Two Moon and Wooden Leg: Cheyennes Who Shared In Honors

On March 17, 1876 a Cheyenne winter camp suffered a surprise dawn attack by troops under General George Crook. Crook led the Wyoming Column, one of three army contingents sent forth by General Phil Sheridan. Their purpose was to force non-treaty tribes to reservations. The attack largely failed and the column retreated.

Exactly two months later, on June 17, 1876 the Cheyenne and Sioux surprised Crook. They stopped his advance and sent him back southward He retreated once again, in effect, to rehabilitate, re-supply and await reinforcements.

Many Cheyenne were present at both engagements; they would also be present at the Little Bighorn battle. Two stood out, not only through their actions at that time but also for their valued accounts later recorded by researcher Thomas Marquis. They are Two Moon and Wooden Leg.

The Cheyennes, sadly, had direct and indirect connection to conflicts farther south as well. They began in part with Colonel John Chivington’s despicable 1864 attack on Black Kettle’s village. The treachery took place along Sand Creek in present-day Colorado and at best can be called a massacre. 

Tragically, Custer’s Washita attack in November 1868 also came against Black Kettle’s village of generally peaceable Southern Cheyennes. It was part of a campaign targeting Cheyenne raiders. They had carried out a pattern of depredations ranging north into Kansas. Their raids included murders and kidnapping of women and children.

Custer had followed a band of raiders who left a trail to Black Kettle’s camp. Unbeknownst to Custer and his scouts, the culprits had already moved on to other villages strung out over miles along the creek. Black Kettle and his wife were both killed, along with other innocents.

At Washita, soldiers witnessed a Cheyenne woman killing a white child to keep him from being freed. They also found a captive white woman and her child who had been killed for the same purpose. The entire affair was tragic.

Following Chivington’s debauched massacre, a number of Cheyennes engaged in hostilities against increasing numbers of white intruders into their traditional homelands. These included the elder Two Moon. He and other Cheyennes also joined Sioux allies in what would be called Red Cloud’s War.

Across expansive distances, word of conflicts, intrusions and wrongs traveled with impressive effectiveness. When Sitting Bull summoned tribes to gather in 1876, most who came belonged to Sioux sub-tribes. A large contingent of their Northern Cheyenne allies came too.

The Cheyennes would play a large and significant role in the defeats of Crook on the Rosebud and Custer at the Little Bighorn. It is asserted that some there remembered Custer’s attack at Washita.

Two Moon

Accounts involving Two Moon become confused because two Cheyennes actually bore that name. The elder was a chief and leader. His nephew, the younger Two Moon apparently was born around 1857 and participated in actions against Crook and Custer in 1876. The elder Two Moon is said to have led an attack against Fort Phil Kearny in 1866 in Red Cloud’s War; he also refused to sign the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Both Two Moons were likely present when General Crook attacked their Powder River camp in March 1876. Before the Rosebud Battle in June, a hunting party including Two Moon noticed Crook’s Wyoming Column well before it knew of their tribe’s location. Soon a raiding party made an attempt to steal the column’s horses and mules. In May 1876, Two Moon had helped steal horses from Crow scouts with Colonel John Gibbon’s Montana Column.

One or both Two Moons would have been present on June 17^th, 1876 when Cheyenne and Sioux warriors surprised Crook’s column on Rosebud Creek. While the battle is considered a tactical draw, the attack had the strategic affect of turning Crook back southward. Had he continued northward, one can only speculate as to  what might have unfolded involving the Little Bighorn a week later.

While neither Two Moon is noted for specific actions at the Little Bighorn, each continued leading the tribe in the trying times after the battle. After Nelson Miles’ attack on Cheyenne chief Dull Knife’s band in early 1877, Two Moon surrendered and went to a reservation. Before the year’s end, at least one of the two served as a scout in Mile’s campaign against the Nez Perce in their flight toward Canada.

Like Red Cloud and other Indian leaders, Two Moon traveled to Washington, D.C. as a diplomat for his people’s cause. Accounts vary as to the model for the Indian profile on the 1913 Indian Head/Buffalo nickel Historian Thom Hatch specifies a James Fraser designed the 1913 nickel using Two Moon’s likeness. Fraser actually said he used a composite of three different models. Two Moon was one of them.

Wooden Leg

Also born in the late 1850’s, Wooden Leg is thought to have been 16 years old at the Little Bighorn battle. He had actually played a significant earlier role. Wooden Leg was part of the hunting party that discovered Crook’s Wyoming Column as it wandered off-course near the Tongue River. He was also likely a part of Little Hawk’s raiding party that skirmished with Crook a few days later.

The skirmishes yielded no real casualties on either side, other than a few horses killed. They may, however, have misled Crook’s men into overconfidence (just as past successes against Indians may have influenced Custer.) Crook had made camp below a bluff, from which Cheyennes rained potshots down at long distance. Each time soldiers advanced toward them, they wisely moved accordingly, keeping out of range of the infantry’s long-barreled rifles.

Wooden Leg was likely present when Cheyennes joined Sioux allies in their surprise attack on Crook’s column on Rosebud Creek. The attack occurred June 17, 1876. Again, while it resulted in little more than a stalemate, it affected what would occur over the following eight days.

Wooden Leg claimed no outstanding exploits at the Little Bighorn. However, he was present in the routing of Reno at the village’s south end. He then moved north to join the defense and attack against Custer’s battalion. He did state he took a carbine from a retreating trooper during Reno’s disorganized dash back across the Little Bighorn. However, his notable contribution would come later.

Decades later physician and Custer researcher Thomas Marquis interviewed Wooden Leg, who by then was in his 70’s. Wooden Leg described in detail the phases of Indian movement as they overwhelmed Custer’s command. He also added notable insight into what might have been a large factor in the battle.

Again, accounts are many and varied. However, Marquis firmly believed multiple Cheyenne accounts. Wooden Leg stated that many of Custer’s troops either shot each other or shot themselves in the face of overwhelming warriors surrounding them. He also stated many troopers’ canteens contained whiskey (bought from a trader at the mouth of the Rosebud before they embarked).

Wooden Leg and other Cheyennes believed the soldiers showed signs of intoxication, which might have contributed to individual or mutual suicides. Even dehydration due to alcohol consumption would have diminished fighting abilities on that notably hot afternoon. Regardless, Marquis believed multiple Cheyenne accounts regarding whiskey and soldiers killing themselves.

Wooden Leg was sent to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) after joining Dull Knife’s 1877 surrender. He was allowed to return and served as a scout for the U.S. Army in the 1880’s. He then served as a tribal judge as his people assimilated, living until 1940.

Neither Two Moon or Wooden Leg became notorious for battle exploits. However, each was present and played noteworthy roles before and after the Little Bighorn.