A Cold Day in Hell: The Dull Knife Battle, 1876

CHEYENNE. October 24.—C. V. Gardner, of Deadwood, reports that the Black Hills Mining Co.’s quartz mill commenced operations on the 16th inst. On the following day they ran through seven tons of ore from the Hidden Treasure, which cleaned up $5,000. Gulch mining is still in operation and the quartz mines show better results every day.

“Where the blue-ball blazes did Sitting Bull slip off to?”

Luther Kelly watched the face of the half-breed called Big Leggings as he tried to explain to an angry Nelson A. Miles where the great Hunkpapa chief had gone.

It was at that meeting between the Sioux leaders and Nelson A. Miles on the twenty-fifth that the chiefs first admitted that Sitting Bull had managed to elude the soldiers, splintering off with no more than thirty lodges, crossing Bad Route Creek to sneak away down the north bank of the Yellowstone while the soldiers were in hot pursuit of the greater part of that fleeing village.

“Is he running for Canada?” Miles demanded angrily.

“No,” the half-blood replied. “He wants only to hunt buffalo in that country close by the Missouri.”

While the chiefs themselves had asked for the conference, it frustrated the colonel that they had still not seen the light. Gall stood adamantly against surrendering, wanting the soldiers gone from his country. And while Pretty Bear and the others were not as stone-faced as Gall, neither were they ready to surrender. The best that they offered was to talk some more the following day. Which suited Miles just fine. He sent his wagons on east to cover the twenty-four miles to the Glendive Cantonment for supplies.

Before the conference resumed on Thursday, the supply train was already back, carrying enough rations to permit Miles to continue his chase another twenty days. The arrival of those wagons would prove to be the straw that broke the Sioux will to resist.

Again Red Skirt and the other Miniconjou chiefs said their people lacked clothing and their horses were poor, but that they eventually intended upon going in to the agencies.

“Look upon my wagons,” Miles told the Sioux. “You will see I can follow you wherever you go.”

Kelly watched the dark eyes of the headmen in council with Miles, studied their faces as they regarded the wagons filled with boxes and barrels and kegs of supplies, while their people cried out in hunger, suffered with the cold as the season advanced and the creeks rimed with ice.

“I think you just may have them this time, General,” Luther said quietly to the colonel.

Miles spoke out of the corner of his mouth in a whisper, “But—goddammit—I’m afraid that if I’m forced to escort this bunch all the way over to the Cheyenne River Agency, I can’t turn about and pursue Sitting Bull.”

The colonel’s adjutant, Hobart Bailey, suggested, “General, what of returning the village to Tongue River with some of the men for an escort while the rest of us keep after Sitting Bull?”

Miles considered that only a short time before saying, “It won’t work. We have limited supplies at our Tongue River Cantonment and this village would tax us beyond our resources. No. Instead I think I may have a plan that will accomplish all I want to accomplish with these chiefs, and still allow me to go after the biggest fish of them all.”

So it was that Miles ended up proposing that the Indians give their vow to turn themselves in to their agents at Cheyenne River. In addition, five of the chiefs would volunteer to stay behind with Miles, those men to be delivered to an army prison in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a means of guaranteeing the surrender of their people.

“I will provide rations for your people to make the trek to your reservation. And I will allow you thirty-five days to make the trip. In addition, I agree to give you five additional days to stay where you are now presently camped to hunt buffalo.”

For a long time the chiefs talked among themselves, then finally Red Skirt stood to present himself before Miles.

“I will go with the Bear Coat, to show the goodwill of my people.”

One by one the others rose in turn. The older White Bull, a Miniconjou and father of Small Bear. Foolish Thunder, Black Eagle, and Rising Sun, all three Sans Arc. At the same time, Bull Eagle and Small Bear agreed to be responsible for getting their people to the reservation on time. In this, more of the headmen vowed they would not fail: Tall Bull, Yellow Eagle, Two Elk, Foolish Bear, Spotted Elk, and Poor Bear. Better than two thousand Miniconjou, Sans Arc, and Hunkpapa, accounting for some three hundred lodges, had surrendered without the Fifth Infantry firing another shot.