Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 1997
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 2, Spring 1997, pp. 149.
Abstract
The Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger, a reproduction- photographed in its original formof the 1876-77 administrative ledger book of the Red Cloud Indian Agency, is an invaluable research tool for historians and Native American genealogists. Included in the ledger book are several censuses, information about agency rations, and documentation on agency passes and transfers.
The greater part of the ledger is devoted to the censuses, which enumerate the Oglala Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho who resided or surrendered at Red Cloud Agency during the Sioux War of 1876-77. Army officers conducted censuses in November 1876 and February 1877. Bands surrendering during the spring of 1877 were added to the agency record book. Army census takers grouped the Oglala by band or head chief and recorded data based on individual lodges. Because the enumerators listed only family heads by name, researchers will find it difficult to locate individuals who were not heads of lodges.
Three scholars outline the ledger's historical significance. In his introduction, Thomas R. Buecker places the document in its historical context, highlighting its key features. R. Eli Paul's appendix helps in locating individuals and tracking names throughout the ledger's various sections. The volume's usefulness in interpreting Plains Indian history is explained by Harry H. Anderson, who notes, for example, that mixed-blood families were not confined to the "Loafer" band of Oglalas but dispersed throughout all bands, including those of Red Cloud, Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, and Little Wound. Anderson's statistical examination of the number of warriors per lodge lowers the generally accepted size of the Lakota fighting force at the Little Bighorn. He suggests that the Seventh Cavalry was defeated by a skilled fighting force, not simply by overwhelming numbers.
The ledger's greatest value lies in what it reveals about the Indian side of the Sioux War. For the first time we have a list of the Native American participants in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. With this information the Plains Indians' experience in the Sioux War might be better told. More importantly, the censuses provide documentation on band affiliation and family names that will aid the Native American genealogist.
The Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger is a must for Great Plains research libraries. Historians of Plains Indians, the frontier army, and George Custer would do well to consult this volume.
Comments
Copyright 1997 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln