View source for Rain-in-the-Face

{{short description|Warchief of the Lakota tribe of Native Americans (1835-1905)}}
{{Infobox American Indian chief
| name           = Rain-in-the-Face
| image          = Rain-in-the-Face Barry ca 1874 wiki.jpg
| image_size     = 
| caption        = Rain-in-the-Face in 1874
| tribe          = [[Lakota people|Lakota]]
| lead           = 
| birth_date     = {{circa|1835}}
| birth_place    = 
| death_date     = {{dda|September 15, 1905|1835}}
| death_place    = Bullhead Station, [[Standing Rock Sioux Reservation]] ([[North Dakota|North]] and [[South Dakota]])
| predecessor    = 
| successor      = 
| native_name    = '''Ité Omáǧažu'''
| nicknames      = 
| known_for      = 
| death_cause    = 
| resting_place  = 
| rp_coordinates = 
| religion       = 
| party          = 
| education      = 
| spouse         = 
| partner        = 
| children       = 
| parents        = 
| relations      = 
| signature      = Rain in the Face signature.svg
| footnotes      = 
}}

'''Rain-in-the-Face''' ([[Lakota language|Lakota]]: '''Ité Omáǧažu''' in Standard Lakota Orthography) (c. 1835&nbsp;&ndash; September 15, 1905) was a warchief of the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] tribe of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. His mother was a Dakota related to the band of famous Chief [[Inkpaduta]]. In 1876, he participated in the [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]] that defeated the [[7th Cavalry Regiment]] under Lt. Colonel [[George Armstrong Custer]].

==Biography==
Born in the [[Dakota Territory]] near the forks of the [[Cheyenne River]] about 1835, Rain-in-the-Face was from the [[Hunkpapa]] band within the Lakota nation. His name may have been a result of a fight when he was a boy in which his face was splattered like rain with his [[Cheyenne]] adversary's blood. Late in his life, the chief related that the name was reinforced by an incident when he was a young man where he was in a battle in a heavy rainstorm with a band of [[Gros Ventre]]s. At the end of the lengthy combat, his face was streaked with war paint.

He first fought against the whites in the summer of 1866 when he participated in a raid against [[Fort Totten, North Dakota|Fort Totten]] in what is now [[North Dakota]]. In 1868, he again fought the [[U.S. Army]] in the [[Fetterman Fight]] near [[Fort Phil Kearny]] in present-day [[Wyoming]]. He again was involved in fighting in 1873 when he took part in the [[Battle of Honsinger Bluff]] where he ambushed and killed an army veterinarian Dr. John Honsinger, an army private and another civilian near present-day [[Miles City, Montana]]. He returned to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, but was arrested by Captain [[Thomas Custer]] in 1874 on orders of General [[George A. Custer]] for the murder of Honsinger. He was taken to [[Fort Abraham Lincoln]] and incarcerated. However, he escaped (or was freed by sympathetic Indian policemen) and returned to the reservation, then fled to the [[Powder River (Montana)|Powder River]]. In the spring of 1876, he joined [[Sitting Bull]]'s band and traveled with him to the [[Little Big Horn River]] in early June.

[[File:Chief Rain in the face on horse.jpg|thumb|left|Rain-in-the-Face circa 1880–1890]]

During the subsequent fighting at the [[Battle of Little Big Horn]] on [[Custer Hill]] on June 25, 1876, Rain-in-the-Face is alleged to have cut the heart out of Thomas Custer, a feat that was popularized by American poet [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] in "[[The Revenge of Rain in the Face]]".<ref>[http://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=208 The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face], by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</ref> According to the dubious legend, Rain-in-the-Face was fulfilling a vow of vengeance because he thought Captain Thomas Custer had unjustly imprisoned him in 1874. Some contemporary accounts also claimed that the war chief had personally dispatched George Custer as well, but in the confused fighting, a number of similar claims have been attributed to other warriors. Late in his life, in a conversation with writer [[Charles Eastman]], Rain-in-the-Face denied killing George Custer or mutilating Tom Custer.

Rain-in-the-Face joined other Hunkpapa as they fled north into [[Canada]], spending the next several years in exile. He finally led his band in to surrender in 1880 and was transferred to the [[Standing Rock Agency]] the following year. In a census of the Lakota taken at [[Standing Rock]] in September 1881, Rain in the Face's band is recorded as numbering 39 families or 180 people.<ref>Ephriam D. Dickson III, [http://www.sdshspress.com/index.php?&id=220&action=912 The Sitting Bull Surrender Census: The Lakotas at Standing Rock Agency, 1881] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716025207/http://www.sdshspress.com/index.php?&id=220&action=912 |date=2011-07-16 }} (Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2010) p. 59-68.</ref>

Rain-in-the-Face died in his home at the [[Bullhead Station]] on the [[Standing Rock Sioux Reservation]] after a lengthy illness. On his deathbed he reputedly confessed to a missionary that he thought that he might have killed Custer, shooting him from so close as to leave powder marks upon his face.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Grant, Bruce, ''The Concise Encyclopedia of the American Indian.'' New York: Wings Books, 2000.
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[[Category:1830s births]]
[[Category:1905 deaths]]
[[Category:Lakota leaders]]
[[Category:People from South Dakota]]
[[Category:People of the Great Sioux War of 1876]]
[[Category:People of the American Old West]]
[[Category:American folklore]]
[[Category:Hunkpapa people]]