I am without a doubt, the last of the Oldtimers...My name is Jack
Crabb and I am the sole white survivor of the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, popularly known as Custer’s Last Stand...now you just
sit there and learn something....I know’d General George Armstrong
Custer for what he was...and I know’d the Indians for what
they was...
...The Human Bein’s adopted me as one of their own (and) my
real teacher was my adopted grandpa, Ol’ Lodgeskins...he taught
me to read a trail and the Cheyenne language. For a boy it was a
kind of Paradise. I wasn’t just playin’ Indians, I was
livin’ Indians!
Conversation between Jack Crabb (Little Big Man) and Old Lodgeskins...
"I don’t understand it Grandfather...Why would they try
to kill women and children?"
"Because they are strange. They do not seem to know where the
Center of the Earth is...We must have a war on these cowards and
teach them a lesson."
About to be captured by the US Cavalry...
"I’m a White Man! Didn’t you hear me say, ‘God
Bless my mother? God Bless George Washington?’ I mean what
kind of an Indian what say a fool thing like that?"
From Mrs Louise Pendrake (wife to the Reverend Pendrake) upon Jack’s
return to ‘White Civilization’...
"It is my Christian duty to give this boy an immediate and
thorough bath...Take your clothes off, Jack...every stitch. But I
shall avert my eyes at the necessary moment."
From Aladyce Merryweather...snake oil salesman and Jack’s
new mentor...
"You’re improving Jack, but you can’t get rid of
that streak of honesty in you...the one that ruined you was that
damn Indian...he gave you a vision of moral order in the universe
and there isn’t any. Those stars twinkle in a void and the
two-legged creature schemes and dreams beneath them...all in vain,
Jack. Two-legged creature will believe anything, and the more preposterous,
the better. Whales speak French at the bottom of the ocean...Horses
of Arabia have silver wings. I have sold all these propositions..."
"...Maybe we’re all fools and none of it matters."
"....Aye."
"Go snake eyes, Jack...like this!"
During Jack Crabb’s gunslinger days as "The Soda
Pop Kid."
"Might I ask who I are addressin’?"
"I’m Wild Bill Hickock."
"....Well...I’m pleased to meet you I’m sure."
"The pleasure’s mutual, Friend...Bring your soda pop
here and set a while."
"What’re you so nervous about?"
"Gettin’ shot."
The arrival of General George Armstrong Custer...
"That is a pathetic scene. A ruined and desperate family, wiped
out by economic ruin...I find it touching....Have you a trade? Then
take my advice—Go West! You have nothing to fear from the Indians...I
give you my personal guarantee..."
Little Big Man returns to the Human Beings and Old Lodgeskins...
"My son, seeing you again makes my heart soar like a hawk."
"Grandfather, I have a white wife."
"You do? That’s interesting. Does she cook and work hard?"
"Yes, Grandfather."
"That surprises me. Does she show pleasant enthusiasm when
you mount her?"
"Well, of course, Grandfather."
"That surprises me even more...I tried one of them once but
she didn’t show any enthusiasm at all."
After a massacre of Crabb’s Cheyenne friends by the US
Cavalry...
"There’s no describin’ how I felt. An enemy had
saved my life by the violent murder of one of my best friends...the
World was too ridiculous to even bother livin’..."
Old Lodgeskins on Humanity and the White Men...
"Do you see this fine thing? Do you admire the humanity in
it? Because the Human Beings believe everything is alive. Not only
Man and the Animals but Water, Earth, Stone...Things that come from
them. Like that hair. The Man from whom this hair came is bald on
the Other Side because I own his scalp...This is the way things are.
But the White Man—they believe everything is dead. Earth. Animals.
People. Even their own people. If things keep trying to live, White
Men will rub them out. That is the difference."
"Well...they didn’t call her ‘Diggin’ Bear’ for
nuthin’ I can tell you that."
Custer to Jack Crabb...
"You’re no Cheyenne Brave...do I hang you? I think not.
Get out. Your miserable life is not worth the reversal of a Custer
Decision."
Wild Bill to Jack Crabb...
"You’re a sad sight, Hoss. You shoulda stuck to sody
pop...here’s twenty bucks. Get gloriously drunk....but one
thing I know Hoss, any damn fool can drink himself to Death."
Lulu Kane (formerly Mrs. Louise Pendrake)
"Well Jack...now you know. This is a house of...ill-fame. And
I am a fallen flower...Not only is this life wicked and sinful, it
isn’t even any fun."
Jack Crabb...
"I decided Life wasn’t fit to live and the only thing
to do was to mingle with the twinklin’ stars..."
"But now, the time had come to look the devil in the eye and
send him where he belongs. The only question was—how to get
him there."
Custer and Crabb...
"What do you think I should do, mule skinner? Should I go in
there or withdraw?"
General...you go down there! There are thousands of Indians down
there and when they’re done with you, you won’t be nuthin’ but
a greasy spot...This ain’t the Washita River, General, and
these ain’t women and children. These are Sioux and Cheyenne
braves."
Chief Lodgeskins...
"I want to die on my own land where Human Beings are buried
in the Sky. There’s no other way to deal with the White Man,
my son. Whatever else you say about the White Men, it must be admitted
you cannot get rid of them."
"No Grandfather...I suppose not."
"There is an endless supply of White Men, but there always
has been a limited number of Human Beings. We won today. We won’t
win tomorrow."
His Death Chant...
"Come out and fight! It is a good day to fight. A good day
to die!
"Thank you for making me a Human Being...Thank you for helping
me to become a warrior. Thank you for my victories...and my defeats.
Thank you for my vision and the blindness that helped me to see further.
"Now you have decided the Human Beings will walk a road that
leads Nowhere...I am going to die now, unless Death wants to fight.
And I ask you one last time to grant me the power to make things
happen..."
"Grandfather?"
"....Am I still in this world?"
"Yes, Grandfather."
"I was afraid of that...well...sometimes the magic works. And
sometimes it doesn’t. Let’s go back to the teepee and
eat."