it was Reno. I also heard afterward that they had a
big trial and charged him with being a coward, but I praised him for
rushing into the camp. The reason I praised him was that he only had a
few soldiers and our camp was a great camp, and he came rushing into the
camp with his few soldiers. In all the history of my great-grandfather I
have never known of such an attack in daylight. After they retreated over
the hills and we had killed a large number of them that battle was ended.
I was at the Custer Battlefield this morning, and I noticed there were no
monuments up for the soldiers who fell on the Reno Field. As we had
finished with the Reno battle and were returning to camp we saw two men on
the Reno Hills waving two blankets as hard as they could. Two of us rode
over to where they were, and they yelled to us that the genuine stuff was
coming, and they were going to get our women and children. I went over
with the others and peeped over the hills and saw the soldiers advancing.
As I looked along the line of the ridge they seemed to fill the whole
hill. It looked as if there were thousands of them, and I thought we
would surely be beaten. As I returned I saw hundreds of Sioux. I looked
into their eyes and they looked different--they were filled with fear. I
then called my own band together, and I took off the ribbons from my hair,
also my shirt and pants, and threw them away, saving nothing but my belt
of cartridges and gun. I thought most of the Sioux will fall to-day: I
will fall with them. Just at that time Sitting-Bull made his appearance.
He said, just as though I could hear him at this moment: "A bird, when it
is on its nest, spreads its wings to cover the nest and eggs and protect
them. It cannot use its wings for defense, but it can cackle and try to
drive away the enemy. We are here to protect our wives and children, and
we must not let the soldiers get them." He was on a buckskin horse, and
he rode from one end of the line to the other, calling out: "Make a brave
fight!" We were all hidden along the ridge of hills. While Sitting-Bull
was telling this I looked up and saw that the Cheyennes had made a circle
around Custer on the west, north, and east sides, and that left a gap on
the south side for us to fill. We then filled up the gap, and as we did
so we looked over to the Cheyenne side, and there was a woman among the
Cheyennes who was nearest the soldiers trying to fight them. While Custer