Trust and Survival: AWOL Hunkpapa Indian Family Prisoners of War at Fort Sully, 1890–1891

Camp at Fort Sully, S.D.
January 27, 1891
The U.S. Indian Agent
Standing Rock Indian Agency
North Dakota

Sir:

The bearer, “Leaf,” comes to me this morning from Spotted Eagle’s camp on the Moreau River, with request that I advise him what to do. He states that he ran away from Sitting Bull’s with the rest of the refugees—got as far as Spotted Eagle’s—and, his wife falling ill, remained there until now. As he is as near his own agency as he is here, I advise him to return to Spotted Eagle’s camp, and, with his family, return and report to you.

Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
H. C. Hale
2nd Lieut. Infantry¹

“Leaf” and his wife fled with 225 Hunkpapa Indians from the Grand River Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation to the Cheyenne River Reservation to council with Big Foot’s tiyospaye (band) when Sitting Bull was killed on December 15, 1890. Instead of joining Spotted Elk’s band, they surrendered to Capt. Joseph H. Hurst.² These Indian families did not contribute to the number of fatalities at Wounded Knee because they were being held by the U.S. military as prisoners of war, though no state of war had been officially declared. The Cheyenne River Indian agent, Maj. Perain P. Palmer, questioned Commissioner of Indian Affairs T. J. Morgan regarding the POW status: “Why these Indians who belong to other agencies were brought here I cannot understand and why they are held as POWs when they took no part in any war.”³ Their POW status was the direct result of their surrender. All had fled Standing Rock without Agent James McLaughlin’s permission. Most were members of Sitting Bull’s tiyospaye. An unknown number had participated in the Ghost Dance. None of this constituted evidence of acts supporting the classification of these people as enemy combatants, but anything can be employed to suit the agendas of those in control—especially when the element of fear is also utilized.

An indeterminate number of Hunkpapas had defied the Indian police sent to arrest Sitting Bull and the military that eventually arrived to offer support. In a context filled with rumors of a forthcoming outbreak, such armed defiance placed these people in the hostile category, thereby designating them as potential military combatants. Ironically, this hostile status enabled Captain Hurst to offer them a form of comparatively safe refuge as prisoners of war. Acceptance of Hurst’s offer may have prevented a massacre on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Why the Hunkpapas surrendered to Hurst apparently turned on personal trust and the captain’s assurance of their certain death if they joined Big Foot’s band.

In his official report of how he interacted with these Indians Captain Hurst wrote:

I had come to them as their friend, and that I wanted them to believe and trust me, and that I wanted them to give up their arms to me that night and return with me to Fort Bennett next morning, where they would be provided for and taken care of; that I could give no promises as to their future disposition and could only assure them of present protection if they trusted me.⁴

As the commanding officer of Fort Bennett and the inspector of Indian supplies at the Cheyenne River Agency since September 1, 1887, Hurst was a known entity to at least some of the Hunkpapas and certainly to Hump, who had served as a scout during the Nez Perce campaign and as an Indian policeman at Cheyenne River; Hurst later defended Hump against Palmer’s efforts to have him imprisoned.⁵ Hurst presented himself as a friend and asked for the Indians’ trust not as a ploy but with integrity and honesty. In the current situation a basis for trust had already been established by Hurst’s second lieutenant, Harry C. Hale.

Hale had been sent per post orders no. 64 to Cheyenne City to gather information regarding the Standing Rock Indians. When...