White Man Runs Him

White Man Runs Him (Mahr-Itah-Thee-Dah-Ka-Roosh) - (c. 1858 – June 2, 1929) was a Crow scout serving with George Armstrong Custer’s1876 expeditions against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne that culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His accounts of the battle and the events leading up to the battle are invaluable to modern historians, but were largely ignored for nearly a hundred years.

Early life

Also known as "White Buffalo That Turns Around", he was born into the Big Lodge Clan of the Crow nation, the son of Bull Chief and Offers HerRed Cloth. At the age of about 18, he volunteered to serve as a scout with the United States Army on April 10, 1876, in its campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, traditional enemies of the Crow.

ervice as a scout

Originally assigned to the infantry, he was later transferred to Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry. He scouted for Lt. Charles Varnum’s column in the days preceding the battle. On June 25, 1876, he accompanied Varnum and Custer to the Crow’s Nest, a natural rock formation overlooking the Little Bighorn valley, to assess the situation. The Crow scouts, including White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, Curley, Hairy Moccasin and others, advised Custer to wait for reinforcements. Custer refused their advice, however, and prepared to attack.

Convinced they were about to die in battle, the scouts took off their uniforms and donned Crow war clothing. When Custer demanded to know why, they responded that they wished to die as warriors rather than soldiers. Custer was angered by what he perceived as fatalism and relieved them from further service about an hour before engaging in the final battle. White Man Runs Him retired to a ridge along with Goes Ahead, Hairy Moccasin, and Strikes That Bear to join Maj. Marcus Reno. They were engaged briefly in battle but would survive the engagement. He then joined Col. John Gibbon's column.

Later life and legacy

After the battle, he lived on the Crow reservation near Lodge Grass, Montana. He was the stepgrandfather of Joe Medicine Crow, a Crow tribal historian who used his grandfather’s stories as a basis for his later histories of the battle and grandfather to Pauline Small, the first woman elected to the Crow Tribe of Indians. His status as a Little Big Horn survivor made him a minor celebrity late in life, and he even made a cameo appearance in the 1927 Hollywood movie, "Red Raiders".

Despite his fame, his accounts of the battle and Custer’s command were largely ignored for nearly a century. The United States Army and Custer’s widow Libby had begun a public relations campaign to portray Custer as a gallant fallen hero. The Crow scout's depiction of Custer as vainglorious, headstrong, and reckless did not fit with the accepted view of the time. White Man Runs Him, the other surviving scouts, as well as Sioux and Cheyenne warriors told their side of the story to photographer and writer Edward S. Curtis in the early 20th century. His book told their story, but even he left out the more controversial parts of the account. It wasn't until the late 20th century when Curtis's private notes became public that most historians began to take a second look at Native American accounts of the battle and White Man Runs Him's accounts of the battle came to the attention of historians.

White Man Runs Him lived the remainder of his life on the Crow reservation in the Big Horn Valley region of Montana, just a few miles from the site of the famous battle. He died there in 1929 and was buried in the cemetery at the Little Big Horn Battlefield.

References

Reference: Harcey, Dennis; Croone, Brian R. White-Man-Runs-Him (ISBN 1-879260-16-6) Evanston Pub, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A., 1995.