GENERAL CUSTER'S FIRST OFFICIAL REPORT ON HIS BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION
Assistant Adjutant General Department Of Dakota, St. Paul, Minnesota:

August 8, 1874--the Cherokee Advocate

Sir: this expedition reached this point yesterday, having marched since leaving 
Fort Lincoln, 227 mi.  We are now 170 mi. in a direct line from Lincoln, and 
within 5 mi. of the Little Missouri, and within about 12 mi. of the Montana boundary.

	After the second day from Lincoln we marched over a beautiful country.
	The grazing was excellent and abundant.  Wood sufficient for our wants, 
and water in great abundance.  When we struck the tributaries of Grand River, we 
entered a less desirable portion of the country, nearly all the streams flowing 
into Grand River being more or less impregnated with alkali, rendering the crossings 
difficult.  We found a plentiful supply of grass, wood, and water, however, even 
along this portion of our route.  As an evidence of the character of the country, 
we have marched, since leaving Fort Lincoln, on an average, over 17 miles per day--
1 day making 32 miles.--yet our mules and beef cattle have constantly improved in 
condition, the beef cattle depending entirely upon the excellent grazing we have 
marched over.  The health of my command is something remarkable--not a man being 
on the sick report.
	Between the forks of Grand River was discovered a cave to which the Indians 
attach great importance.  The cave extends about 400 ft. under ground, beyond which 
point it was not practicable to explore it.  Its walls and roof or covered with rude 
carvings and drawings cut into the solid rock, apparently the work of Indians, 
although probably by a different tribe than either of those now roaming in this 
region.  Near the cave was found a white man's skull, apparently perforated by a 
bullet.  It had been exposed to the atmosphere for several years, as no white men, 
except those belonging to the expedition, are known to have passed anywhere near the 
locality.  The discovery of the skull was regarded with unusual interest.  The cave 
contains numerous articles of Indian equipments, which had been thrown into the cave 
by the Indians, as offerings of the Great Spirit.   
	Our march thus far has been made without molestation upon the part of the 
Indians.  We discovered no signs indicating the recent presence of Indians, until 
Day before yesterday, when Captain McDougal Seventh Cavalry, who was on the flying, 
discovered a small body of about 20 Indians watching our movements.  The Indians 
scampered off as soon as discovered.  Soon after several signals of smoke were sent 
up, which are Indian guards interpret as conveying information to the main body of 
our presence and movement.  As I sent a practice message to all the tribes in testing 
the region, before the expedition move, and expressed A. desire to maintain friendly 
relations with them, the signals observed by us may have simply been made to enable 
the villages to avoid us.  Our Indian guides think differently, however, and believe 
the Indians mean war.  Should this be the case, they will be the party to fire the first shot.
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ORIGIN AND TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE WYANDOTTE

