Researching Charger most recently, I found the whole article written in 1903, which include some of the details above only more.
A SIDE LIGHT ON THE SIOUX
BY
DOANE ROBINSON
ON that awful August day of 1862, when the Santee Sioux Indians fell upon the frontier settlements of Minnesota, the most western and the most exposed of these settlements was a little community of a dozen homesteaders, and their families gathered about Lake Shetek in what is now Murray County. The attack upon this settlement, the massacre of many of its inhabitants and the captivity of others which followed are stories with which all readers of the history of Indian warfare are familiar, but the manner of the ransom of some of these captives has not been written.
Mrs. John Wright and two children a boy of six and an infant in arms; Mrs. William J. Duly and two girls, the eldest of whom was twelve years of age, Lillie Everett a girl of eight years and two other little girls, daughters of Thomas Ireland, became captives in the band of
White Lodge, a subsidiary chief of the Santees.
White Lodge and his band consisting of about one hundred and eighty persons at once departed with their captives for the Dakota country, and, by November 1st, after being sent along from one Indian camp to another by the head men, who did not care to incur the vengeance of the soldiers by being found with white captives on their premises, arrived at the Missouri River near the line now dividing North and South Dakota.
The
Teton Sioux at this period lived on the Missouri in the vicinity of Fort Pierre, and when the news of the
Santee attacks came to them, they assembled in a council at which they resolved as a tribe to remain neutral. There were however, some progressive young Tetons who advocated active interference in behalf of the whites, but they were overruled in council. Two of these young men,
Martin Charger and
Kills and Comes, a few days later sat down on the bank of the river and after a long discussion of the situation decided to attempt to organize the young men of the tribe into an association for the purpose of rendering the whites such assistance as lay in their power, without involving their people in war with the Santees.
Their proposition, however, was received with so much derision by the older Tetons, that they were able to induce but nine others to join with them. These
eleven boys, the eldest of whom was but twenty years of age, with all the grave formality of the oldest braves, solemnly pledged themselves to withhold no sacrifice of comfort, effort, property, or life, which it might be necessary to make to serve the white people.
They called their society by a name which is best translated, The Young Men's Association, but by their own people they were known as the “Crazy Band” (
Fool Soldiers) an appellation which clings to them to this day. The boys thus banded together were
Charger, Kills and Comes, Four Bear, Mad Bear, Pretty Bear, Sitting Bear, Swift Bird, One Rib, Strikes Fire, Red Dog, and Charging Dog. They were not prompted to this action by any sinister or mercenary motives, but from sentiments of humanity which would have been creditable to men of the highest civilization; nor was their action suggested to them by white men, but was wholly original with themselves.
Early in November 1862,
Major Galpin, a trader at the mouth of the Yellowstone, coming down the river with a small party of miners in a Mackinaw boat, was hailed by a band of Santees encamped near Standing Rock and invited to land. They were about to do so when a white woman ran down to the river bank, and frantically warned them to keep away if they would save their lives. The Santees at once fired on the boatmen, who threw themselves into the bottom of the craft and were soon out of danger. They learned from the woman that the captives from Lake Shetek were in the Santee camp, and as they passed down the river, they gave information of this discovery at every opportunity.
The
Crazy Band learned of this incident and knew the time had come to put their professions into practice. The boys gathered up their robes and other peltry, and, taking them to
Primeau's trading house traded them for food, especially sugar and delicacies which they conceived would be grateful to the Santee palate, and with these supplies moved their horses to the east side of the river and camped on the Okaboji. The third day out they arrived at the mouth of Swan Creek where the village of
LeBeau now is, and there found a small party of friendly Yanktonnais Sioux, who informed them that a party of Santees, having white captives, were encamped on the east side of the Missouri, in the bend below the mouth of Grand River, within what is now Walworth County, South Dakota. The boys pushed on and pitched their camp about one hundred yards from the camp of the hostiles, and indicated a desire for a council.
White Lodge and his head men came out each with his gun cached under his blanket, and a council was held.
Charger opened the conference with a typical Indian talk about the good heart which had impelled them to the enterprise to ransom the white captives; concluding, “You see us here. We are only young boys. Our people call us crazy but we want to do something good. If a man owns anything he likes it and he will not part with it for nothing. We have come here to buy the white captives and give them back to their friends. We will give the horses for them; all the horses we have. That proves that we want the captives very much for our hearts are good, and we want to do a good thing.” Then, with that dreary monotony, which only an Indian could tolerate,
each of the other ten boys repeated verbatim Charger's harangue. To this
White Lodge replied: “We come from the east where the sky is made red by the fires that burn the homes of the whites, and the earth is red with the blood of the whites whom the Santees are killing. These white captives I have taken after killing many of their people. I will not again be a friend of whites. I have already done a bad thing, and now I will keep on doing bad things. I will not give up the captives I fight until I drop dead.”
Then the boys changed their tactics. They spread a feast and
Charger the invitation to partake in these words: Here is food; eat what you want and go home, and we will take the captives and go home.”
White Lodge and his braves accepted the hospitality, but when the feast was concluded he was still obdurate, and insultingly resented the attempt of the Tetons to interfere in his affairs. They became much excited, and bloodshed seemed imminent. After much bullying another formal council was arranged, and Charger and the other boys gravely reiterated their previous statement, not deviating in a single syllable from the original address, to which
White Lodge interposed the same formal refusal. A third time the boys repeated their proposition, only to be met by a more determined refusal, but they had still another card in reserve, and the time had come to play it.
