Half Yellow Face
| Half Yellow Face | |
|---|---|
| Crow language: Ischu Shi Dish | |
| Crow leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | ca. 1830 Crow Country, Montana |
| Died | ca. 1879 Crow Country, Montana |
| Cause of death | killed while pursuing Sioux horse thieves |
| Resting place | traditional scaffold burial in Crow Country, Montana |
| Spouse(s) | Wife |
| Children | Three |
| Known for | Leader of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry; fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn |
Half Yellow Face (or Ischu Shi Dish in the Crow language), (1830? to 1879?) was the leader of the six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. Half Yellow Face led the six Crow scouts as Custer advanced up the Rosebud valley and crossed the divide to the Little Bighorn valley, and then as Custer made the fateful decision to attack the large Sioux-Cheyenne camp which precipitated the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. At this time, the other Crow Scouts witnessed a conversation between Custer and Half Yellow Face. Half Yellow Face made a statement to Custer (speaking through the interpreter, Mitch Boyer) that was poetically prophetic, at least for Custer: "You and I are going home today by a road we do not know".
Half Yellow Face fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn with Major Marcus Reno's troops, and thus survived. During the battle he acted heroically to save his friend and fellow Crow Scout White Swan who had been severely wounded. After the battle he devised a special travois to get White Swan to the steamer Far West, so he could get medical care from the Army surgeon. He continued to scout for General John Gibbon after the battle. Tradition has it that he died about 1879, while pursuing Sioux who had stolen Crow horses. Because he died shortly after the battle, he is the least known of the six Crow scouts who went with Custer.
Half Yellow Face led a group of 11 Crow, including a young warrior called Two Leggins, on a horse stealing raid against the Shoshonis. They started on foot because they hoped to return with stolen horses. They started from the area of the Yellowstone Valley, and went down into the Bighorn Basin near present day Cody, Wyoming and then went west into the mountains. At one point they found themselves on the shores of Lake Yellowstone, after which they turned back east to re-enter the Bighorn Basin. Game was sparse, and they had little to eat but they came to four enemy tipis. Because they were weak from hunger they risked going among the enemy's horse herd in the daylight and stealthily cut out 24 horses, which they slowly led off a distance, and then rode home to their village on the Bighorn River.
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