This is an old thread in another forum.
It was really wonderfull to read it, specially to one who knows so few about the real Old West.
It begans…
"Young Man Afraid of His Horses was the brother of my mom's Grandfather.
Old Man Afraid of His Horses (his name should be more correctly translated as, "his enemies are even afraid of his horse") had 5 sons. They were, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Clown Horse, Bull Bear, Black Mountain Sheep, and Red Star.
Young Man Afraid of His Horses was born in 1836 into an old and distinguished Lakota family. His father, Man Afraid of His Horses, was a respected chief among the Oglalas, noted for his ability in war and in peace. During his early life, Young Man Afraid of his Horses played an important role in his people's struggle to maintain their traditional way of life. With the end of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and the death of Crazy Horse, the Oglalas were trapped on the reservation, an island surrounded by a growing, dominant white world.
Unlike his contemporary, Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid of his Horses did not believe that obstructionist politics could restore the grandeur of the old life or prepare the Oglalas for the future. By temperament and background a realist, Young Man Afraid sought ways for his people to adapt peacefully to the changing world of the reservation. Raised by his father as a hunter-warrior, Young Man Afraid of His Horses proved his courage in the wars his people fought in the early 1860s against the Crows, driving them out of the buffalo rich Powder River country. Young Man Afraid fought against the Americans for the first time in 1865 when the Lakotas and Cheyennes (in retaliation for the Sand Creek massacre) raided white settlements-civilian and military-along the Platte River Valley. When the U.S. Army established a series of forts in 1866 in the Powder River country to protect emigrants traveling the Bozeman Trail to the rich gold fields in Montana, Red Cloud, a leading Oglala warrior, led the Lakotas against the bluecoat soldiers. Young Man Afraid, alongside Crazy Horse, his boyhood friend, fought with bravery in the Fetterman and Wagon Box fights.
Sometime during this stormy period, the northern Oglalas chose Young Man Afraid, Crazy Horse, American Horse, and The Man Who Owns a Sword as "shirtwearers," investing these four outstanding warriors with full authority to protect the people. Though Man Afraid of His Horses, and possibly the son, signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) that ended the so-called "Red Cloud's" war, they had no intention at first to settle down at an agency on the Great Sioux Reservation, as provided for in the treaty. But with the gradual disappearance of the buffalo the people suffered, and there were some winters when the Oglalas, including Man Afraid's Hunkpatila band, came to Fort Laramie hungry and cold, begging for food. Slowly, perhaps reluctantly, Young Man Afraid of His Horses and his father began to understand that the old, nomadic lifestyle dependent on the buffalo could no longer be sustained. As a "shirtwearer" and a member of the distinguished Man Afraid family, Young Man Afraid would use his position in the long years ahead to guide the Oglalas as they slowly moved to a more settled way of life on the reservation. Late in 1871 Young Man Afraid and his father took their Hunkpatilas into a temporary agency (named after Red Cloud) situated on the North Platte River, where the U. S. government promised to provide for their basic needs – food, clothing, housing, farm supplies, and schools.
The agency, which soon moved to the White River in northwestern Nebraska, was a turbulent place by the summer of 1873. Agent J. J. Saville provoked a controversy by planning a census of all the Indians residing at the agency to better control the issuance of rations and annuities. Non-treaty Oglalas from the Powder River country, who wintered at the agency, forcibly opposed the counting as did the younger agency warriors. Red Cloud sided with the warriors, lest the census reveal the Oglalas' true numbers and result in a loss of rations. Growing impatient with the opposition, Saville threatened to withhold rations and summon troops from nearby Camp Robinson. Seeking to avoid a confrontation, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, who was slowly emerging as a leader in his own name, stepped in to resolve the crisis. Joined by The Man Who Owns a Sword, the two shirtwearers called a council of the Oglala chiefs in which they took "a very firm stand against Red Cloud and compelled him to yield." Most of the agency Oglalas, increasingly dependent on government rations and unwilling to confront the soldiers, moved their lodges closer to the agency to be counted. The northern Oglalas left for the Black Hills rather than submit to the agent's control. Saville provoked another crisis in October 1874, when he prepared to erect a flagpole in the agency stockade. Some Lakotas, including Red Cloud, resented the idea of an American flag flying over their agency.
