White Swan

White Swan
Crow language: Mee-nah-tsee-us
White Swan, photo by Frank Rinehart
Crow leader
Personal details
Born	c.1850
Died	1904
Resting place	Little Bighorn National Cemetery
Spouse(s)	A wife, who died when White Swan was 23
Relations	An aunt, "Strikes By The Side Of The Water"; a cousin, Curly (sometimes referred to as his brother, according to Crow custom)
Known for	One of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment; fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn; artist in later life
Nickname(s)	"Strikes Enemy", "White Goose"

White Swan (c.1850—1904), or Mee-nah-tsee-us in the Crow language, was one of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, White Swan went with Major Reno's detachment, and fought alongside the soldiers at the south end of the village. Of the six Crow scouts at the Battle of the Little Bighorn White Swan stands out because he aggressively sought combat with multiple Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, and he was the only Crow Scout to be wounded in action, suffering severe wounds to his hand/wrist and leg/foot. After being disabled by his wounds, he was taken to Reno's hill entrenchments by Half Yellow Face, the pipe-bearer (leader) of the Crow scouts, which no doubt saved his life.

On the 27th, after the battle, Half Yellow Face made a special travois for White Swan and moved him to the Far West steamship so he could get medical care. White Swan was treated in a temporary Army hospital at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers. At the Crow encampments on Pryor Creek, other returning scouts reported that White Swan had died, but he survived his wounds.

Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn, White Swan continued for five years (1876 to 1881) to serve as a scout with the U.S. Army, though he was significantly disabled. He had a severely deformed right wrist and hand, and he limped from the wound in his foot/leg from wounds received at the Battle on the Little Bighorn. In photographs White Swan also had a scar on his forehead where he been struck with a war club in a separate battle with a Sioux warrior. Either from this blow or from other sources White Swan could not hear and thus was unable to speak in his later life. Eventually he was awarded a small army pension.