Lame White Man Charge

This knoll was contested by Indians and soldiers. Some evidence indicates that soldiers of Company C occupied this position, since the bodies of Sergeants Finckle and Finley were found here. Indian testimony suggests that the Southern Cheyenne war leader Lame White Man led a charge near this ridge, though other theories place his assault near Deep Ravine below Last Stand Hill. Sergeant Daniel Kanipe of Company C, 7th Cavalry, recalled finding Sergeant Finley of his own company first, his body full of arrows, with the dead stripped of clothing, and finding Sergeant Finckle on the way toward Calhoun. Wooden Leg, a Northern Cheyenne, recalled that about 40 soldiers galloped from the east part of the ridge down toward the river where most of the Cheyennes and many Oglalas were hidden, then stopped and dismounted after the Indians ran back to a deep gulch, and that Lame White Man, the Southern Cheyenne chief, rode up and called on his people to return and fight, saying they could kill all of them.

Montana · United States