White Swan

White Swan, Photo by Frank Rinehart (1861–1928)

White Swan, Photo by Frank Rinehart (1861–1928)

White Swan (1850 (approx.) to 1904) or Mee-nah-tsee-us in the Crow language, was one of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. At the Battle of the Little Big Horn, White Swan went with Major Reno's detachment and took a direct and active part in the combat at the south end of the village. He was the only Crow Scout to be wounded in action in the battle. After suffering several severe wounds, he was taken to safety by Half Yellow Face, the chief of the Crow scouts, and after the battle Half Yellow Face made a special travois and moved White Swan to the Far West steamship so he could get medical care, along with the wounded soldiers. White Swan was first reported to have died, but he survived his wounds though he never fully recovered, and the disabilities from these wounds continued to limit him during the rest of his life. His had a severely deformed right wrist and hand, he limped from a wound in his foot, and he had a scar on his forehead where he been struck with a war club rendering him both deaf and dumb. Eventually he was awarded a small army pension. He was known for his artistic ability, and in his later life he drew a series of pictures representing key events in his life, including events of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In his later life he lived at the Crow Agency, after it had been moved to its present site in the Little Bighorn valley in Montana. He was painted by the artist J.H. Sharp, who knew him and described him as "Jolly, good natured and a general favorite." His wife had died when he was only 23, and he did not remarry. He lived for a time with an aunt, "Strikes By The Side Of The Water" who was also the mother of Curly, another Crow scout, and he and Curly were known in the Crow Agency community as brothers, though their personalities were said to be the opposite of each other. He died in 1904, leaving no direct descendants.

White Swan's scar on his forehead, from a stroke of a war club, and the disabling injury to his right wrist received at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, are visible in the photo

Biography

Early life, Names

White Swan was born in approximately 1850 though some sources state his birth date was in 1851 or 1852. He had been raised in the traditional manner of his tribe, and would have acquired warrior status in his early teens through deeds of bravery.

White Swan married, but his wife died in 1873, before his enlistment as an army scout. He never remarried.

In historical references White Swan is also referred as "Strikes Enemy" and "White Goose" or Mi-na-te-hash in the Crow language.

Army Service as a Crow Scout in the Great Sioux War of 1876

Enlistment with the 7th Infantry, early skirmishes

On April 9, 1876, Col. John Gibbon went with Lt. James Bradley to the Crow Indian Agency, which was then located on the Stillwater River in Montana, to recruit Indian scouts. In an embarrassing two hour counsel the chiefs of the Mountain Crows expressed their reluctance to help the expedition. They pointed out that Indian warriors traveled light and fast and struck quickly, but the soldiers marched slowly with wagons and thus never found the enemy.

Fortunately for Gibbon the young Crow braves sought adventure and on April 10, 1876 some twenty five Crows were enlisted for six months in the 7th Infantry by Lt. James Bradley, chief of scouts, including White Swan and Half Yellow Face. On April 13, 1876, the Crow Scouts went with Gibbon's 7th Infantry force of 477 persons, as they marched from Fort Ellis down the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Big Horn River, arriving on April 20. Gibbon then moved downstream along the Yellowstone from the Big Horn to Rosebud Creek The Crow Scouts skirmished with Sioux scouts as the Sioux village passed from Tongue River to the Rosebud valley in May 1876. Gibbon's column rendezvoused on June 21, 1876 with General Terry's column at the mouth of Rosebud Creek.

Scouting activities with Custer's 7th Cavalry leading up to the Battle of the Little Big Horn

On June 21, White Swan was detached from the 7th Infantry to go with the 7th Cavalry, along with five other Crow Scouts who were Half Yellow Face (leader of the Crow Scouts), White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, Hairy Moccasin, and Curley. The 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, were ordered by General Terry to follow the trail of a large encampment of "off-reservation" Sioux who lived nomadic lives off the reservation. This group was making an annual westward spring migration from their camp on the Powder River valley to the Tongue and then to the Rosebud Valley, and on to the Little Big Horn. Custer was ordered to locate the encampment of these "off reservation" Sioux on the Rosebud Creek, or in the adjacent Little Big Horn Valley.

