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Lame White Man

Southern Cheyenne

 

Lame White Man was a Southern Cheyenne, who came north after Sand Creek with his small following. He then was a head soldier of the Northern Elkhorn Scraper society but still rated as a southern council chief.

His name was variously translated as Lame White Man, Walking White Man, Crippled White Man, or Broken White Leg. The Sioux called him Bearded Man or Moustache (which hints at the unusual presence of facial hair). Therefore author Richard Hardorff suggests that Lame White Man may have been a captive of white descendants.

Another Cheyenne name for him was Mad Hearted Wolf or Rabid Wolf, for in battle he was always out in front, "fighting as fiercely as a maddened wolf" (as Peter Powell stated).

His wife was called Twin Woman and he had two children: Red Hat and Crane Woman. — Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

Chief Lame White man was 37 years old when he died and left behind a widow and two daughters. He is credited with encouraging the warriors to resist the "soldier" excursion into Calhoun Coulee in which the warriors initially fled at their approach. Contrary to the work published by Dr. Marquis who stated that Two Moon led the Cheyennes at the Little Bighorn, Wooden Leg says it was Lame White Man.

A Southern Cheyenne, Lame White Man had been with the northern branch for so long that he and his wife and children were considered to be part of the Northern Cheyenne. He was also referred to as Walking White. In the heat of battle he received mortal wounds and succumbed to these wounds on Custer Ridge. His body was subsequently mistaken as a "Ree" scout for the soldiers and, as a result, scalped by the infuriated Sioux warriors.

Lame White Man was also known as "White Man Cripple" and "Walking White Man." His martial prowess when battling the "White Man" was so prodigious that his contemporaries honored him with names that signified what happened to "White" soldiers when they came face to face with him. Their intestinal fortitude became so meager that they could offer no more resistance than a cripple or were inclined to walk away rather than fight. — Realbird

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The following publication contains information about Lame White Man:

Article: "Ghosts on the Little Bighorn" by Robert Paul Jordan • After a 1983 prairie fire cleared brush along Montana's Little Bighorn River, archaeologists recovered artifacts that shed new light on Custer's Last Stand. Robert Paul Jordan reports on the still controversial 1876 battle. Photographs by Scott Rutherford • The National Geographic Magazine • December 1986.

 


 

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