What became known as the Dull Knife fight basically brought an end to the resistance of the Northern Cheyenne on the northern plains during the months following the summer disasters to the United States Army at the Rosebud River and the Little Big Horn. It was the only fight of Crock’s winter campaign and the Cheyenne can truthfully say it was the only time they were ever beaten. But it was only the beginning of a journey of two major leaders of the Cheyenne, one which would test the will of a defeated people and the humanity of those who defeated them.

The two major figures for the Cheyenne are commonly not even called by their actual tribal names. Dull Knife was the translation of what the Sioux called Wahiev (the easiest way to write it in English without all the accents) which translates to Morning Star. Little Wolf’s name probably more accurately translates to Little Coyote but history continues to record him as Little Wolf.

Morning Star had been a chief who had pushed for peace with the Americans as early as the 1860. The attack on a Cheyenne camp at Sand Creek in 1864 changed his attitude somewhat and he took part in both the Red Cloud War in 1868 and then the Black Hills War of 1876. He now had taken his Northern Cheyenne band back toward the headwaters of the Powder River for a winter camp. The Cheyenne had laid up tons of buffalo meat in the fall hunt after a summer of fighting the white man’s army.

It had been a good summer of fighting. Crook had been smashed at the Rosebud and Custer with a good portion of his command had fallen at the Greasy Grass. With Little Wolf and his band in camp, nearly all of the hostile Northern Cheyenne presence on the north plains was centered there against the Bighorn Mountains.

Little Wolf was an honored leader of the warrior society of Bowstring Soldiers as well as being the Sweet Medicine Chief, the keeper of the medicine bundle of the prophet Sweet Medicine. Although his Cheyenne did not take part in the Custer Fight, they played an important role. It was a couple of his men who had found the packs lost by the Custer pack animals. When the soldiers sent back to find them saw the Indians going through them, Custer assumed that his presence was known by the main camp. Actually the Cheyenne who found the packs were going the other way. Supposedly this is what convinced Yellow Hair to speed up his attack without knowing the full size or length of the huge camp.

There was actually a confrontation between Little Wolf and the Sioux when his Cheyenne did arrive after the fight because the Lakota accused him of helping the soldiers. But now the two main bands of the Cheyenne were camped together in the protection of a valley canyon.

The camp is struck on the Morning of November 25, 1876 (five months to the day after the Custer fight) by cavalry and Indian scouts under Ranald MacKenzie (YOU WERE THE ONE I WAS AFRIAD OF). A large group of Indian scouts were the first in the valley and the Cheyenne focused their fire on them as they swept toward the left side of the valley, thinking they were the soldiers. Originally MacKenzie had intended for the soldiers to strike at both the center and the right of the camp but in the course of the attack his aversion to splitting his command caused him to keep them together. The cavalry horses had trouble in the mud of the Red Fork of the Powder River and those two factors combined allowed several of the warriors to get to high ground and cover the women and families as they made for safety. The Cheyenne were well armed and it had turned into a “rifle duel”.

A one point, there was a lull in the fighting. One account has the Cheyenne showing a white flag to talk. In any case, MacKenzie sent out an Indian scout to begin a discussion. Morning Star said that two of his sons had been killed and he would like to surrender but some of the other chiefs wanted to fight on (probably Little Wolf being the most vocal). He then scolded the Indian scouts telling them if they would leave, the Cheyenne could whip the soldiers. Finally he said that if MacKenzie would return the horse herd, they would surrender. He was told that was impossible.

Little Wolf shouted that a large Sioux camp was close and they would soon come and all the soldiers would be killed. But that didn’t move MacKenzie and the battle eventually returning to a sniping contest.
Both sides had issues with the status quo. The Cheyenne were in a strong position with a “back door” to escape from through. MacKenzie had sent for more troops under Colonel Richard Dodge to finish the fight but they would not arrive for some time. The Cheyenne were relatively well armed but were very low on ammo since most of that was still in the camp.

MacKenzie had used the offer of letting the Cheyenne keep their lodges and supplies as a lever to bring about a surrender. But that had failed and later in the afternoon he ordered for the destruction of the Cheyenne property to begin. He knew this was the key to their eventual surrender.

After a night that was in the range of -20 degrees, both side were ready to go their own ways. MacKenzie sent out scouts and they reported that the Cheyenne had moved about six miles away and had already slaughtered four of the few horses they had left. Tribal stories later said that 11 babies had frozen to death during the night. The army began their own withdrawal and a few Cheyenne warriors who had stayed in the rocks came down to wail and mourn the dead. They were left alone.

The journey from the Red Fork of the Powder was a bitter one for the Cheyenne. More froze to death. Almost all were on foot. When they did eventually find the Sioux camp under Crazy Horse they found that they were a burden. Accounts vary as to the exact reception the Cheyenne received in a Sioux camp that was struggling itself. They had not had the successful fall hunt that Morning Star’s band had being hard pressed by the army even if they had avoided any real fight. While they did not exactly turn them out (depending on who you believe), the Sioux were not sorry to see the Cheyenne go.

Following their spring surrender, several Cheyenne offered to scout against Crazy Horse but he came in himself a month following Morning Star and Little Wolf’s surrender. The Cheyenne had every expectation of being moved onto the Red Cloud Agency. It was very much their “home ground”.

But government wisdom being what it always is, the Northern Cheyenne were sent to the Darlington Agency to be with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho in Oklahoma. Not only was the country completely different from their natural range but it was more or less “picked clean”. What buffalo that had been there were long since dead and gone thanks to both hide hunters and the reservation Indians already there. The same was true of any small game animals. This left the Northern band completely dependent on government supplies which rarely came on time if at all as well as facing the resentment of the other Indians who saw them as imposing on the small resources they had.

