“That son of a bitch was more savvy than savage, wasn’t he, fellas?”
“Certainly was,” Bourke agreed, coming up to stand at the window beside the general.
“Nothing wrong with keeping the welfare of his people always first,” Seamus declared as he stepped to the door.
Bourke added, “I get the feeling Three Bears is going to play his enlistment as a scout for all the political and economic ends he can get out of it.”
With his hand on the big iron hasp, Donegan asked, “You can’t blame him, can you, Johnny?”
“No, we can’t,” Crook answered emphatically. “I’ll see that he gets all he wants, just as long as he damn well sees that I get Crazy Horse.”
* Cheyenne term for Rosebud Creek.
† Mini Pusa, South Fork of the Cheyenne River.
‡ Red Cloud Agency.
* River steamboats.
† Little Bighorn River.
‡
** Bighorn Mountains.
Chapter 17
10–14 November 1876
General Miles Attacks and
Defeats Sitting Bull.
The Insolent Savage to be Punished After All.
THE INDIANS.
Sitting Bull Attacked and Defeated by General Miles
BISMARCK, October 31.—General Miles had a successful fight after an unsuccessful council with Sitting Bull, on the 22d, on Cedar Creek, killing and wounding a number of Indians, his own loss being two wounded. He chased the Indians about sixty miles, when they divided, one portion going toward the agencies, and Sitting Bull toward Fort Peck, General Miles following. General Hazen has gone to Peck with four companies of infantry and rations for General Miles. Sitting Bull crossed the river below Peck on the 24th, and had sent word to the agent that he was coming in, and would be friendly, but wanted ammunition.
“Major, this horse belongs to me,” Frank North addressed First Lieutenant William Philo Clark by his brevet rank as the civilian angrily wrenched the horsehair lead rope looped around the neck of a dark bay pony from the hands of the war chief leading the Sioux auxiliaries.
“It can’t be,” Clark replied indignantly. “Isn’t this one of the horses taken from Red Cloud’s band?”
Seamus Donegan nodded in agreement as he watched the cloud pass over the face of the war chief called Three Bears, then said to Clark, “In this case, you’re both right, Clark. That’s the horse Crook told Frank he could pick out of the ponies we confiscated out of Red Cloud’s herd. Some of the Sioux scouts claim it’s supposed to be just about the fastest thing on four legs.”
“Damn well it has been,” Frank growled in admiration as he fingered the horsehair rope nervously.
Just two days after the general’s conference with Three Bears and the Sioux headmen there at Fort Fetterman, one of the Pawnee scouts had come tearing into the battalion’s camp reporting that a dozen of the Sioux mercenaries had just come riding into the herd, dropped a rope around Frank’s horse, and ridden off with it in tow. Outmanned and undergunned, the lone Pawnee horse guard had hightailed it straight to Frank North with the news. North promptly dispatched one of his riders to track down Lieutenant Clark, who, along with John Bourke, served General Crook as aide-de-camp, and demand that the young officer bring the horse to North’s bivouac.
In less than an hour Clark showed up with Three Bears, the war chief pulling the lead rope wrapped around the neck of the pony in question.
Clark’s eyes narrowed as he looked from Donegan to North, saying, “General Crook ordered that the horses captured from the Red Cloud and Red Leaf herds are to be used as a reserve. Three Bears’s pony has given out, so I told him he could select a new one—”
“So he wants this one, don’t he?” Luther North interrupted.
“He does,” Clark snapped.
“Well, you just tell Three Bears that he can’t have him,” Frank added. “He’s already called for.”
“We got seventy extra horses,” Luther attempted to explain to the perplexed lieutenant, “all of ’em given to the Pawnee as extra stock when ours give out. You can have Three Bears pick something to ride from among them.”
“But this was a Sioux horse to begin with,” Clark said after Three Bears seethed a moment in his own tongue, the Sioux leader’s dark eyes fiery as he watched more and more of his traditional enemies, the Pawnee, gather nearby to listen in on the argument.
“Major Clark—I suggest you check with Crook before you go off half-cocked,” Seamus said.
Clark whirled on Donegan. “A civilian such as yourself has nothing to say about this—”
“I damn well do have something to say if I see a man stealing a horse from a friend of mine!” Seamus snapped.
“The horse in question belonged to Three Bears to begin with!”
“That horse hasn’t belonged to Three Bears since Mackenzie captured Red Cloud’s herd!” Frank bellowed.
Clark wagged his head adamantly, pointing to the horse and saying, “I think for the sake of relations among our scouts that you could see your way clear to choose another—”
“The hell I will!” Frank shouted.
Clark’s knuckles had turned white gripping his reins, in stark contrast to the red rising in his face. In an attempt to control the harsh anger in his voice, his words came out clipped and staccato. “If that’s the way you want it, I will see the general about this, right now.”
“You do that,” Frank replied, seething, “and I’ll be right behind you to see him too.”
As soon as Clark and Three Bears reined their horses about, Frank called out for one of his Pawnee sergeants, telling the scout to have the dark bay saddled.
Luther grabbed hold of Frank’s arm, saying, “If you’ll wait for me to get saddled up too, I’ll go with you.”
“Count me in too, Frank,” Seamus added. “I’ve got my horse saddled right over there.”
The elder North turned to gaze across the river at the naked bluff on the south side where sat the fort’s whitewashed buildings splayed against a pale winter sky. “All right. A few more minutes won’t matter—go get ready, Lute. Thanks … thanks, fellas.”
The Pawnee sent to saddle up Luther’s mount hadn’t returned when one of Tom Moore’s teamsters came plodding up atop one of the balky mules, hollering out in great excitement.
“Major North! Major North!” he bellowed as he brought his mule to a clattering halt and bolted from its bare back. “Had to come tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Gloree! But you got them Sioux on the warpath!” he spat, breathing heavily. “They say they’re coming over here right now to clean out your Pawnee!”
“Goddamn their turncoat hides!” North snarled as he whipped about on his heel, shouting to this man and
