Two months prior to his death Rain-in-the-Face, lying in his bed recounted to Ohiyesa, the major events of his life.And what a life it was. He was a the Fettermen massacre, the Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of the Greasey Grass( Battle of the Little Big Horn)
One Delevan Bates wrote:
One hundred and sixty-three dead Indians were found in front of where Tom and the General fell. Tom fell first and then his brother was pierced with a dozen bullets, the last survivor of the bloody field. Rain-in-the-Face, an Indian chief, whom Tom had arrested for some misdemeanor on the reservation a year before was among the Indian forces, and when Tom fell he sprang for the body, and, with scalping knife, opened the bosom of the dying hero, tore the heart, yet quivering, from its resting place, licked the dripping blood from the vital organ, and then crushed it under his heel to the earth..
This is utter nonsense, although Tom Custer's body was mutilated his chest cavity was not opened.Rain-in-the Face states:
Many lies have been told of me. Some say that I killed the Chief, and others that I cut out the heart of his brother [Tom Custer], because he had caused me to be imprisoned. Why, in that fight the excitement was so great that we scarcely recognized our nearest friends! Everything was done like lightning. After the battle we young men were chasing horses all over the prairie, while the old men and women plundered the bodies; and if any mutilating was done, it was by the old men.
I believe Rain-in-the Face's account for honorable statements like these:
A larger body remained together at the upper end of a little ravine, and fought bravely until they were cut to pieces. I had always thought that white men were cowards, but I had a great respect for them after this day.
And this:
However, there was an old soldier who used to bring my food and stand guard over me -- he was a white man, it is true, but he had an Indian heart! He came to me one day and unfastened the iron chain and ball with which they had locked my leg, saying by signs and what little Sioux he could muster:
"Go, friend! take the chain and ball with you. I shall shoot, but the voice of the gun will lie".
When he had made me understand, you may guess that I ran my best! I was almost over the bank when he fired his piece at me several times, but I had already gained cover and was safe. I have never told this before, and would not, lest it should do him an injury, but he was an old man then, and I am sure he must be dead long since. That old soldier taught me that some of the white people have hearts.
He also relates that there was a Sioux woman which participated in the battle:
"Behold, there is among us a young woman!" I shouted. "Let no young man hide behind her garment!"I knew that would make those young men brave.
The woman was Tashenamani, or Moving Robe, whose brother had just been killed in the fight with Three Stars. Holding her brother's war staff over her head, and leaning forward upon her charger, she looked as pretty as a bird. Always when there is a woman in the charge, it causes the warriors to vie with one another in displaying their valor.
The US's war with the Sioux was a dark page in our History of not honoring treaties and dishonorable conduct. But I will leave you with this; at the Battle of Slim Butte a encampment was surprised and had to leave all they owned behind to escape.Left were K company's guidiron( lost a the Battle of the Little Big Horn) and a necklace made from children knuckle bones, identified now as Shoshone.
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