this place … tales of a time that was, never to be again.

—
Terry C. Johnston

Muddy Creek

Montana

May 7, 1997

 

OVERWHELMING ACCLAIM FOR THE WORK OF TERRY C. JOHNSTON

“Compelling … Johnston offers memorable characters, a great deal of history and lore about the Indians and pioneers of the period, and a deep insight into human nature.”

—
Booklist

“Johnston's books are action-packed … A remarkably fine blend of arduous historical research and proficient use of language … Lively, lusty, fascinating.”

—
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph

“Rich in historical lore and dramatic description, this is a first-rate addition to a solid series, a rousing tale of one man's search for independence in the unspoiled beauty of the Old West.”

—
Publishers Weekly
on
Buffalo Place

“A first-class novel by a talented author.”

—
Tulsa World
on
Dream Catcher

“With meticulous research, vivid dialogue, memorable characters, and a voice uniquely his own, Johnston has once again written the finest of historical fiction, seamlessly blending together both time and place to bring to life a world as real as our own.”

—
Roundup
magazine on
Dance on the Wind

“Terry C. Johnston is the absolute master at taking authentic details into the realm of gripping, compelling entertainment … Johnston has the astounding ability to take the reader into the hearts and minds of real Western characters, while simultaneously making the details of historically based plots crystal clear. He walks the ground before he writes, then the reader walks with him.”

—Michael Martin Murphey,
Popular Western Entertainer

THE PLAINSMEN SERIES BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON

Book I: Sioux Dawn

Book II: Red Cloud's Revenge

Book III: The Stalkers

Book IV: Black Sun

Book V: Devil's Backbone

Book VI: Shadow Riders

Book VII: Dying Thunder

Book VIII: Blood Song

Book IX: Reap the Whirlwind

Book X: A Cold Day in Hell

Book XI: Trumpet on the Land

Book XII: Wolf Mountain Moon

Book XIII: Ashes of Heaven

Book XIV: Cries from the Earth

Book XV: Lay the Mountains Low

Book XVI: Turn the Stars Upside Down

About the Author

TERRY C. JOHNSTON was born on the first day of 1947 on the plains of Kansas, and has lived all his life in the American West. His first novel,
Carry the Wind,
won the Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award from the Western Writers of America, and his subsequent books have appeared on bestseller lists throughout the country. He lives and writes in Big Sky country near Billings, Montana.

Each year Terry and his wife, Vanette, publish their annual “WinterSong” newsletter. Twice every summer they take readers on one-week historical tours of the battle sites and hallowed ground Terry chronicles in volume after volume of this bestselling Plainsmen Series.

All those wanting to write to the author, those requesting the annual “WinterSong” newsletter, or those desiring information on taking part in the author's summer tours, can write to him at:

Terry C. Johnston

P.O. Box 50594

Billings, MT 59105

ASHES OF HEAVEN

Copyright © 1998 by Terry C. Johnston.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

ISBN: 0-312-96511-7

EAN: 80312-96511-2

St. Martin's Paperbacks edition / May 1998

St. Martin's Paperbacks are published by St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

eISBN 9781466843226

First eBook edition: March 2013

*
 Bighorn Mountains

*
 Red Cloud's agency for the Oglalla Sioux, near Camp Robinson, Nebraska

*
 Term used by the Lakota to designate the Cheyenne tribe

†
 Powder River

#
 Name given Colonel Nelson A. Miles by the tribes of the Northern Plains who fought against him

@
 Battle of the Butte, January 8, 1877. The Plainsmen Series, vol. 12,
Wolf Mountain Moon

*
 white man

†
 General George C. Crook

*
 Battle of the Rosebud, June 17, 1876—
Reap the Whirlwind,
vol. 9, The Plainsmen Series

†
 Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876—
Seize the Sky,
vol. 2, Son of the Plains Trilogy