The six Crow Scouts shared duties with 26 Arikara (Ree) Scouts, under a Chief of Scouts Lt Charles Varnum,. However, the Crow scouts knew the Rosebud country much better than the Arikara because they shared this hunting ground with the Sioux and the Crows often traveled across this country to raid Sioux camps for horses. Because of their better knowledge of the country, the Crow scouts were relied on to undertake important scouting assignments for Custer in the days leading up to the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

When Custer struck the trail of the "off reservation" Sioux the scouts' count of 400 lodges in the encampment confirmed army sources indicting an "off reservation" nomadic group of about 800 warriors. This compared favorably to Custer's force of about 600 troopers. However this initial assessment on June 21 was made on encampments dating back to May 21, when the Sioux/Cheyenne crossed from the Tongue River to the Rosebud Valley. As the scouts followed this trail up the Rosebud, past Lame Deer Creek and then on to the divide with the Little Horn Valley, they found the older trail increasingly joined and overlaid by many newer trails. These newer trails were left by many other bands of Sioux/Cheyenne coming from the reservations to join the original "off-reservation" Sioux for their yearly summer gathering. Although not appreciated at the time, these late arriving bands of Sioux/Cheyenne swelled the encampment from 400 to about 960 lodges, able to field close to 2000 warriors.

Custer's prior experience in pursuing other Indian bands indicated that an Indian group would scatter if they knew they were being pursued. Custer used the Crows to check these trails to rule out a dispersal of the encampment he was following. Custer tended to disregard the Crow scouts' intelligence that more and more Indians were gathering together.

On the early morning of June 25, 1876, White Swan and other Crow Scouts ascended a high point on the divide between the Little Big Horn River and Rosebud Creek. From this lookout point (which later became known as the "Crow's Nest") the scouts saw very large horse herds on the western margins of the Little Big Horn Valley, some 15 air miles away. These large horse herds indicated an unexpectedly large Sioux/Cheyenne encampment. The encampment itself was out of site on the valley floor.

The Crow scouts questioned the wisdom of attacking such a large encampment. However, Custer was focused on his concern that his force had been detected that morning by Sioux scouts, and he feared that if he did not attack at once, the large encampment would break up into many smaller bands which would scatter in all directions, thus escaping and avoiding the decisive engagement the army hoped for. Custer therefore made plans for an immediate attack, and as he proceeded down Reno Creek toward the Little Big Horn Valley, he created four separate detachments, intended to prevent the encampment from scattering, and to strike the village from different directions. Reno with three troops would attack the south end of the village. Custer with five troops would attack the north end of the village, and Benteen with 3 troops would scout briefly to the south, and then join the battle to assist the other detachments; Lt. McDougall's remaining troop would act as rear guard protecting the pack train.

Wounded in action at the Battle of the Little Big Horn

As the Battle of the Little Big Horn unfolded White Swan and the chief Crow Scout Half Yellow Face, along with Arikara scouts accompanied the detachment under Major Reno. The Indian scouts were told to stampede the horse herd on the western margins of the camp. Reno's detachment charged the south end of the village as ordered, but as warriors poured out to defend the village Reno ordered the troops to dismount and form a skirmish line. This outpouring of Sioux warriors frustrated the plan of the scouts to stampede the horse herd, and the scouts began to fight alongside the cavalrymen. As more warriors gathered in opposition, Reno's detachment pulled back into a patch of nearby timber along the river. After taking more losses in the timber, Reno ordered a retreat out of the timber and across the river and up onto the bluffs on the east side of the valley.

By the time Reno had ordered the retreat across the river White Swan had suffered severe bullet wounds in the right hand/wrist and in the foot,, and he had also been hit on the head with a war club that rendered him deaf and dumb. The soldier's retreat from the timber disintegrated into a rout, and the Sioux closed in on the now disorganized mass of retreating troopers killing the stragglers and the disabled. Back in the timber, Half Yellow Face got the wounded White Swan on a horse and led the horse across the river and up the bluffs to the location where the Reno detachment was digging in, and where they were later reinforced by the other detachments under Captain Benteen and Lieutenant McDougall. This action by Half Yellow Face probably saved White Swan's life.

After Reno's men fled across the river the now thoroughly aroused and mobilized Sioux/Cheyenne drew back and concentrated their forces and launched a fresh attack on Custer's separate detachment of five companies (about 210 men) who were now firing into north end of the village. At this point the Sioux outnumbered Custer's men by about 8 to 1. Custer's detachment was first driven back to a low ridge east of the valley, and then overwhelmed and wiped out to the last man. This intense engagement lasted about an hour during the afternoon of June 25, 1876, after which the warriors returned to press the attack on Reno's entrenched position on the bluffs. The next day, June 26, Sioux scouts reported the approach from the north of the large army column under Generals Terry and Gibbon. The Sioux and Cheyenne ended their siege of Reno and Benteen and hastily broke camp and withdrew south, up the Little Big Horn Valley.

