ce, I
was in his camp on Grande River in the spring of 1888, sometime about
the end of June. There had been no rain for some weeks, and crops were
suffering from drouth, and I remarked to him, who was in an assemblage
of a large number of Indians of that district, that the crops needed
rain badly, and that if much longer without rain the crops would amount
to nothing. He, 'Sitting Bull,' replied: 'Yes, the crops need rain, and
my people have been importuning me to have it rain. I am considering the
matter as to whether I will or not. I can make it rain any time I wish,
but I fear hail. I cannot control hail, and should I make it rain, heavy
hail might follow, which would ruin the prairie grass as well as the
crops, and our horses and our cattle would thus be deprived of
subsistence.' He made this statement with as much apparent candor as it
was possible for a man to give expression to, and there was not an
Indian among his hearers but appeared to accept it as within his power.

"'Sitting Bull' was dull in intellect, and not near as able a man as
'Gall,' 'Hump,' 'Crow,' and many others who were regarded as subordinate
to him; but he was an adept schemer and very cunning, and could work
upon the credulity of the Indians to a wonderful degree, and this,
together with great obstinacy and tenacity, gained for him his
world-wide reputation. 'Sitting Bull' claimed in his statement to me
that he directed and led in the Custer fight; but all the other Indians
with whom I have talked contradict it, and said that 'Sitting Bull' fled
with his family as soon as the village was attacked by Major Reno's
command, and that he was making his way to a place of safety, several
miles out in the hills, when overtaken by some of his friends with news
of victory over the soldiers, whereupon he returned, and in his usual
style, took all the credit of victory to himself as having planned for
the outcome, and as having been on a bluff overlooking the battlefield,
appeasing the evil spirits and invoking the Great Spirit for the result
of the fight.

"And, when considering the ignorance and inherent superstition of the
average Sioux Indian at that time, it is not to be wondered at that the
majority, if not all, were willing to accept it, especially when united
in common cause and what they considered as their only safety from
annihilation. As a matter of fact, there was no one man who led or
directed that fight; it was a pell mell rush under a num