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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
The intentions of the Northern Indians in leaving the Spotted Tail column remained enigmatic. Rumors that they intended to flee to Canada were matched by reports that they genuinely wished to settle with the Oglalas. One issue stands out: the majority of Northern Indians had rejected Spotted Tail's bid for a permanent White River agency and agreed with the emerging Oglala consensus for a northern location. Beyond that bottom line, however, a wide range of attitudes existed. Identifying their leaders' positions goes a long way toward understanding the motivations of the various groups of Northern Indians.
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Several leaders were early committed to a break for Canada. Significant among these was the Sans Arc Decider Red Bear. Although a delegate to Washington and enlisted as a sergeant in Clark's Company E, Red Bear was disenchanted with his experiment in reservation life. Personal ties to the exiles in Grandmother's Land matched this political disillusionment. His "great friend"-his kola, or pledged comrade-was Spotted Eagle, the Sans Arc war chief who had led part of their Bull Dung tiyospaye (extended-family band) into Canada with Sitting Bull. An able war leader with a reputation as "a desperate sort of fellow," Red Bear had organized a clique of followers well prepared for flight. Since they were all noted as "well armed and mounted," many were probably Red Bear's comrades in the Sans Arc scout contingent.17
Other leaders joined Red Bear in planning a breakaway. After Fast Bull's departure, the remaining leaders of the Lame Deer camp were bitter and intransigent. Lame Deer's younger son, Crazy Heart, held a hereditary claim to leadership, but he was overshadowed by the forceful war leader Low Dog-styled an "upstart" by agency interpreter Billy Garnett. Thirty years old and a precocious warrior for half his life, Low Dog had distinguished himself as a tactical leader in the Custer battle. His kola had been Lame Deer's nephew Iron Star, killed at Muddy Creek along with Lame Deer in the clash with Miles. Although he usually "ran with" the Oyuhpe band of Oglalas. Low Dog had an unusually wide circle of relations. Even in reservation times he moved restlessly between agencies, invoking kin ties among the Hunkpapas, Miniconjous, and Wazhazhas. He lent his considerable force of personality to organizing a concerted breakout.18
Young and dashing, with not a little of Crazy Horse's own charisma, was the war chief's cousin, Black Fox. His father and namesake had been a chief in the Oglala Oyuhpe band, a tiyospaye extensively intermarried with the Miniconjous. Black Fox himself married a kinswoman of Touch the Clouds and had surrendered at Spotted Tail Agency, but he favored a more confrontational response to the agency hierarchy. Distinguishing himself in the Sun Dance as a partisan of Crazy Horse, he joined the letter's village and was invested as a Shirt Wearer, or war chief. After Crazy Horse's death, Black Fox led the "stampede" back to Spotted Tail Agency, where he threatened to kill Camp Sheridan commander Captain Daniel W. Burke for his role in Crazy Horse's arrest. With Red Bear and Low Dog, Black Fox began to forge a Northern consensus for flight northward.19
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