Native American Biographies: At Little Big Horn

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull are well known for their exploits at Little Big Horn.  They were the leaders of the Native American Forces.  Different sources have different stories of Sitting Bull's participation.  He had been involved in a Sun Dance, and was weakened.  As a result of the dance, he saw the Federals coming and new the Native people would have a great victory.  However because he was weaker, some sources feel he was not involved directly.  However this is likely not true.  However many more Native Americans were involved, some fighting for General George Armstrong Custer, and others as part of the Cheyenne-Sioux alliance that opposed him.  Shoshone and Creek warriors served as scouts for Custer.
Bloody Knife: Although a Hunkpapa Sioux, Bloody Knife fought with Custer and met his death in this battle.  Bloody knife was actually considered to be of mixed blood (his mother was Arikara) and was taunted by his peers.  Consequently he grew up with his mother's tribe and a hatred of the Sioux.  At one point serving as a scout, he brought the federals to Gall's camp.  Gall was wounded, but Bloody Knife was not allowed to finish him.
At Little Big Horn, Bloody Knife was worried about the numbers of enemy and advised against attack.  However he was in the advance group, and was killed by a one of Gall's warriors.  The Sioux displayed his head in victory.
Rain in the Face, also Hunkpapa Sioux, was fighting with Sitting Bull.  His names comes from an incident when blood streaked with war paint and smeared and streaked on his face.  He had been arrested for the murder of a white surgeon.  However he was allowed to escape and was at Little Big Horn.  He is credited with killing General Custer.  After the battle he fled to Canada with Sitting Bull, and later came back to reservation life.
White Man Runs Him was Crow.  He was Custer's chief scout.  He and other scouts with him observed and reported the location of a large Indian camp and the stage was set for Custer's attack.  His actual participation during the battle is not clear, but after passing away he was reburied in the Little Bighorn Battlefield Cemetery.
Kicking Bear, Hump and Short Bull were all at Little Big Horn.  Little Bear was especially prominent in repulsing the initial attack by Major Marcus Reno.  He along with Bad Heart Bull (father of the historian Amos Bad Heart Bull) helped turn back the initial assault of Major Marcus Reno.  After, Reno's men were in retreat with Indian Warriors chasing them, taking coup and killing them.

Gall

Gall was credited with being the architect of the native American war strategy at Little Big Horn.  He was a contemporary and ally of Sitting Bull.  They grew up together, although Gall was a few years younger.  He had been wounded badly when tracked to his camp.  A bayonet went through him, but he was too stubborn to die.  His greatest exploits were at Little Big Horn.  He helped repulse the initial attack from Reno, but also suspected a two pronged attack, and searched for the other attack and in finding it reported to the camp, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, so defenses were ready for Custer's move.  He and his men were able to put blistering flanking fire into the Federal Calvary.  After Little Big Horn, Gall and his people went north to Canada with Sitting Bull.  However he returned before Sitting Bull because of the lack of food.  He was determined to live the reservation life, and lived as a farmer.  He became friendly with Indian Agent McLaughlin and in this parted with Sitting Bull.  He represented his people in Washington on several occasions.  He was also appointed an Indian judge on the Sand Hill Reservation.  John Grass fought with Gall.
Curly was another of Custer's scouts.  He was Crow.  He was recruited to scout for Custer in the Yellowstone expedition when he was 17.  His escape from death caused controversy.  He says he stayed with the battle until all seemed hopeless.  He then tied his hair back like a Sioux, wrapped himself in a Sioux blanket, and left the battle field undetected.  He reported the results to a supply boat on the Yellowstone River.  Other scouts tell a different story, saying they were held back, and watched the battle from a distance.  When he died in 1923 he was buried at the National Cemetery on the Custer Battlefield.

Native American Biographies: Adherents of the Ghost Dance

Wovoka was the energy behind the Ghost Dance.  He was the self proclaimed Messiah come to save the people.  He had a couple near death experiences, in which he dreamed of powers.  The second near death experience he woke up saying the Whites had rejected Christ, and now he was come back and he was the Messiah.  Wovoka had learned much of the idea from the spiritual leader, John Slocum, founder of the Indian Shaker Church, while he was working as a migrant worker in the Northwest.  Slocum had a near death experience, and woke up talking of a dream he had.  Also his father, Tovibo had been a religious leader.  Very likely Tovibo had learned the Ghost Dance from its originator Wodziwob.  Tovibo was a visionary man and prophesied the destruction of the whites.  Wovoka's father died when Wovoka was young, and Wovoka was taken in by a white family.  Thus his American name, Jack Wilson.  Wovoka was familiar with Christianity.  When Wovoka returned from his second near death experience, trance, his vision told him that deceased Indians, and those alive would rise together, the earth would be flooded killing all the whites, and then the Indians would inherit an earth with lots of game and happiness.  When Wovoka expressed his beliefs it was one of peace.
 
