Black Panther Party of Northern California - Freedom Archives

L3URNING SPFAR
, P~1a . .1~
~~1~~oxY o~
d
CHEYENNE FL IGHT NORTH : (This is
Part II of a series of three continued
sections to be run in
kf,, ~a,M. ~t PCr:a*: r )
At noon, when the fight was nearly
over, the Cheyenne survivors
slipped away towaxd the camp of
Crazy Horse . They had nearly vane
of their food they had carefully
prepared for winter, and most of
their other belong~.ngs had been
lost when MacKenzie's Pawnees had
plundered their village and destroyed
the lodges by fire . On the
way to C~~azy Horse, eY.even children
froze to death . Horses had to~be
killed for food . But the Cheyenne
;~arriors vowed revenge on Ma~-
Kenzie's Pawnees once they joined
forces with Crazy Horse .
But Crazy Horse refused to joiC~ .
the Cheyennes in reckless repraisals
. "It is useless . The ~ ~°3asichus
outnumber the blades of grass
on the prairie ; we Indians can no
longer stand against them . Friend
Shahielas, it is time for us to
be smart and prepare to walk the
white man's road . Otherwise, we
shall all be killed :" Dull Knife
agreed . He believed that the only
chance for surviva]~ was making
peace with the white man .
The band of Cheyennes surrendered
to General Nelson Miles at Fort
` ~ BLACK POWER . PAGE 15
Keogh in ~the spring of 1877 . Thirty
braves, indignant at Crazy Horse's
"betrayal", enlisted as scouts with
Miles Calvary to held round up the
Sioux . The rest were sent south to
Darlington Reservation in irrdian
Territory ---- not Oklahoma . There
they joined 'the :Sout;:zern Cheyennes
and waited fox the peace and prosperity
they had been promised .
In the south,' the buffalo
gone and the Souttxern Cheyennes had
cleaned up what snail game there
been . Still, the -1~~7xthern
Cheyennes would not take food sway
from their relatives . Sickness and
fever weakened the starving band .
Within a year more than half of
Dull Knife's people were dead :
One' day in the middle of August
1878, Dull Knife' `'~xid' Little Wolf
went to the ag~t~t arid asked him to
allow the Che+yrer :'ri`~s~ to go back to
their home . Dull :":rife' was sick, so
Little Wolf spoke :
"We have come.
t~d . `ask the agent
that we be sei~t ~~' Y:ome to oux own
country in the mouraains . My people
were raised there in a land of pines
and clear, cold rivers . There, we
were always healthy, for there was
meat enough for ab1 . hle were happy
there until the Great Father's sol~
diers brought us here . Now, in the
years that we hove been in this
southern country, more .fihar. half of
us have died . This i~ not a good
place for us -- there is too much
sickness and head.° and dust, and not
enough food . We wish to return to