While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Cheyenne were old allies of
the Sioux and in the early summer of
1876 Chief Two Moon caped at
Charcoal Butte alongside Crazy
Horse's Sioux. Below them camped on
the Missouri River was Sitting Bull.
This huge gathering of warriors
alter moved to the edge of the
Little Big Horn River and attacked
the 7th US cavalry under General
Custer.
In the summer of 1876 a US Army
cavalry detachment under Captain
Anson Mills discovered American
Horse's village which was preparing
to move south for the winter. Capt
Mills attacked but was driven back.
During his wait for reinforcements,
under General Crook, the majority of
the a few warriors remained and
fought but eventually surrendered.
American Horse was badly wounded and
shortly afterwards died.
Chief of the Oglala Sioux, the
largest band of the Dakota, Red
Cloud rose quickly from a young
warrior to Chief with 80 coups to
his credit. Red Cloud was a great
statesman and orator. In 1860 the US
Government began building a road
from Fort Laramie in Wyoming towards
Montana in order to transport gold.
Red Cloud advised the Government
that this road would spoil the Sioux
hunting grounds. The road was
abandoned, after a bitter struggle,
in 1866. After such a victory Red
Cloud never fought again and died an
old man in 1909.
His Indian name-'Hinmaton-Yalakit'
means 'Thunder coming from water
over the land'. After suffering a
defeat at the hands of the US Army
at White Bird Canyon, Chief Joseph
led his tribe towards Canada moving
over 2,000 miles under continual
harassment from the army. With only
a day's journey left he was forced
to surrender at the Bear Paw
mountains in Montana. Chief Joseph
and his tribe were placed on the
Colville Reservation in Washington
State where he died of old age in
1904.
In 1889 the Sioux began the
practice of 'Ghost Dance' which had
spread from the Paiute tribe in
Nevada. In performing this dance the
Sioux thought that they would see
the return of their dead warriors
and the buffalo. Kicking Bear was an
advocate of this dance. By wearing
only Ghost dance shirts the wearer
would, it was thought, be
invulnerable to the white man's
bullets. On December 29th 1890 at
Wounded Knee 350 Native Americans
died and this ended the long
struggle for the proud people of the
North American Plains.