To bring these changes, the people needed to do the Ghost Dance.  This was basically a round dance.  As they danced they would chant, "Father, I come; Mother, I come; Brother, I come; Father, give us back our arrows. 
The movement of Wodziwob remained local.  However with Wovoka's movement it spread to the Plains Indians.  They were looking for relief from reservation life.  Emissaries traveled from the Sioux to visit Wovoka.  Soon there were 50,000-60,000 adherents.  Many of the subgroups took the basic tenants and forgot the peaceful part.  They were interested in the garment that would stop bullets, and the reunion with their dead who would them help them battle the whites.  Thus the dance was alarming to those watching the Sioux reservations, thinking it would lead to an uprise.
The Mormons were blamed for the unrest.  General Nelson Miles reported:

Many nations had gone west to Nevada and had been shown somebody disguised as the Messiah .. . I am inclined to believe that there is more than one person impersonating this Messiah . . . [because] when [the] Sioux have spoken with him, he has replied in the Sioux language, and to Blackfeet he has spoken their tongue, and so on. I cannot say positively, but it is my belief the Mormons are the prime movers in all this. .. . It will [probably not] lead to an outbreak, but when an ignorant race of people become religious fanatics it is hard to tell just what they will do" (New York Times, 8 Nov. 1890, Deseret News, 7. Nov. 1890).

After the battle of Wounded Knee Wovoka was devastated at the result.  His religion quickly fell out of favor and Wovoka spent the rest of his life in relative anonymity.

Short Bull (left) and Kicking Bear

Short Bull was a contemporary of Crazy Horse.  They grew up together.  He had been at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  In the 1880s, the life were American Indians on the reservations was miserable.  Promised food stuffs and other supplies were not funded, or did not arrive.  In this atmosphere, Short Bull was part a contingent of eleven Sioux to visit with Wovoka.  They returned with glowing reports, but focused on the destruction of the whites and the wearing of ghost shirts for protection from bullets.  Short Bull was one of the Sioux prophets of the movement.

Kicking Bear after hearing the report form Short Bull, became an apostle of the movement among the Sioux.  Expecting negative reactions, he focused on teaching of the ghost shirt which would protect the wearer from bullets.

Red Cloud did not announce any official feelings on the dance, and people took this as acceptance.  Sitting Bull was asked to put a stop to the dances, but did not feel he should interfere with the expression of others.  This lead to his arrest, and murder while he was being arrested.  Sitting Bull's people fled to the camp of Big Foot.  They were followed by the calvary, and this lead to the Wounded Knee Massacre.  Big Foot was killed.

Crow Dog was also a big proponent of the Ghost Dance.  He had been present when Crazy Horse was killed, and had kept the Indians from retaliating.  He was one of the last hold outs after the massacre.  He returned to the Rose Bud Reservation.  Crow Dog was also known for murdering a political opponent, Spotted Tail.

Hump had been at Little Big Horn.  He attempted to join Sitting Bull in Canada, but turned back to the Cheyenne reservation.  He was a big advocate of the ghost dance, practicing with Big Foot.  However he knew things were going to get ugly, so took his people and left.  After Wounded Knee he went to Washington to advocate for better conditions for his people.

Two Strike, so called because he knocked to men down with one blow was a prominent leader of the Brule Sioux.  He participated in Red Cloud's war, attack the Union Pacific.  He became an advocate of the Ghost Dance, but after being advised by whites he gave it up a month before Wounded Knee.

Wooden Leg was Cheyenne.  He too become part of the Ghost Dance movement.  He wrote an autobiography which talked about major historical events, and the struggle to adjust to the reservation system, especially the limit of just one wife.

Young Man Afraid of His Horses, so called because he was so brave even his horses instilled fear in his enemy, warned against the Ghost Dance.  He tried unsuccessfully to warn his people.  He was able to negotiate better treatment for his people after Wounded Knee.