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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
Including the earlier departures, Sitting Bull's alliance had been strengthened by some 280 lodges in spring 1878, almost doubling its numbers. For the next three years, the exiles sought to maintain their independence in Grandmother's Land, but conditions deteriorated rapidly. The buffalo herds, which through the 1870s had contracted northward across Montana Territory, vanished under relentless pressure from the exiles, Canadian Indians and Métis, and American hide hunters. A final series of surrenders followed as hungry Lakota bands capitulated at military posts along the upper Missouri and Yellowstone. In 1881 the interned Lakotas were transported to Standing Rock Agency and held pending transfer to their home agencies. One year later 656 Northern Oglalas were released from custody and, under the leadership of Big Road, Little Hawk, He Dog, and Low Dog, transferred home to their kin at Pine Ridge. At the same time, 172 Northern Brulés led by Bull Dog were returned to the new Brulé agency at Rosebud.66
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It remains to outline the fate of those Northern Indians who did not join the breakouts but sought permanent homes on the reservation. Of these, eighty-seven lodges formed the rump Northern Camp at Spotted Tail Agency, with fifty or so lodges already assimilated to the bands of Brulé relatives. At Red Cloud Agency the January flights left another fifty lodges of Northern people, split between the Oglala followers of Little Big Man and No Water and the Mimconjou followers of Touch the Clouds. The Oglalas were willing to integrate with their tribesmen, but the Miniconjous were nervous because their hosts were "as a rule down on the whole northern set, who had given them so much trouble."67
Individual Mmiconjou families were beginning to assimilate to Oglala bands. One group of eleven lodges joined the Oglala Spleen band, led by Yellow Bear. Young Man Afraid of His Horse was feasting Miniconjou warriors in a bid to absorb more defectors. Consequently, when Agent Irwin arrived at the White River forks on January 19, he found Touch the Clouds anxious and his following reduced to 117 people, about twenty lodges. The prospect of political eclipse turned Touch the Clouds's thoughts back to relocation to Cheyenne River Agency. Still wary of pony confiscations there, he conferred with Irwin but was finally persuaded by Bull Eagle, a Miniconjou visiting on a military pass from Cheyenne River. Keen to win the approval of the military, Bull Eagle convinced Touch the Clouds that his fears were misplaced, that pony confiscations would soon be implemented at Red Cloud, and that Touch the Clouds would only save his herd by immediate transfer home.68
Accompanied by Bull Eagle and a detachment of Oglala scouts, Touch the Clouds led homeward a small procession of eleven lodges, seventy-three people, on January 23. Two lodges turned back, choosing to seek a permanent home with the Oglalas. Nine lodges, fifty-three people, followed Touch the Clouds into Cheyenne River Agency on the thirty-first. Briefly interned at the military post, they were dismayed when on February 18 the army impounded seventy-six horses and colts for sale in Yankton, the proceeds to be invested in reservation development schemes. One pony was released for each of the nine families.69
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