Black Coyote

Who was Black Coyote?

Black Coyote was a Lakota Sioux who refused to give up his weapon at the battle of Wounded Knee and is believed to have unintentionally triggered the massacre.

In an account from an Indian, Turning Hawk, who was present at the massacre and was sympathetic to the U.S. Government, claimed that Black Coyote was "a crazy man, a young man of very bad influence, and in fact a nobody."

Another account from 1LT James D. Mann detailed the massacre, and the following unattributed supplement was added to the journal after his death:

This historical figure portrayed by David Midthunder appeared in Hidalgo. The "Into the West" miniseries suggests that Black Coyote was deaf. This claim was supported in the Native American history "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown, who appears to be quoting an eyewitness account by survivor Dewey Beard.

The book "Wind on the Buffalo Grass: The Indian's Own Account of the Battle at the Little Big Horn River, & the Death of Their Life on the Plains" by Leslie Tillett states that "One Indian's gun was fired by accident. I heard that later it belonged to Sitting Bull's deaf-mute son, who couldn't hear the order to disarm. After that shot, the soldiers let loose with everything they had." This account given by Dewey Beard.