Into Annihilation: The Arikara Story of Custer’s March to, and the Battle of, the Little Bighorn, part 2

Summary: The small society of the Arikara, in facing their age-old enemies the mighty Lakota nation, prehend a powerful ally: the United States.<br><br> ⁓The Voice before the Void<br> Into Annihilation: The Arikara Story of Custer’s March to, and the Battle of, the Little Bighorn<br> from The Arikara Narrative of the Campaign against the Hostile Dakotas, June, 1876<br> compiled from interviews conducted by the North Dakota State Historical Society with the aged Arikara scouts in 1912 at Fort Berthold Reservation<br> edited by O.G. Libby and The Voice before the Void<br> part 2<br> Preface to the Arikara Narrative of the Campaign against the Hostile Dakotas<br> The purpose in publishing this material on the Dakota campaign of 1876 is twofold. Merely as a matter of justice to the Arikara scouts, their version of the campaign in which they played an important part should have long ago been given to the public. Nearly every other conceivable angle of this memorable campaign has received attention and study. But during the past generation, the Arikara scouts, true to their oath of fealty to the government as they understood it, have remained silent as to their own part in those eventful days. The present narrative is designed to make public the real story of the Arikara scouts who served with General Terry and under the immediate command of Colonel Custer.<br> <a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.thevoicebeforethevoid.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/back-row-John-Buckman-Goose-front-row-Bloody-Knife-George-Armstrong-Custer-Little-Soldier-1874.jpg?ssl=1"></a>In August, 1912, the nine survivors of some forty of these scouts met at the home of Bear’s Belly on the Fort Berthold Reservation, and there they related to Judge A. McG. Beede and to the secretary of the North Dakota State Historical Society, O.G. Libby, the various portions of the narrative that follow. The narrators were very scrupulous to confine themselves to just that portion of the common experience to which they were eye witnesses; for the most part what is set down in this account is the testimony of those who were actual participants. The narratives were carefully taken down as interpreted by Peter Beauchamp, a graduate of Hampton Institute, Virginia. After the whole story was put in form it was submitted to the scouts to be read and corrected through their interpreters by all those who had taken part. Thus there has been assembled a complete account of these important events given from the standpoint of an Indian scout. While it is true that these scouts knew nothing of the general plan of the campaign nor of the larger features of the movements in which they took part, nevertheless they have supplied an astonishing number of clear cut facts and observations that have all the definiteness and accuracy of an instantaneous photograph.<br> In the second place the narratives of individual scouts give us an insight into the lives of a few individuals and families. The true Indian is extremely reticent concerning matters of ritual, family tradition, and tribal observance. Not as much of such details was obtained as was asked for, still the narrative affords, in many instances, a flashlight picture of Indian life.<br> We were privileged to hear, also, a large number of rare and remarkable ceremonial chants and songs.<br> At the close, the occasion was celebrated by the organization of a society known as the U. S. Volunteer Indian Scouts. Two local posts are already in existence, to which belong most of the veteran scouts of the Fort Berthold Reservation.<br> An impartial examination of the evidence offered in the narrative of these scouts will completely clear them from the old charge of cowardice which has so long been voiced against them. These scouts were charged with being to blame for the defeat of Reno’s men in their first encounter with the Dakotas at the upper village on the Little Big Horn.