Posts Tagged ‘Wooden Leg’
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
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