Bloody Knife, Custer’s scout, on Yellowstone Expedition, 1873 – NARA – 524373. Bloody Knife was born to a Hunkpapa Sioux father and an Arikara mother around 1840. He was abused and discriminated against by the other Sioux in his village because of his background, in particular by Bloody bull, a future chief.
While his exact date and place of birth are unknown, Bloody Knife was probably born between 1837 and 1840 in Dakota Territory. Conflicts between the Arikaras and Sioux were routine there, with Sioux war parties attacking Arikaras who wandered too far from the fort. In spite of the threat they represented, Bloody Knife took on and succeeded in the dangerous job of delivering mail to other forts in Missouri and to Fort Totten in North Dakota. After working for the American Fur Company, Bloody Knife accompanied Brigadier General Alfred Sully in 1865 as a scout on his Sioux expedition. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson authorized the formation of a force of Indian scouts when he signed the Indian Scout Enlistment Act. In 1873, at Fort Rice, he met George Armstrong Custer. The two became friends, and Custer admired Bloody Knife’s talents as a scout.