By mid-1878 almost half of the Northern Cheyenne had died since that winter attack and together Morning Star and Little Wolf requested, yet again, to be allowed to return to their own country. The last refusal of the request began both a heroic and desperate chapter of the history of the Cheyenne people.

In September of 1878, about 300 Northern Cheyenne began the 1000 mile escape route back to their traditional home under the duel leadership of Morning Star and Little Wolf. What followed was a cat and mouse game with the cavalry as they made their way across Kansas and Nebraska.

By winter, the exhausted and mostly starving Cheyenne had a decision to make. Morning Star was on the verge of having had enough and wanted to surrender at the Red Cloud Agency. Little Wolf refused and the band split at White Clay Creek with the Sweet Medicine Chief taking his band into hiding in the surrounding sand hills while Morning Star and about 150 Cheyenne headed toward surrender.

When Morning Star reached the Red Cloud Agency, he found it abandoned. Those Sioux had been moved to Pine Ridge. From there the Cheyenne went to Fort Robinson to formally surrender. Before entering the fort, the Cheyenne took their guns apart and hid the pieces, some hung on the necklaces and bracelets of the women and children. There they remained for two months waiting for the post commander to receive word as to where the Indians were to be sent. The Cheyenne still fully expected to be sent to Pine Ridge.

When word did come, it was not good. They were to be sent back to Oklahoma. When Morning Star refused, the Cheyenne were locked in barracks without food, water or heat. The Cheyenne remained there for three days until on January 8, 1879, he began to reassemble their weapons. The breakout was led by Little Shield, leader of the Dog Soldiers and they made it out of the fort for a brief time. When the shooting and roundup was over less than 100 Cheyenne were returned to Robinson. Among those who were not caught were Morning Star, his wife and a son.

The small group of Cheyenne struggled toward Pine Ridge and Red Cloud. Without provisions and eating tree bark most of the way, they arrived at Pine Ridge after an 18 days journey. There they waited for word if they would be allowed to stay. After a couple of months of government paper shuffling, they were finally allowed to remain with Red Cloud for the time being.

In 1884, Morning Star’s band was moved to a reservation created for them along the Tongue River near Fort Keough where Little Wolf’s band had been held. It was too late for Morning Star. He had died the year before.

Little Wolf outlived Morning Star by a couple of decades but in some ways did not fare any better. He had surrendered to Nelson Miles in March of 1879 at Fort Keough. He even scouted for Miles for a brief time and Keough became the center point of concentrating the many smaller bands of Northern Cheyenne.
Little Wolf’s troubles were born from two primary sources: politics and whiskey. It has been suggested that both have corrupted men for time eternal. Personally I have had little doubt that politics is an evil, if a somewhat necessary one like war and government. Therefore, it has to be limited as much as possible and hopefully practiced mostly by those who distrust it to begin with. As far as whiskey is concerned, I am still researching the subject as thoroughly as I can and hope to have developed a firm conclusion sometime within the next three decades.

With all of the Northern Cheyenne bands except Morning Star’s in or around Fort Keough, there developed a political rivalry between the two most important chiefs, Little Wolf and Two Moon. The rivalry became intense as each worked to be the most influential among the tribe. But the Blue Coats decided to select Two Moon as their “head chief” and Little Wolf became more and more bitter.

The incident which completed Little Wolf’s fall from grace involved a Cheyenne who had once been a good friend named Starving Elk. The tension began when Little Wolf felt that the other man was showing too much interest in his wife. Sometime after a confrontation about that, Starving Elk’s attention shifted to Little Wolf’s daughter, Pretty Walker.

Little Wolf had become more and more sullen and was drinking often. On December 12, 1880 the Cheyenne chief walked into the trading post on Two Moon Creek belonging to Eugene Lamphere quite drunk. Some other Indians were in groups gambling for candy and when Little Wolf spied Starving Elk and Pretty Walker together in the crowd, he went into a screaming rage. As the Sweet Medicine Chief, he was supposed to always control his temper and put the welfare of other Cheyenne ahead of his own. But now he was uncontrollable and was finally carried to the door by others in the room. When he got outside, most thought the matter was over.

But Little Wolf returned with a rifle, stepped through the door, took aim and shot Starving Elk dead. Now calmed, he slowly walked out and told the other Cheyenne, “I am going to the hill over the creek. I will be there if someone wants me.” He then went to sit on the hill, expecting Starving Elk’s family to come and kill him.

But they did not. With his wife, Little Wolf held vigil on the hill for two days and then both sober and sorry he came down.

The authorities at the fort decided the matter was too politically charged and for the sake of keeping the reservation under control covered it up without any charges being brought on Little Wolf. Starving Elk’s family had burned the Sweet Medicine Chief’s lodge and wagon but had decided against any other revenge against Little Wolf.

The Cheyenne did not expel Little Wolf as was the custom but he pretty well exiled himself. He supported himself mostly doing odd jobs for white men and his wife took in washing while they isolated themselves from the other Cheyenne.

In 1892, the Cheyenne called a council to reorganize and although he at first refused to attend, Little Wolf was convinced to come, sit, smoke and help pick his successor. Sun Road was selected but he refused to accept the Sweet Medicine bundle. Finally Grasshopper stepped forward to take it. It was never seen again and many assumed he had buried it. The council had discussed doing away with it because it had been disgraced.

Little Wolf lived another 12 years, mostly apart from the people he had led. After his death, he was buried in Lame Deer Cemetery where he lies beside Morning Star. They rest there together overlooking the land they tried so hard to see again even if just to live out their lives. It was a hard journey for them both.