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'WE BELONG TO THE NORTH': THE FLIGHTS OF THE NORTHERN INDIANS FROM THE WHITE RIVER AGENCIES, 1877-1878

Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Summer 2005 by Bray, Kingsley M

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The two breakaway parties made their separate ways northward. By early December Red Bear's party had gone to ground in the Beaver Creek district of southeast Montana, where they contacted runners from Sitting Bull. After skirmishing with a civilian wagon train on O'Fallon's Creek, they crossed the Yellowstone River two or three days before Christmas. Eluding scouting patrols from Colonel Miles's headquarters at Tongue River Cantonment, they crossed the Missouri six miles below the confluence of the Milk River on January 3, 1878, and made their way to join the Sitting Bull coalition, whose wintering camps were scattered along the Canadian line. Presently they were joined by Bull Dog's party, whose January 12 crossing of the Missouri above Wolf Point was noted in intelligence from Fort Buford.47

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The second breakout left the Northern contingent remaining with the Oglalas severely depleted. Irwin believed only thirty lodges remained, welcoming the improved prospects for a peaceful winter. A recheck of all available figures suggests that sixty lodges is about the correct figure, almost all Miniconjous from the bands of Touch the Clouds and Roman Nose, with a few straggling Brulés and Sans Arcs. Irwin's count may reflect that the Northern people, depleted and insecure as they were, were now willing to desert their own chiefs and assimilate to agency bands.

That political marginalization was a real factor for the Northern leaders, including those surrendered Oglalas who had remained at Red Cloud throughout the chaotic fall, is demonstrated by the layout of the winter camps established at the White River forks. The great Oglala village broke up into four camps: the Loafer band, led by American Horse, camped one mile up the south fork; Little Wound's band settled along a small creek emptying opposite the forks; and Red Cloud and Young Man Afraid of His Horse maintained separate villages on the White River two miles above the forks.48

No separate village now existed for either Northern contingent. Seizing on the principle that the Northern Oglala tiyospaye were offshoots of agency parent bands, lieutenant Clark encouraged the reintegration of the bands. With the organizational structures of Deciders and their akicita disbanded for smaller-scale winter operations, the autonomy of the Northern people was undermined. While a minority determined to reintegrate with their agency tribesmen, a growing number brooded over their predicament-one that the recalcitrant Crazy Horse had all too accurately foreseen.

The wintering location, sixty-five miles short of the Missouri, demonstrated that the Oglalas had no intention of locating at their new agency site. Asserting that the Missouri Valley would spell disease and whiskey traders, and citing the president's request to move "as near the supplies [on the Missouri] as you can," the Oglala chiefs refused to go any farther. Red Cloud sent an announcement to Agent Irwin, and to the disgust of Sherman and the War Department hawks, the Indian Office approved the Oglala decision. About December 10 most of the Oglala family heads left the forks to collect the tribe's annuity goods from the Yellow Medicine Agency, a week-long round trip. The weather remained mild well into the new year, and this system continued for the weekly distribution of rations.49

'WE BELONG TO THE NORTH': THE FLIGHTS OF THE NORTHERN INDIANS FROM THE WHITE RIVER AGENCIES, 1877-1878

Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Summer 2005 by Bray, Kingsley M

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