RAIN - IN - THE - FACE
( Iromagaja )
Hunkpapa Sioux Chief
1835 -1905
As with a number of other Northern Plains leaders who drew their names from natural phenomena, Rain-In-The-Face's name suffers somewhat in translation.
Actually, his Dakota name meant "His face is like a storm".
In 1866, Rain-In-The-Face took part in the destruction of a force led by Captain William Fetterman outside Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.
During the years of Sioux resistance to the opening of the Bozeman Trail, Rain-In-The-Face led a number of raids.
He settled for a time at the Standing Rock Agency but was accused of murdering a white man and jailed.
A friendly guard freed Rain-In-The-Face, and he joined Sitting Bull, after raiding several Union Pacific Railroad crews.
Rain-In-The_face was one of several Lakota and Cheyenne military leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn in 1876.
After the battle, some reports indicated that Rain-In-The-Face had killed Custer; this assertion was the central theme in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Revenge of Rain-In-The-Face".
Subsequent events, described by historian Stanley Vestal indicate that White Bull, not Rain-In-The-Face, took Custer's life.
Rain-In-The-Face was badly wounded in the Custer battle and walked with a limp the rest of his life.
After joining Sitting Bull's exiles in Canada until 1880, Rain-In-The-Face surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Fort Keough, Montana.
Reservation life did not agree with Rain-In-The-Face.
He was married seven times, and his last wife was found with her throat cut.
Rain-In-The-Face died at Standing Rock and was buried at Aberdeen, South Dakota.