r hundred and eighty-eight with our
sticks along the ridge. We were trying to count the dead there in the
valley when General Terry came up from the other side, and we fled away.
After the battle was over the Indians made a circle all over the ridges
and around through the valley to see if they could find any more soldiers,
as they were determined to kill every one. The next morning after the
fight we went up behind the Reno Field and camped at Black Lodge River.
We then followed the Black Lodge River until we came back to the Little
Big Horn again. Then we camped at the Little Big Horn, moving our camp
constantly, fearing pursuit by the soldiers."

"Before the Custer fight we went over on the Tongue River and found a camp
of soldiers. We rushed upon them and took all their horses away, and the
soldiers ran into the brush. We knew there would be other soldiers after
us; we knew about where they were, and we felt they would pursue us. At
Powder River the soldiers attacked our camp and destroyed everything, and
that made us mad. When the soldiers came after us, on the day of the
Custer fight, we were ready to kill them all. The soldiers were after us
all the time, and we had to fight."

The lonely stretches of prairie, the lonelier graves, the pathetic remnant
of Red Men--victors on this field--the hollow silence of these dreary hill
slopes, the imperishable valour of two hundred and seventy-seven men who
laid their lives on a blood-red altar, until the one lone figure of the
great captain lifted his unavailing sword against a howling horde of
savage warriors--glittering for a moment in the June sunlight, then falling
to the earth baptized with blood--is the solemn picture to forever hang in
the nation's gallery of battles.

CONCLUSIONS

Fair play is an all compelling creed. Justice to the dead is one of the
commandments in that creed. Let the controversy rage. Let the sword be
unsheathed in the face of misrepresentation and wrong. General Custer was
a daring and chivalrous officer. He had won laurels on many a hard fought
field under Southern skies--he was a strategist, brave and unfaltering. He
had served in Western campaigns with distinction and success. He knew how
to deal with the masterful generalship of his wily Indian foes. Hitherto
his tactics had been victorious. The orders under which he now marched to
battle were definite up to a certain point--then, so