On October 23, 1874, forty to fifty "armed and painted" warriors (mostly Mniconjous) entered the stockade and cut the pole to pieces. Red Cloud, then at the agency headquarters, refused Saville's plea to restore order. Saville requested troops from Camp Robinson to protect the agency. When Lt. Emmett Crawford's small contingent of soldiers was surrounded by about two hundred warriors, mostly northern Oglalas and Miniconjous, Young Man Afraid of His Horses and Sitting Bull of the South led some of their followers to drive back the threatening warriors. The soldiers were then escorted safely into the stockade. While Young Man Afraid's followers protected the agency, Old Man Afraid and Red Dog harangued the angry crowd, persuading many to leave peacefully. The soldiers left when Man Afraid and the friendly chiefs promised Saville they would provide armed guards to protect the agency.
Clearly, by 1874, Young Man Afraid of His Horses and his father had come to recognize the agency as their home, and they were prepared to prevent Red Cloud, angry agency warriors, and the Powder River Lakotas (including the northern Oglalas) from causing trouble that risked war with the whites. Young Man Afraid of His Horses and his father, Man Afraid of His Horses, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. South Dakota State Historical Society After gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 federal officials sought to re-negotiate the Fort Laramie Treaty and dispatched a special commission to the Lakotas to negotiate a deal for the Black Hills and the Powder River country.
In September 1875 the commissioners met on the White River with the Oglalas, Brulés, Mniconjous, Hunkpapas, Sans Arcs and their allies, the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahos. The assembled chiefs, in deference to the militant northern bands, refused to discuss the cession of the Powder River and Bighorn River country. Division arose over the Black Hills. Some of the older chiefs, including Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, considered selling the Black Hills to keep the peace if the price was high enough, whereas the young warriors backed by their northern kin, refused to sell the Black Hills for any price.
John S. Collins, secretary to the Sioux Commission, described the dramatic meeting that took place on September 23, 1875. The commissioners sat under a canvas tent fly to shield them from the sun. Capt. Teddy Egan, with some 120 cavalrymen, provided protection. The chiefs sat in a semicircle, with some seven thousand warriors surrounding the tension-charged meeting place. Suddenly, a lone rider, Little Big Man, one of Crazy Horse's lieutenants, broke through the lines and with a rifle in his hands threatened to kill a commissioner or any chief that consented to sell the Black Hills. The commissioners asked Red Cloud and Spotted Tail to each send four trusted warriors to deal with Little Big Man. Young Man Afraid of His Horses was part of this group that grabbed Little Big Man and escorted him out of the circle. But Little Big Man's presence excited the warriors, who pressed in on the soldiers. Capt. Egan warned the commissioners that they were surrounded and in danger. Rallying his soldier band, Young Man Afraid quickly formed a protective shield for Egan's troops. Young Man Afraid then boldly moved among the excited warriors ordering them to disperse, which they did, reluctant to challenge the authority of this brave shirtwearer. The council then broke up.
The Black Hills "problem" simmered throughout the fall, as thousands of miners invaded the Hills. Events took an ominous turn towards war as government officials continued to blame the northern bands under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull as the source of the unrest at the agencies and the chief obstacle to the sale of the Black Hills and the Powder River country. Accordingly, the government ordered Indian agents to send out runners to the northern Lakota bands in the Powder River country telling them that they must report to the agencies by January 31, 1876, or be declared hostile and subject to army attack. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, standing on their treaty rights to live and hunt in the un-ceded territory, refused to come in.
On February 1, 1876, the secretary of the interior turned the so-called "hostiles" over to the War Department, and so began the Sioux War of 1876. In the ensuing conflict some agency Oglalas (including Red Cloud's son) joined the northern bands and took part in the fighting, which included the great victory over Custer's troops at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. Young Man Afraid of His Horses, now settled with his father on the reservation and committed to living in peace with the whites, did not join Crazy Horse in the fighting. Young Man Afraid was involved, though, in another kind of fighting as the agency Oglalas struggled to save their homeland from an angry government determined to punish all the Lakotas for the Custer disaster. While soldiers pursued the fleeing northern bands after the Custer fight, the army took over the Lakota agencies. Congress authorized the president to create a new Sioux Commission to demand that the Lakotas cede the Black Hills and the Powder River country, and relocate their agencies to the Missouri River (as called for in the Fort Laramie Treaty) or to Indian Territory. Congress threatened to withhold all future appropriations for agency supplies until the Lakotas agreed. The Sioux Commission, which would meet in turn with all the agency Lakotas, first counseled with the Oglala chiefs at Red Cloud Agency in early September 1876. The commissioners informed the chiefs of Congress's threat and insisted they sign the new treaty, a clear violation of Article 12 of the Fort Laramie Treaty, which stipulated that three-fourths of all adult males must sign any agreement ceding Lakota lands.
