History would have  been altered had Gen. Custer followed the advise of the Crow scouts who urged  him not to lead his forces into the valley of the Little Big Horn. In the  ensuing battle, White Swan was severely injured, and after a long recovery,  returned to Crow Agency seriously disabled.

In 1894 White  Swan, crippled and unable to hear or speak, created a series of drawings on  pages from an accounting ledger book to explain his role in the famous battle to  his friend, the pastor at the Congregational Church.

—  Billy Markland

The  photo below is White Swan around 1899 taken at the Crow Agency, Montana, by  Arthur M. Tinker, an inspector for the Indian Office and amateur photographer.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum®

Another photo of  White Swan holding his war club:

TMI number 00466, Photograph by F. A. Rinehart, 1898, © Omaha Public Library, 1998

TMI number 00467, Photograph by F. A. Rinehart, 1898, © Omaha Public Library, 1998

Painted at Crow Agency, 1897 by Elbridge Ayer Burbank

Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 - 1953) oil on canvas

Sharp moved to the West,  establishing homes in Montana and New Mexico, in order to live among the  subjects he wanted to portray. Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Whitney Purchase  Fund (18.61)

— Grahame Wood

White Swan was at  the battlefield with some of the survivors of the LBH battle on June 25th  1886:

http://sirismm.si.edu/naa/4605/01605403.jpg

— Dietmar  Schulte-Möhring

Yellow Nose counting coup with the flag he captured from Long Hair’s soldiers. (Take a look at his short hair!)

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

There were several men called Whirlwind in Cheyenne history. The man in the Snell photo and in the 1872 photo must be Old Whirlwind (ca.1823-1891), a Southern Cheyenne chief of the Peneteka faction of the Hevhaitaneo (Hair Rope) band, in reservation times situated west of Watonga, Oklahoma, on the North Canadian River. (See John H. Moore, “The Cheyenne Nation”)

His son was called Young Whirlwind; maybe he wears the war-bonnet in the last photo.

There also was a warrior named Little Whirlwind among the Northern Cheyenne. 

Here is the 1872 photo of Whirlwind:

Here’s another, a rather impressive looking Whirlwind, obviously not the same Cheyenne?

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

There was an 84 year-old Long Chin in the Darlington Cheyenne census in 1887.

In Life of George Bent, he makes reference to the Dog Soldiers and Spotted Tail‘s Brules trading with Little Gerry in 1863, noting that Long Chin was a leader of the Dog Soldiers and there’s a footnoted reference to the fact that Gerry married one of (the Cheyenne) Long Chin’s Sioux nieces… He was also an uncle of Bent.

— Grahame Wood

His name was variously translated as Lame White Man, Walking White Man, Crippled White Man, or Broken White Leg. The Sioux called him Bearded Man or Moustache (which hints at the unusual presence of facial hair). Therefore author Richard Hardorff suggests that Lame White Man may have been a captive of white descendants.

Another Cheyenne name for him was Mad Hearted Wolf or Rabid Wolf, for in battle he was always out in front, “fighting as fiercely as a maddened wolf” (as Peter Powell stated).

His wife was called Twin Woman and he had two children: Red Hat and Crane Woman.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Chief Lame White man was 37 years old when he died and left behind a widow and two daughters. He is credited with encouraging the warriors to resist the “soldier” excursion into Calhoun Coulee in which the warriors initially fled at their approach. Contrary to the work published by Dr. Marquis who stated that Two Moon led the Cheyennes at the Little Bighorn, Wooden Leg says it was Lame White Man.

A Southern Cheyenne, Lame White Man had been with the northern branch for so long that he and his wife and children were considered to be part of the Northern Cheyenne. He was also referred to as Walking White. In the heat of battle he received mortal wounds and succumbed to these wounds on Custer Ridge. His body was subsequently mistaken as a “Ree” scout for the soldiers and, as a result, scalped by the infuriated Sioux warriors.

Lame White Man was also known as “White Man Cripple” and “Walking White Man.” His martial prowess when battling the “White Man” was so prodigious that his contemporaries honored him with names that signified what happened to “White” soldiers when they came face to face with him. Their intestinal fortitude became so meager that they could offer no more resistance than a cripple or were inclined to walk away rather than fight.

— Realbird

I looked through the pages of “People of the Sacred Mountain” by Father Peter Powell. He listed the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs in 1876 and who of them was at the Little Bighorn in detail.

