Early in December young Lakota
warriors, including Crazy Horse and He Dog, executed an elaborate decoy manuever
to draw soldiers out of the fort. They were very successful and killed several
officers and severely wounded several other soldiers. In the next weeks an
ambush was carefully planned and a location for a trap was chosen. Two thousand
warriors moved south and set up camp two miles north of the chosen trap location.
Ten young warriors were selected from the different tribal groups represented
for the most dangerous job of decoying the soldiers. These decoys performed
elaborate manuevers to lure the soldiers into the trap. When they were all
inside the trap, the decoys signaled to the concealed warriors who rose up
and killed all 80 of the soldiers. Nonetheless, casualties among the Indians
were great because they were poorly armed to compete with the new repeating
rifles of the soldiers.
The Indians named this battle
The Battle of the Hundred Slain. The whites knew it as the Fetterman Massacre
because the soldiers were led by Captain Fetterman, who had boasted that
he could defeat the entire Sioux Nation with a single company of cavalrymen.
Col. Carrington was appalled by the mutilation of the bodies they found.
Had he seen the bodies of the Indians slain at Sand Creek, the condition
of these bodies would have come as no surprise.
