Academic Importance
Wooden Leg is an important original source of information on the Cheyenne and Plains Indians in general and on the Battle of the Little Big Horn in particular. Many hundreds of books have been written about the Great Sioux War, its battles, and its characters. A large number of these books have looked to Marquis to provide source material. This is especially true of the Custer fight, where there is a shortage of eyewitness accounts from the United States side. Books on social issues and archaeology also find usable material in Wooden Leg on the topic of Plains Indians. A small selection of the hundreds of books that use Wooden Leg as a reference are listed at the end of this article.
Wooden Leg is also regularly cited in papers in academic journals. Those addressing social and educational issues are found just as often as those in historical journals. Again, a selection of such papers is given at the foot of this article.
As well as source information for Cheyenne military and social history, the book is a rich source of anecdotes. One tale describes how Wooden Leg and Little Bird chase a fleeing Reno soldier. Neither Indian was willing to shoot a fleeing man, as it "seemed not brave" to do so. This did not prevent the soldier from shooting Little Bird, after which Wooden Leg clubbed the soldier off his horse. Wooden Leg describes the screams of his mother when she is presented with a scalp as a present. In another story, Wooden Leg is sitting in the lodge with his friend, Noisy Walking, who is dying of his battle wounds. He wants to support his friend but doesn't know what to say. There are many other examples.
Read more about this topic: Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer
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