The traditional 44 Cheyenne Chiefs were chosen in a ceremony after a Sun Dance in 1874. This “Renewing of the Chiefs” took place normally every ten years. For the first time the Northern Cheyenne elected their own Council of Chiefs independent of the Southern branch of the tribe. The following Cheyennes were chosen in 1874:

Old Man Chiefs:
Little Wolf, Northern Suhtai and Sweet Medicine Chief
Morning Star (a/k/a Dull Knife), Head Chief of the Omisis
Old Bear, Omisis
Black Moccasin (a/k/a Limber Lance)

Council of the Forty-Four:
Box Elder, Head Chief of Northern Suhtai
American Horse, Northern Suhtai
Black Wolf, Northern Suhtai
Black Eagle, Head Chief of Northern Scabby
Little Chief, Little Chief’s band of Lakota/Cheyenne
&
Turkey Leg, (Young) Spotted Wolf, Old Wolf, Black Moccasin (a/k/a Iron), Bald Bear, White Dirt (a/k/a Powder), White Head (a/k/a Gray Head), Old Crow, Strong Wolf (a/k/a Big Wolf), Plum Man, Magpie Eagle, Crazy Head, Black Crane, Medicine Bear, Medicine Wolf, Twin, Standing Elk, Spotted Elk, Living Bear, Black Bear, Cut Foot, Broken Dish (a/k/a Calfskin Shirt) and some others.

The great majority of these Chiefs were at the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Only Morning Star/Dull Knife, Turkey Leg, Spotted Elk, Standing Elk, Living Bear, and Black Bear remained at the agency that year. Little Wolf arrived shortly after the battle and was harangued badly by the Lakotas.

In addition to the Chiefs all of the thirty headmen of the Northern Cheyenne warrior societies were probably present at the Little Bighorn, with the exception of Little Wolf, head chief of the Elkhorn Scrapers.

Elkhorn Scraper:
Lame White Man
Wild Hog
Broken Jaw
Crow-Split-Nose
Tall White Man
White Hawk
Left-Handed-Shooter
Goes-After-Other-Buffalo
Plenty Bears
Wolf Medicine

Kit Foxes:
Last Bull
Two Moon
Bear-Who-Walks-On-A-Ridge
Wrapped Hair
Plenty-of-Buffalo-Bull-Meat
Little Horse
Sits-Beside-His-Medicine
Mosquito
Rattlesnake Nose
Weasel Bear

Crazy Dogs:
Old Man Coyote
Strong Left Hand
Little Creek
Snow Bird (a/k/a White Bird)
Crazy Mule
Iron Shirt
Black Knife
Beaver Claws
Red Owl
Crow Necklace

The most important holy men in the Little Bighorn village were Coal Bear (Keeper of the Sacred Hat), Box Elder, and White Bull (Ice).

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Left to right.: Tangle Hair, Wild Hog, Strong Left Hand, George Reynolds (interpreter), Old Crow, Noisy Walker, Porcupine, Blacksmith

• Tangle Hair, a half-Sioux by birth, was a dog soldier headman
• Wild Hog, a headman of the Elkhorn Scraper warrior society, was the leader of all the warriors in Dull Knife’s band during the flight to the North
• Strong Left Hand, also known as Strong Left Arm or simply Left Hand, was a headman of the Crazy Dog warrior society and was at the Little Bighorn
  
• Noisy Walker or Noisy Walking (not the son of White Bull) or Old Man was a mature Northern Cheyenne dog soldier warrior
• Old Crow or Crow was a council chief who had a bad reputation because he had scouted for the soldiers when Dull Knife´s village was destroyed in 1876
• Porcupine (1847-1929) was also a mature dog soldier warrior, he was the son of White Weed, an Arikara and a Lakota woman, but was married to a Northern Cheyenne woman. He was later a Ghost Dance teacher and a council chief (see P. Powell)
• Blacksmith was an older warrior

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

The photographs of the Cheyenne prisoners were sold by the firm of Leonard & Martin of Topeka, Kansas, presumably the original photographers. (J. H. Leonard and his partner H. T. Martin).

Here is another version of the same individuals:

— Ephriam Dickson

Here is the same group with some of their women and children in a studio setting. I just recently saw this photograph in a German translated version of “Life of George Bent”. It is interesting, I think, because it shows a rather young George Bent (interpreting at this trial), who looks more like an Indian here than in other photos with mustache.

