Dewey Beard (Iron Hail), a Minneconjou Sioux warrior aged 17 in 1876, attempted on a dare from a tribesman to capture George A. Custer alive during the battle. Injured at the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890, in which he saw his first wife and child, mother an father sister and two brother killed, he died in 1955, aged 96. Native American survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. He adopted Miller as his son in 1951.
“A bugle sounded and the shooting grew louder. Our knives and war-clubs flashed in the sun. Bullets whizzed past my ears. I kept going, shouting, ‘it’s a good day to die,’ so that everyone would know I was not afraid of being killed in battle.” – Cedar Pass, South Dakota Badlands
