William Garnett, also known as Billy
Hunter, was the half-blood son and only child of Major
Richard Brooke Garnett, Commandant of Fort Laramie. During
the Civil War, Major Garnett moved up the confederate
ranks to Brigadier General and was killed in Pickett's
Charge at Gettysburg. William's mother was an Oglala Sioux
woman of the Melt or Spleen band named Looks-at-Him or
Mollie Campbell. William was born on the bottom below
where the Sabine Creek disembogues into the Big Laramie
River in April, 1855.
William
Garnett was a scout, guide, interpreter, and spy for the
U.S. Army from October 1876 until September 1877. He was
honorably discharged in 1877, but his 1920 claim for a pension
was rejected because the records of the War Department indicated
that he had not been enlisted in the United States military
service but had been a civilian employed as a scout. He
died September 12, 1930.

Photo by Charles Milton Bell
Ricker
wrote the following sketch of Garnett near the end of January
1907:
William
Garnet lives on Cane Creek north of the White River on
a ranch of his own, 8 or 10 miles south of the extension
of the Milwaukee R.R. He was the son of General Garnet
who was killed in the battle of Gettysburg. His father
was an officer in the old army and was stationed at Fort
Laramie. He had this son by a Sioux Indian woman who afterwards
married a man by the name of Hunter [John Hunter]; and
hence the subject of this sketch is sometimes called Garnet
and sometimes Hunter, but his true name is Garnett and
this is officially recognized.
Garnett is one of the best interpreters on the Reservation.
He is a stirring, intelligent, able man; and while he
did not have the advantages of schooling, he has absorbed
much practical knowledge, and is held in high estimation
for his honor, integrity and veracity. Bat says he was
in the fight under Mackenzie on one of the forks of Powder
River, in the mountains; the command marched from Crazy
Woman [Creek] across the divide to the fork where the
Cheyenne village was, and striking the village at the
lower end and charged up the stream. Garnett was in this
fight.

Agent
Brennan poses in front of a tent with his son, Billy (William)
Garnett, an interpreter, (son of General Richard B. Garnett
of old Fort Laramie and a Native American Sioux mother),
his wife, daughter and three sons, and a land allotment
crew holding a transit, rod and stakes, Pine Ridge Reservation,
South Dakota. Date 1891
Title
typed on label on back of print with: "Reservation
man with celluloid collar is Agent Brennan, his son Paul
in doorway of tent. Indian family to right shows Billie
Garnett, his wife, three sons and daughter. Garnett, son
of Gen. Richard B. Garnett of old Fort Laramie, and a Sioux
Indian mother. William Garnett was interpreter at the treaty
of 1868- He died Sept. 12 - 1930. He was a fine man, respected
by the Indians and officers of the army." Stamps on
back of print: "Fred B. Hackett" and "Reprint
from original."
Photo
and comments from Denver Public Library. —
Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Billie
Garnett certainly appears to be older than 36 years of age
in the above photo, and I find it hard to believe that he
would have been involved in interpreting for the 1868 treaty
at the age of 13. Is it possible that he was born earlier
than 1855? — harpskiddie

We
might also mention that before she was married to Lieut.
Garnett, William Garnett's mother Looks At Him (Akitapi
Win) was the wife of fur trader John Baptiste Boyer.
Through a different wife, Boyer was the father of scout
Mitch Boyer, killed at the Little Bighorn. William and Mitch
were step-brothers, though Mitch was considerably older.
After
Lieut. Garnett left Fort Laramie, Boyer took Looks At Him
back. Garnett later told Walter Camp: "Then Boyer brought
my mother back again and I lived with them and did not know
until later years that Garnett was my father. Sally Boyer
was my half sister through mother and married Philip White.
Mich was one of four, including Antoine, by the Yankton
Woman or, perhaps, Old Man Boyer had two wives -- I am not
certain which was the case."
This
suggests that young Garnett was living with the Boyer family
at Bissonette's trading post on Deer Creek as a small child.
After Old Man Boyer was killed by Indians, Looks at Him
married John Hunter and young Garnett became known as Billy
Hunter.
In
his long interview with Judge Ricker, Garnett mentions going
to school for a few days at Fort Laramie in 1866, but then
running off to Scottsbluff to rejoin his mother. As I recall,
he went north briefly with some Oglala relatives in 1868
(he was not an interpreter at the treaty of 1868), then
returned to the Fort Laramie region. In 1872, he was working
for Jules Ecoffey (the Indian trader at Red Cloud Agency),
John Richard and Adolph Cooney, at which time he witnessed
the killing of Yellow Bear and John Richard. Shortly after
the Red Cloud Agency was removed to Nebraska in 1873, he
was hired as an interpreter. He appears in Thomas Wilhelm's
tintype taken at the Red Cloud Agency in 1874. Garnett was
then hired by the Army in 1876 as a scout and interpreter,
as noted above. — Ephriam Dickson

Some
details about Billy Garnett´s family from Mike Stevens´genealogy
pages:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mikestevens/2010-p/p120.htm#i999
Looking
Woman, the wife of Gen. Garnett and mother of Billy was
born at Fort Laramie Region, USA, circa 1840 and died December
12, 1928.
Billy
Garnett married:
ca. 1875 Zuzella Janis (b. 1850) (divorced before 1880)
(son: Charles W. Garnett, 1876-1954)
ca. 1879 Emma ? (b. 1858) (divorced before 1884) (daughter:
Susan Garnett, 1879-1937)
ca. 1884 Filla Janis (1856-1946) (children: Richard Garnett
1885-1920, William Garnett Jr. 1887-1907, Dolly Garnett
1890-1912) — Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Given
that this information is correct, and I have no reason to
suspect that it is not, does that mean that the photo purportedly
showing Garnett and his family [above] must be later than
1891? The three sons shown would have been only 15, 6 and
4 years of age in 1891. Obviously they are older, or misidentified.
Or something. — harpskiddie