Medical Care Following the Battle, Disability

The next day, June 27, 1876, Half Yellow Face made a horse travois designed to carry the wounded White Swan in a sitting position, and used this to carry him about 12 miles from the battle site to the steamer "Far West" on the Big Horn Riverso White Swan could get more medical care. Sources indicate White Swan was transported downstream on the "Far West" with other wounded wounded soldiers, and that he received further medical care in a military hospital. Other sources indicate that he was only carried on the Far West as far as the mouth of the Big Horn, where he was left in the care of the other Crow scouts.

White Swan underwent a long and difficult recovery from his wounds. He returned to the Crow Agency, which was then located on the Stillwater River near present day Absorakee, Montana, in a disabled condition.

Later Life, After the Battle of the Little Big Horn

When the Crow Reservation was further limited in size, the agency was moved to its present location on the Little Big Horn, very close to the site of the Custer Battle. White Swan also moved the the new agency site. He lived in a tepee there, decorated with his own drawings.

White Swan suffered from his wounds for the rest of his life. White Swan had lost the lower half of his right hand, and he had a right wrist that was permanently deformed to bend sharply inward, from the multiple wrist/lower arm fractures. (See photo above taken from the right side, showing injured wrist). He also limped from the bullet wound in his foot. He was deaf and dumb from a stroke of an Indian War Club.

J.H. Sharp, the noted western painter, came to know White Swan, while he was living at Crow Agency, Montana and painting the Crow people. Sharp painted White Swan. He made this note to accompany the painting.

"Reno's scout in Custer battle, wounded many times, picked up in battlefield two days later -- deaf and dumb from stroke of war club in forehead. A good artist in Indian picture-writing. Jolly, good natured and a general favorite. A full brother, and direct opposite in character of 'Curley," Custer's scout."

Statements from White Swan's army pension file indicate that his wife had died in 1873, before he enlisted as an Army scout, and he never remarried. The 1885 Census recorded him as living with a widowed aunt named "Strikes By The Side Of The Water". This aunt was the mother of Curley, another Crow Scout, which would make White Swan and Curley cousins, though the artist, J.H. Sharp knew White Swan as the brother of Curley.

In 1894 White Swan was reportedly crippled and unable to hear or speak. In 1897 White applied for and received a pension of $17.00 a month for his military services. The 1900 census lists White Swan as "widowed" and the only member of his household. White Swan's only other relative was Sage Woman, a half sister on his father's side, which meant she was from another Crow tribal clan than White Swan, since clan relations are passed down through mothers. These facts indicate that White Swan lived in a more isolated fashion than he would have otherwise done, had he a larger base of Crow relatives. White Swan died leaving no direct descendants and there were no indication of adoptive children, further indicating a limited group of close Crow relatives, unusual in the Crow culture.

Artistic Ability -- Drawings and Weapons

White Swan was known for his artistic abilities. His craftsmanship is shown by his personal items, and particularly his tomahawk, pictured (a) in the photo above (which may be enlarged) and (b) further shown and described at this footnoted web source. A tomahawk in the Northern Plains warrior culture could evolve from being a weapon to an item carried primarily to count coup, which transformed the item into one possessing spiritual significance. Adornments to White Swan's tomahawk (see item pictured in footnoted source, or in the photo above), probably indicated brave war deeds, and/or instructions of critical spiritual import, received through visions or through the intervention of a spiritual leader/mentor (a "medicine man").

White Swan artistic ability is also shown in a series of drawings to illustrate key events in his life, including his role in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1894 White Swan, though significantly disabled, created drawings on pages from an accounting ledger book to explain his role in the famous battle. Like his tomahawk, these drawings remain as a legacy of his time.

When living at Crow Agency on the Little Big Horn river, White Swan also had a tepee which had drawings around the lower portion that depicted the Custer battle. A picture of the tepee is at the footnoted citation.

Death and Burial

White Swan died on August 12, 1904 at the age of only 53 or 54. Some sources say the Little Big Horn National Cemetery Guide lists White Swan as buried in section A of Custer National Cemetery in the grave number 460, but this source also states there is no identifying information on that grave marker. It is possible that White Swan's funerial rites were conducted in the traditional Crow way, by placing his body on a scaffold at a private site on Crow reservation lands. Such traditional burial practices were still common in 1904 with Crow people. As noted above, having never remarried after the death of his wife when he was 23, White Swan left no direct descendants to carry on his name or his legacy.

External links

• Description of White Swan's Tomahawk, containing facts about White Swan. Collection of the National Museum of the American Indian
• Crow Scouts at the Little Big Horn
• White Swan -- Crow Has photos of White Swan in 1899, and also paintings of White Swan by Joseph Henry Sharp, and Elbridge Ayer Burbank.