Charger spoke: “
White Lodge you talk very brave. You kill white men who have no guns, and you steal women and children and run away with them where there are no soldiers. If you are brave, why did you not stay and fight the soldiers who had guns? Three times we have offered our horses for the captives, and you have refused us. Now we will take the captives and put them on the horses and take them to their friends. If you make us trouble the soldiers who have guns will come against you from the east and our people the Tetons will come against you from the west, and we shall then see how brave you are.” At this a Santee from the outside who did not sit in the council called to
Black Hawk, the eldest son of White Lodge: “
Black Hawk why do you not speak? Why sit so still?”
Black Hawk then spoke, addressing the Tetons: “You young people have done right. Your grub tastes good. You are straight young men respected by your own people. I know some of you, but my father,
White Lodge does not know you. We are starving and it is winter. I have one white child which I will give up. Let the others do as I have done and give up their captives.”
Black Hawk's sensational action led to prolonged parleying, and as the result of it all, it was agreed that the captives should be exchanged for the horses, and the Santees returned to their camp. At length the boys were invited to bring their horses, and come into the village. A large lodge had been erected in the center of the camp. They tied the horses near by and went inside. They found Mrs. Duly and the six children (Mrs. Wright's baby had been wantonly murdered by a young savage.) sitting in a row along one side of the lodge. They were almost naked and in a condition so pitiable that even the young savages were moved by their grief.
Each captive was claimed as the individual property of some brave and no proposition looking to a wholesale exchange of horses for whites would be considered. Each proprietor was bent upon driving the best possible bargain for his chattel. The youngest child was first offered and, after a protracted period of dickering, a trade was made for it and it was removed to the other side of the lodge, to be joined by the others as fast as they were purchased; and so, at last, each of the seven captives was ransomed, but not until all the bluffing, bullying, and jockeying of which the Sioux Indian is capable had been exhausted, and the boys had traded themselves out of all their property, except one horse and four guns, and Mrs. Wright, whom White Lodge claimed was still to be secured.
White Lodge, who had given but grudging consent to the proceeding thus far, now absolutely refused to surrender Mrs. Wright on any terms. After another period of intense excitement, in which the lives of the boys and the whites appeared to be in peril, another council was arranged, and again the threat of crushing the Santees between the Tetons and the soldiers brought the majority of the hostiles to their senses, although White Lodge continued implacable.
Black Hawk and his younger brother, Chased by the Ree, proposed to take the woman away from their father, and give her over to the boys in consideration of the remaining horse.
The proposition was accepted and
Red Dog and Strikes Fire were entrusted with the negotiation. They soon returned with the woman, and the rescuing party moved their camp several miles down the river before they were overtaken by the nightfall. Their situation was truly desperate. They were more than one hundred miles from home, in a northern winter, without horses or food. The captives were without clothing and the boys gave them their blankets, leaving their own bodies seriously exposed. Moreover,
White Lodge was threatening to retake the captives from their rescuers. The captives were housed in the small tent, and the boy’s ill protected against the storm which was raging, spent the night in an unceasing march around the camp. At daylight they were on the way, and shortly after, to their great relief, a friendly Yanktonnais appeared on horseback and to him they gave two of their remaining guns for the horse, and hastily rigging a travois, placed five of the children upon it.
Pretty Bear carried the youngest child on his back, and the women walked. Mrs. Duly had no moccasins, and
Charger gave her his own, himself going barefoot throughout the day until the Yanktonnais camp was reached at
LeBeau. Early on that day the expected happened.
White Lodge appeared, accompanied by five warriors, and demanded the return of Mrs. Wright, but the boys bluffed him out, and he gave up the pursuit. Of the Yanktonnais, in exchange for one gun, they procured an old cart, a little food, and some moccasins.
Next morning the children were crowded into the cart box and Mrs. Duly was mounted on the animal's back. Mrs. Wright continued to walk with the boys. That day they traveled thirty five miles, for most of which it was necessary to assist the pony with his load by pushing the cart. They camped that night on the site of the present village of Forest City. The next morning they climbed the river bluff and cut directly across the ox bow in the direction of
Primeau's, and that night they did not camp at all but kept up the weary tramp until daylight, when they had arrived opposite their own home. The river was slightly frozen, rendering the crossing most hazardous, but the relatives of the boys secured the assistance of
Primeau,
Dupree, and
LaPlant, the two latter half breeds residing in the vicinity, and managed to get the party safely over.
Primeau clothed the captives as best he could from his stock, and
Dupree took them to his home, where they rested three days, when they were taken to
Fort Randall in wagons by
Dupree and LaPlant. Colonel John Pattee, of the 41st Iowa Cavalry, in command at Fort Randall, took them to his quarters, and his wife and entertained them for twenty days, until notice of the rescue could reach their friends, and relatives arrived to take them home. They had been captured, August 20, 1862; they were rescued on November 20th of same year; they arrived at Fort Randall, November 29th.
Six of the eleven members of the “
Crazy Band”--
Swift Bird, Strikes Fire, Four Bear, Pretty Bear, Mad Bear, and Sitting Bear, still survive (this was written 1903--
Charger died in 1900). They live on the Cheyenne River Reservation, and are men of honorable distinction among their people, and on more than one occasion since their first heroic exploit have they rendered invaluable services to the whites. During the Custer war of 1875-6, they stood as a wall of rock between the hostiles and the settlements, and again when the Messiah craze swept over the Sioux Nation in 1890, these men serene and unmoved by the popular clamor, counseled calmness among their people, and organized the young men for active resistance to the hostiles if their services should be required.
It is a just reproach to the American people that the services rendered by these men in the rescue of the Lake Shetek captives have never been recognized.
McClure’s Magazine
Volume XXI
May to October, 1903
Can be read:
books.google.com/books?id=ZbYbHQiLtRYC&pg=RA2-PA431&dq=captives+rescued+lake+shetek&ei=-a6HStvVGZXkkQTsv8igCg#v=onepage&q=captives%20rescued%20lake%20shetek&f=false 