Note that Old Crow, as one of the 44 council chiefs of the Cheyenne the highest ranking member of this group, sits in the center:

Front row, left to right: Old Crow´s son, Wild Hog´s daughter. Second row, sitting: Porcupine, Old Crow´s wife, Old Crow, Wild Hog. Back row, standing: Old Crow´s daughter, Noisy Walker, Strong Left Hand, George Bent, Blacksmith, Tangle Hair, Wild Dog´s daughter.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Fort Robinson outbreak, Frank Leslie's Illustrated, Feb. 15, 1879.

— Grahame Wood

Here are possibly three men from the photographs made at the trial in Kansas, pictured in later years:

Porcupine:

Tangle Hair:

Old Crow:

Strong Left Hand, the Elkhorn Scraper chief, ca, 1890 in Montana:

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

By De Lancy Gill, 1913

Charles Milton Bell

By Charles Milton Bell (Two Moons, second from left, American Horse, third from left)

By Richard Trossel, 1907

By Richard Trossel, 1907

Two Moons addressing council, by Joseph K. Dixon

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Early L.A. Huffman Photo

Two Moons by Burbank, 1896

— Grahame Wood

Shown here are some of the Cheyenne chiefs present at the Little Bighorn battle, from left to right:

Sits in the Night; Red Cherries; Brave Wolf; Two Moons; American Horse; Buffalo Hump; Spotted Wolf; Old Wolf.

According to Frink/Barthelmess in “Photographer on an Army Mule” the photo was made at a council with General Nelson A. Miles at Lame Deer in 1889.

Two Moons was the spokesman of the Cheyenne at this council. I guess that Buffalo Hump is Bull Hump, son of Dull Knife. Spotted Wolf (or Young Spotted Wolf) and Old Wolf were both members of the 1873 delegation to Washington.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

This was taken at Little Bighorn in 1909.

— Grahame Wood

Two Moons’ grave in Busby, Montana:

— Diane Merkel

The Indian holding the star-spangled banner on the right of Two Moons (on his left) looks like Laban Little Wolf.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Two Moons at Little Bighorn

A different view of the 1909 shot:

Taken by Joseph Kossuth Dixon, 1909

— Grahame Wood

Wanamaker photo:

Two Moons and Major McLaughlin dated circa 1900:

— Henri/”apsalooka”

By Dixon

This photo is also in Powell’s “People of the Sacred Mountain”. It was made in 1908 at a great gathering in the valley of the Little Bighorn. Two Moons and other Cheyennes along with representatives of other tribes assembled some thirty years after the battle. Wooden Leg also described the gathering in Marquis’ book about him.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

— Henri/”apsalooka”

By Edgar S. Paxson from 1902

— Agnes

Two Moons (left, facing the camera) and other Cheyennes at the Little Bighorn monument.

Two Moons by Joseph Henry Sharp. Painted at Lame Deer, Montana

— Grahame Wood

Little Wolf at Laramie by Alexander Gardner, 1868

Little Wolf was married to Quiet One and Feather on Head, and he had two sons, Pawnee and Woodenthigh, and a daughter, Pretty Walker.

— inkpaduta1981

Little Wolf and Others at Fort Laramie by Alexander Gardner, 1868

According to P. Powell, the man on the left is Short Hair, a Cheyenne council chief, who was obviously in mourning at the time and kind of feebleminded. I remember reading somewhere that the man in the center could be Dull Knife.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Little Wolf and Dull Knife in Washington, 1873

Little Wolf and His Wife by George Bird Grinnell, 1898

Little Wolf by Grinnell (from the Roberts Article in Montana Magazine)

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

• The first one was a Southerner, a member of the Dog Soldier band, who was also called Young Bull Robe.

• The other Little Hawk was a Northern Cheyenne, who was a Elkhorn Scraper society member. He was fighting in the battles at the Rosebud and Little Bighorn when he was twenty-eight years old. He left his account to Grinnell in 1908 (see Jerome Greene: Lakota and Cheyenne and Peter Powell: People of the Sacred Mountain).

Here is a photo labeled Little Hawk, Northern Cheyenne, 1880s:

Little Hawk

Because there are several Indian individuals named Little Hawk, it is not definite that this is the Cheyenne. Instead this also could be a Brule of that name.

— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring