Wolf Mountains Battlefield--Where Big Crow walked Back and Forth National Register of Historic Places Listing

January 1877 was brutally cold. The air in Rosebud County bit like a rusted blade. Colonel Nelson Miles led his frostbitten troops of the 5th Infantry right into a trap set by Crazy Horse and Two Moon. The Great Sioux War was dying. But the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors waiting on the frozen ridges refused to yield. So they clashed in knee-deep snow while Miles deployed two brass Napoleon cannons disguised as supply wagons. Shrapnel tore through the pines. The battle hung in a desperate, freezing balance.

Then Big Crow stepped out. He wore a bright red cape. The Northern Cheyenne medicine man paced back and forth along the ridge to mock the soldiers' terrible aim. Bullets kicked up dirt around his feet, but none touched him. He walked his path three times. But on the fourth trip, an Army scout took careful aim and shot him through the chest. His death broke the Indian defense. They retreated into a sudden blizzard, leaving the field to Miles and marking the end of the last major fight of the Great Sioux War. Crazy Horse surrendered just five months later.