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Terry sent for Yellow Shield, then Yellow Shield sent for me. Bouyer then asked me who among the Crow scouts did the most scouting. I said White Swan, Hairy Moccasin, and myself. These scouts then camp up and joined me. Yellow Shield then told us that he wanted six men in all. Then we had a conference. We thought of White-Man-Runs-Him, but he had no horse.
The Indians who piloted Long Hair to the great Sioux camp in the valley of the Little Big Horn—the last day of life for Custer, the last contest at arms for the Indians—are now old men, and their own life record is full of thrilling interest. White Man Runs Him—Custer Scout White-Man-Runs-Him This red man of the plains is a veritable Apollo Belvedere.
Then he rose and shook hands with me, and said: “My scout, if we win the battle, you will be one of the noted men of the Crow Nation.” In a moment or two he turned around again and said to me: “I have forgotten to tell you, you are not to fight in this battle, but to go back and save your life.” White-Man-Runs-Him and Hairy Moccasin and Curly heard what Custer said. The other two were with Reno.
Custer stood there a little for we expected all the Crow Creeks, and Terry’s command, to meet us there that day, and make a battle that day. After he said this Custer started into the battle and opened fire on the camp. We scouts were up on top of the bluff, and we fired at the camp. Hairy Moccasin and White-Man-Runs-Him were with him.
As the brave general moved out of the valley up the ridge it is the testimony of White-Man-Runs-Him that Hairy Moccasin rode immediately in advance of Custer, and when the Chey-ennes came up, “He fired at them, banged and banged at them, and the Cheyennes were afraid of Moccasin. They were afraid of all three of us.
White-Man-Runs-Him and another scout did not have any horses, so they got into the boat and went down the river, bringing a dispatch to Terry. The dispatch told us to go back and follow the Yellowstone up again. We went back and camped within ten or twelve miles of the mouth of the Big Horn, near where we had camped before.
A white man pursued his father, firing his gun above his father’s head in order to make him run. And he was afterward called “White-Man-Runs-Him.” Regarding his boyhood days he tells us: “Until I was fifteen years of age, together with my boy playmates, we trained with bows and arrows. We learned to shoot buffalo calves, and this practice gave us training for the warpath.
When I started back I heard a howl like a coyote. White Swan, Hairy Moccasin, Goes-Ahead, and White-Man-Runs-Him were coming in to report. The Sioux had broken camp the day before and had camped above where their old camp was on the Little Rosebud. Custer told us to go on ahead and see which way they went, and we came to where they had broken camp.
Then Yellow Shield said he would call White-Man-Runs-Him and Goes-Ahead to join us. After they had called these men they put us on the steamboat and sent us down the river, sending the other Crows home. We were taken down to the mouth of the Little Rosebud by the Yellowstone. We were told after we had had our dinner that we must dress ourselves up and paint up and get ready to scout.”
Then he selected men from this line of scouts to send to General Custer as scouts. He mentioned my name and also called Yellow-Shield, White-Man-Runs-Him, White Swan, Hairy Moccasin, and Curly out of this line. There were six of us. Then they gave us orders to go on the steamboat. We sailed down to the mouth of the Little Rosebud, there we got off the boat.
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