Program 206 – Turtle Island Storytellers

Southern Peace Chief Lawrence Hart

with Lawrence Hart

[audio:https://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/s2_progs/206_tis.mp3]

Lawrence Hart:
My name is Lawrence Hart. In my Cheyenne, it is Chief In The Sky, and I am one of the traditional chiefs of the Council of Forty-Four.

Arlie Neskahi:
For Today’s Turtle Island Storytellers, we traveled to Clinton, Oklahoma to hear a story from Cheyenne Peace Chief, Lawrence Hart. He shares a piece of the history of the Southern Cheyenne and tells of a massacre of his ancestors following the infamous Sand Creek massacre.

Hart:
There is one story that was told by a soldier when Congress investigated what they termed a massacre. When the Dog Soldiers of our Cheyenne people parted with uh, the Peace Chiefs, they blamed the Peace Chiefs for what occurred at Sand Creek. The Dog Soldiers began uh, doing uh, retaliatory raids all over Colorado Territory

Photos below courtesy of a2zcds.
Click to enlarge.
www.a2zcds.com

The 26th of November 1868, Black Kettle with other chiefs of the Arapaho and the Cheyenne met with Colonel Hazen at Fort Cobb, and Black Kettle wanted assurance of peace where he had set up his village. Colonel Hazen informed him that soldiers were already out in the field uh, looking for uh, especially the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers.

Black Kettle, with this small group went back to his village and discussed what they had learned and Medicine Woman Later began urging that the chiefs allow the women to take down the lodges and to move away from that area, to go further down the river to be near the other camps for safety. It was already late at night when that decision was made and it was bitterly cold. But they had been discovered already by Custer’s scouts.

And early the next morning, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry uh, attempted to play Gary Owen to signal the attack. They did get through a few bars, but their instruments froze up. In any case, Custer, with his Sharp Shooters, charged through the village. And some of the people who had been outside very early in the morning, had detected the troops and warned Black Kettle, who fired a rifle into the air to warn his people. But the charge came almost immediately.

And Black Kettle’s horse was tied near his lodge. He got on it and got his wife, Medicine Woman Later, and they attempted to escape. And as they were crossing the river, they were both shot off their horse and they fell dead into the river.

The regiment or detachment that was under the charge of Colonel Custer went through the village shooting men and boys. Custer had ordered that women be captured and his order was obeyed, even though there were women and children casualties. And once they went clear through the village, the Sharp Shooters got off, laid down, and with the carbines, shot back into the village.

The name of the music?

There are some stories of people who survived.

Magpie was a very young man and a teenager when the attack came. He had been given a pistol to always keep. And when the charge came, Big Man and Magpie ran out of their lodge. Magpie had forgotten to pick up his pistol. He ran back into his tipi and got it, and then once he came out, he tried to run and escape, but he was shot in the leg. But he kept running, and another friend joined him.

And as they were running away from the village, a trooper spotted them and gave chase. And as the trooper swung his sword, Magpie ducked. After the sword had passed over his head, he put the pistol as close to the abdomen of the soldier on horseback and fired. He got on, and he had his friend get on that horse and they both escaped to a point where they hid in a snow bank.

White Buffalo Woman was escaping down the river with two children when they were overtaken. And they had run a good distance through the snow. The children were barefooted and their feet were bleeding. And White Buffalo Woman saw down the river, a group of warriors coming up that the trooper didn’t see. And so she diverted the attention of the trooper, pointing to the bleeding feet of the children. And she began to tear off bits of her clothing to wrap them and all this time the trooper was watching her, and he did not see the warriors coming up until it was too late. They soon overtook him and killed him. And that’s how White Buffalo Woman and the two children survived.

Moving Behind had stayed with a friend of hers. And when the attack came, Cornstalk Woman ran out of her tipi uh, toward the tipi where Moving Behind and her friend were staying., so both of them ran. They found some tall grass and hid all during the time, hearing the fire, hearing the screams of people, all the yelling throughout the morning and into the early afternoon.

One trooper on horseback actually came by and spotted them laying in the grass. He looked at them awhile and then, perhaps in obedience to Custer’s orders not to try to capture women, he went on and spared their lives.

And I remember growing up with my grandfather, and would everyday see this special tipi, this sacred lodge where the sacred bundle was kept. Every morning, Magpie would go in there and pray for all of us, all the Cheyenne, all the Arapaho, and all the people everyday when he kept that sacred bundle.

Lawrence Hart and Gordon Yellowman sing the Chief’s Song:
Yo heyo heyo o yo o he haya Yo heyo heyo o yo o he haya Yo heyo heyo o yo o he haya Ya heya heya o ya o he haya Ya heya heya o ya o he haya A hey-ye yo heyo

Ya o he haya Ya heya heya o ya o he haya Ya heya heya o ya o he haya Ya heya heya o ya o he haya A hey-ye yo heyo

Neskahi:
Traditional Cheyenne Peace Chief, Lawrence Hart is executive director of the Cheyenne Cultural Center, and serves as one of the four chiefs of the Southern Cheyenne in Clinton, Oklahoma.

Photos courtesy of a2zcds.
Click to enlarge.
www.a2zcds.com