With the soldiers everywhere and supplies at the agency precariously low, the dependent Oglala chiefs reluctantly signed the treaty surrendering the Black Hills and the Powder River country. Young Man Afraid of His Horses spoke with some bitterness, complaining about the soldiers in Lakota country and telling the commissioners that he expected the Great Father to provide food and clothing for the Oglalas "as long as we live." Throughout the proceedings, the commission pressed the chiefs to decide where they would relocate their permanent agency – either on the Missouri River or in Indian Territory. A delegation of Oglalas and Brules, led by Young Man Afraid of His Horses and Spotted Tail, visited Indian Territory and refused to recommend it as a homeland for their people.
Later, Young Man Afraid told Gen. George Crook that the Oglalas did not want to go to the Missouri River either, especially since the northern Oglalas under Crazy Horse had abandoned the struggle against the soldiers and just come in to the Red Cloud Agency after receiving promises they would have a permanent home in their own country. As part of a peace delegation sent by General Crook to Crazy Horse, Young Man Afraid played a small part in persuading his boyhood friend to give up the armed struggle and bring his people peacefully onto the reservation. Crazy Horse was easily the most popular and most controversial figure at the agency. Young warriors admired his brave exploits, but older agency chiefs resented his fame and standing. Young Man Afraid of His Horses tried to bridge the factions and integrate Crazy Horse into agency life and politics.
On July 27, 1877, Special Agent Benjamin R. Shapp and new agent James Irwin met with the agency chiefs, promising them a buffalo hunt and a feast. Crazy Horse and Little Big Man were also present. Young Man Afraid suggested that Crazy Horse and Little Big Man be given the honor of feasting the chiefs. Red Cloud and some of his followers were unhappy with Young Man Afraid's proposal and sent a delegation to the agent to voice their displeasure at holding the feast at Crazy Horse's lodge. They viewed Crazy Horse as an "unreconstructed Indian," a "tricky and unfaithful" person, who would use the buffalo hunt as an opportunity to break away from the reservation and resume the warpath. Crazy Horse, increasingly dissatisfied with life at the agency, resented the increasing pressure that the Oglalas move to the Missouri River. He also resisted efforts by officers at Camp Robinson to recruit his warriors as army scouts to fight the Nez Perce', considering it a ruse to attack Sitting Bull's people. In addition, he refused to meet with Irwin and Crook, tired of dealing with the false charges directed against him by some of the agency chiefs.
Irwin called a meeting with the agency chiefs on August 31, 1877, to discuss the problem created by Crazy Horse's attitude. Red Cloud, Little Wound, No Flesh, American Horse, and Young Man Afraid of His Horses attended. American Horse, speaking for the group, told the agent that the chiefs tried "to quiet Crazy Horse and bring him into a better state of feeling but we can do nothing with him." American Horse assured Irwin that the chiefs wanted "no more fighting and [to] live in peace." Crook, who met later with the agency chiefs, looked to them to arrest Crazy Horse. Young Man Afraid, who had played no part in the conspiracy of lies against his boyhood friend, now sided with the chiefs, Irwin, and Crook. He joined a large force of agency Indians who rode with the soldiers to arrest Crazy Horse, who had fled to Spotted Tail's agency.
Brought back to Camp Robinson, Crazy Horse was tragically bayoneted to death on September 5, 1877, an event that generated intense excitement at the agency. Young Man Afraid and the agency chiefs exerted their influence to prevent the northern Oglalas from causing trouble. A few months after Crazy Horse's death, the government forced the Oglalas to relocate closer to the Missouri River. The chiefs decided to locate their new agency on White Clay Creek, some 150 miles west of the Missouri River. Young Man Afraid of His Horses played a significant part in moving the Oglalas to their new home. Agent Irwin concurred with the chiefs' decision, calling the site "the most desirable place on the reservation, there being good water . . . arable land, [and] plenty of pine timber." The commissioner of Indian affairs renamed the agency "Pine Ridge," with the intent of diminishing Red Cloud's influence among the Oglalas.
The Man Afraid family would spend their last days at Pine Ridge. Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, the new agent for Pine Ridge, arrived at his post on March 10, 1879, a position he would hold for seven years. Prior to his appointment, McGillycuddy served as post surgeon at Camp Robinson and knew many of the Oglala chiefs on the reservation. Hot-tempered, and narrow minded, McGillycuddy held strong opinions on how to guide the Oglalas along the white man's path…
And if you want to read more here is the thread.
link
Hope you enjoy!.
Amicalement
Armand
weighs the pros and cons of using a power drill on the minis workbench.