Thomas H. Leforge (July 9, 1850 – March 28, 1931) was an American writer who was the author of ''Memoirs of a White Crow Indian'', his highly detailed account of living among the

Crow Indian The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke (), also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation locate ...

nation during the mid-to-late 19th century, first published in March 1928 by

The Century Company The Century Company was an American publishing company, founded in 1881. History It was originally a subsidiary of Charles Scribner's Sons, named Scribners and Company, but was bought by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associa ...

at the hand of Thomas B. Marquis, and republished by the

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...

Early years

Born in

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...

, on July 9, 1850, he moved with his family to Missouri, then to Kansas, before they finally left in 1864 for

Virginia City, Montana Virginia City is a town in and the county seat of Madison County, Montana, United States. In 1961 the town and the surrounding area were designated a National Historic Landmark District, the Virginia City Historic District. The population was 2 ...

in search of gold. His family set out in prairie wagons with experienced guides on the Bridger Trail variant of the

Bozeman Trail The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863–68. Despite the fact that the maj ...

The white Indian

Leforge joined the Montana

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

in 1867 in the

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city o ...

and

Livingston, Montana Livingston is a city and county seat of Park County, Montana, United States. It is in southwestern Montana, on the Yellowstone River, north of Yellowstone National Park. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 8,040. History T ...

areas, acquiring both military experience and acquaintance with Native Americans tribes and ways (including raiding parties by

Piegan Blackfeet The Piegan (Blackfoot: ''Piikáni'') are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They were the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai were the oth ...

, his father working near Fort Ellis, Montana. (These and all other narrative details herein derive from Leforge's own account). In 1868 he attached himself to a party of Crow Indians under Yellow Leggings (a counselor of Blackbird) and befriended his son Three Irons. He acquired the Indian name of Fast Runner for sprinting, but was later renamed Horse Rider for equestrian skill, which name he would be known by in the tribe for the rest of his days (and unknown by his white name). Yellow Leggings formally adopted him in a camp in the Livingston area. Occasionally visiting his parents, Leforge divided his time chiefly between the Crow camps and Fort Ellis, becoming a

camp follower Camp followers are civilians who follow armies. There are two common types of camp followers; first, the wives and children of soldiers, who follow their spouse or parent's army from place to place; the second type of camp followers have histori ...

during hostilities with Indians and closely befriending the young

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

-French guide Mitch Bouyer (whose name his book spells Buoyer). Bouyer also lived among and married into the Crow, and joining Leforge in numerous actions. Leforge associated himself with the Mountain Crow, as distinguished from the River Crow, who tended to live to the north of the

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains a ...

. Leforge became fluent in the Crow language and sympathetic to the people, marrying a girl named (in translation) Cherry and taking up residence near Fort Parker. Though hired formally as a blacksmith, he served the fort as a scout and intermediary, and the tribe as scout (or "wolf") and warrior. He was a financial intermediary for trade, a diplomat (negotiating a treaty with the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

, and served in other capacities. He avoided scouting in pursuit of the

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

because of sympathy for their case. Though he did scout against the Bannock, he condemned the attacks on them during their surrender. He briefly married his wife's cousin on the cousin's request, though they separated due to white disdain for polygamy. On Cherry's death due to illness while she was away, he married Bouyer's widow Mary, in honor of a mutual pledge to look after each other's family. They would later divorce amicably when he decided to return to white society to seek a fortune in mining and timber ventures. Leforge married again, with children as in his earlier marriages, though after a few years he and this wife also parted when he decided to return to the simpler life of Crow society. Ironically, by this time it was beginning to fade through cultural assimilation. Leforge narrowly avoided death alongside Bouyer and the other Crow Scouts at the

Battle of the Little Big Horn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

due to an injury he sustained when a

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

calf spooked his horse. He served as the de facto leader and cultural intermediary for the original Crow scouts and headed a second group into subsequent actions. He died on March 28, 1931 from old age, according to his death certificate. His body was interred April 1, 1931 at

Custer National Cemetery George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

, in Crow Agency, Big Horn County,

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, United States.Lef - Len - New General Catalog of Old Books & Authors
/ref>

Leforge's book

Besides Bouyer and his wife Mary, other names Leforge mentions or discusses of interest to regional history include

Nelson Story Nelson Story Sr. (April 4, 1838 – March 10, 1926) was a pioneer Montana entrepreneur, cattle rancher, miner and vigilante, who was a notable resident of Bozeman, Montana. He was best known for his 1866 cattle drive from Texas with approximatel ...

, Yankee Jim George, Barney Bravo, Chick Suce,

Jim Beckwourth James Pierson Beckwourth (born Beckwith, April 26, 1798 or 1800 – October 29, 1866 or 1867), was an American mountain man, fur trader, and explorer. Beckwourth was known as "Bloody Arm" because of his skill as a fighter. He was mixed-race and ...

, Pierre Chien, Tom Bowyer, Skookum Jim,

medicine man A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...

Father of All Buffalo, Colonel Eugene M. Baker,

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

Chief Looking Glass Looking Glass (''Allalimya Takanin'' c. 1832–1877) was a principal Nez Perce architect of many of the military strategies employed by the Nez Perce during the Nez Perce War of 1877. He, along with Chief Joseph, directed the 1877 retreat from ea ...

Chief Washakie Washakie (1804/1810 – February 20, 1900) was a prominent leader of the Shoshone people during the mid-19th century. He was first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging ...

of the Shoshone,

Chief Joseph ''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa ...

of the

, Crow Chief Blackfoot,

Curly (scout) Ashishishe (c. 1856–1923), known as Curly (or Curley) and Bull Half White, was a Crow tribe, Crow Crow Scouts, scout in the United States Army during the Sioux Wars, best known for having been one of the few survivors on the United States side a ...

, General Hugh L. Scott, General

Alfred Howe Terry Alfred Howe Terry (November 10, 1827 – December 16, 1890) was a Union general in the American Civil War and the military commander of the Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869, and again from 1872 to 1886. In 1865, Terry led Union troops to vi ...

, General

John Gibbon John Gibbon (April 20, 1827 – February 6, 1896) was a career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Early life Gibbon was born in the Holmesburg section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the four ...

, Lieutenant

James Bradley James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of th ...

, and General

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

. Leforge's book is replete with non-professional first-hand anthropological observations and insights into the cultural, social, military, and spiritual ways of the Crow as well as other tribes before their significant assimilation into American culture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leforge, Thomas 1850 births 1931 deaths People from Portsmouth, Ohio People of the Great Sioux War of 1876 Writers from Montana Writers from Ohio