	"It may seem very strange to you," said the resuscitated Indian, "my friends 
when I tell you that from the moment I first saw the bald eagle here, in advance of the 
other birds, he seem to have signaled me out from the rest of our slain friends, and 
from what I heard him say to the other birds, he had often seen me in the forests, and 
seemed to know that I left deer r carcasses purposely for his own and other kinds of 
flesh eaters of the flying species.  It is wonderful to me," he continued, "when I 
think of the wanderings of my Spirit during the last few days.  I thought I followed 
and saw the Hawks snatch off my scalp from a tall poll over our enemy's camp; it 
commenced from a great heights, sailing round and round, down gradually over the open 
camp of the Cherokee, who were watching the strange maneuvering of the hawk.  Suddenly 
it swept by the poll over their camp, with the keen sound of whistling wind, and 
snatched off one of the scalps.  In a moment the hawk was high up in the air again, 
with my scalp dangling from its talons, then flew northward, leaving the group of 
Indians at the camp, with upturned faces and utterly county founded."  Putting his 
hand on his head, "Who!"  He exclaimed, "What is that?  That is not my scalp!"  A 
roar of laughter preceded the response from his friends, when he was told that they 
had stuck a piece of raw water skin on his head in the place of his original and 
missing scalp, and that they went to work as soon as they concluded he was in a trance, 
instead of burying him, and brought him back to life with medicines.
	"I thought one time," he continued, "that the bald eagle and his companions 
had brought me back to life, and that I returned home, but my mother would not noticed 
me.  I told her repeatedly I was her son, and that I had come home, but she would not 
listen to me.  I then thought I pushed her elbow, which caused her to thrust her hand 
into a cattle of boiling corn and venison, over which he was leaning, giving her great 
pain from the scald.  I thought too, that I left home in sorrow for not being noticed 
by my mother.  All seems like a dream to me now."
	The now five surviving Wyandotte warriors commenced their journey homeward.  
In the close of the third quarter of the 18th-century the Wyandotte and other Indians 
about Detroit were still annoyed by the savages of the West, and who continue to make 
hostile intrusions against them in the forests of Michigan, occasionally attacking 
their habitations on their hunting ground.
	 In 1727, or thereabouts, a party of 12 Wyandotte the scouts ventured to the 
haunts of the enemy in the wilds of Illinois, and before reaching their hunting grounds, 
they sojourned on the banks of a stream until sometime in the month of February, when 
they broke up camp and resumed their journey westward bearing a little to the south.
	During their third day's march they discovered the tracks of an Indian in the 
snow.  On the morning of the fourth day they found a fresh footpath that led them down 
a stream on the ice.  Presently a scattering smoke appeared before them like that of a 
large encampment on a bluff of the stream which they were following.  On their near 
approach, they perceived that the sojourners had just broken up camp and had gone down 
on the ice.  Their broad trail in the snow was followed by the Wyandotte, who soon 
overtook them.
	They were a party of Fox Indians who yet depended on their bows and arrows to 
kill game and fight their enemies with.  The Wyandotte Scouts were provided with a fire 
arms.  One of the enemy who was some distance behind his party fixing his pack, was shot 
down and scalped.  The gun firing startled the Fox Indians and caused them to look back 
with dismay.  The men on preceiving but a small party of Wyandotte, sent their women and 
children on down the stream, then turned on the scouts and attacked them with bows and 
arrows.  The Wyandotte retreated upstream keeping their enemies at a gunshot distance, 
and reserving their fire until reaching the camping ground which the latter were 
followed from.  Here the Wyandotte warriors felled trees and hastily erected some 
kind of fortification, firing at the enemy at the same time.
	Being the securely posted, and having the advance in fire arms over the besiegers, 
they killed and wounded several of them that came within gunshot.
	Their camp fires, at nightfall, indicated their intention to continue the siege 
the next day.  A shower of arrows and the yells of the enemy at dawn of day, aroused up 
the Wyandotte to a sense of their precarious situation; for they found that they could 
be starved out if not all slain within their fort.  One of the Wyandotte was killed 
during the second day's conflict.
	Near the close of the third day the besiegers proposed to make peace.  An 
Indian approached within speaking distance of the fort, having a large, round red 
spot painted on his naked body, holding up one hey and a painted staff decorated 
with feathers, equivalent to a flag of truce.  A Wyandotte boy, who had been taken 
prisoner by the Fox Indians in Michigan, stood by him as his interpreter.
	And while the besieged party was holding a consultation over the proposed 
peace, one of the Scouting party, who doubt of the sincerity of the besiegers, fired 
at the flag of truce Indian, and both boy and man disappeared in the jiffy.  This 
outrage or aroused up the savage host, and they renewed their attack on the fort 
with the vindictiveness of demons, and night closed the conflict of the third day.
	During the fourth day the besiegers appeared to be rapidly increasing in 
numbers, and continue to make furious attacks on the open fort with bows and arrows.
	During the night they encircled the fort, at some distance, with bark ropes 
suspended two or 3 ft. from the ground.  To the ropes were tied a great number of goard 
shells containing loose, hard substance, to make a rattling sound when the besieged 
party came in contact with the ropes, should they make an attempted fight in the night, 
and does give the besieged party warning.
	The evening shades of the fourth night were now closing around the Wyandotte 
warriors, and starvation staring them in the face!  They found their stock of provisions 
reduced down to a few morsels of dried venison.
	Of gloomy silence had succeeded the shouts and yells of the assailants, who 
were now gathering around their camp fires in the distance.  The silence around the 
fort continued until the sharp screech of a night Bird broke the monotony, as if 
giving the besieged party warning of the advancing enemy to the midnight attack.  
Presently the ill-fated Scouting party heard the tramping of many feet on the frozen 
snow.  The Wyandotte war Chief Ta-yatt-na-hoo-shar, now being conscious of the dreadful 
calamity that awaited them, started off two of his men to take the News home of what 
befell their friends in the West.  The ropes around the fort having been observed by 
the Wyandotte at nightfall, the two messengers cautiously crept out from under them.
	The rest of the party now began to talk of flight, except the war Chief, who 
declared that he would not leave his slain bosom friend; and on perceiving that his 
men were determined to leave the fort, he took hold of the rope and shook a defiantly, 
making a rattling sound of the gourd shells all around the fort.  In an instant, the 
enemies or upon them; but the Wyandotte shows rather being cut to pieces fighting them 
to be taken alive and tortured by the enemy.  They thought and Slade all within reach, 
as they were cut down one by one.
	Their War Chief Was Alone, Fighting over the Body of a Slain Friend--Finding 
Himself Alone, "Here!” he ex Is claimed, holding his head down, told the enemy to 
"Strike!”  -- down came the tomahawk and thus fell the Chief of the two scouts!
	In this fallen Chief the French commandant at Detroit had always found a true 
friend and faithful, and the news of his fate stirred up the ire of the commandant, 
who vowed vengeance on the fox Indians and their allies, the Wears, Pe-Ya-keeshawas, 
and other tribes of Illinois and during the spring following, sent an expedition into 
their country from Fort Detroit; and sent some of his troops with cannon, in barges 
around by Michilimackinac to “Little Fort,” some eight or ten miles beyond Chicago, 
on the lake shore.  In the meantime a war party, composed of Wyandotte, Ottawa, 
Chippewa and Pottawatomie, journeyed across the country to where they met 
(according to appointment) the French and some Pottawatomie Indians, (of the northern 
Illinois, and Indiana territories) on the Illinois River some eight miles form Chicago. 
From there the whole French and Indian army marched to the village of the enemies, who 
were driven from their habitations, down the south bank of the river for several miles, 
or until reaching the brow of a high rocky hill, up which they were driven from the 
valley, but the low and scattering evergreen trees on the summit afforded the refugees 
a scanty cover.
	The rapid current of the river sweeps the base of the high perpendicular rock 
of this hill or bluff, on the north side; at the south-west side, in a dell, was a 
grove of timber and among the tops of the trees some of the besieged Indians had come 
themselves, to keep clear of the grape-shot which the French were firing among them, 
from the valley.
	Some of the women and children were found lodged among the tree tops, after 
the siege, still alive, and who were helped down by the friend after their pursuers 
had left.
	 A large portion of the savages, however, had made their escape soon after they 
were driven from the village.  There was but one winding way up to the craggy height by 
which their covert could be reached in the besiegers being aware that the refugees could 
roll down boulders or start some of the loosed shelving rocks upon them, concluded  
not to venture up, but adopted  the plan of starving the enemy out, by close siege.  
The French had stopped firing grape-shot among them. ________________________________________