ISAIAH DORMAN:
"Black White Man" at the Little Bighorn

While hundreds of books have been written and nearly thirty films have been made about the fight at the Little Bighorn, seldom is there the suggestion that a black man participated in the fighting. That man was Isaiah Dorman. But perhaps as interesting as the fact that he died in action at the Little Bighorn on June 25th, 1876 is the fact that Dorman had often been a guest of the very people he was fighting.

No one really knows how or why Dorman came west. Whether once slave or always free, Dorman must have felt that the west offered him opportunities that did not exist in other places. Dorman first appears in War Department records on November 11th, 1865, when he was hired as a courier to make the 200 mile round trip between Fort Wadsworth and Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, at the substantial pay rate of $100.00 a month. The work paid well but not regularly and Dorman worked intermittently.

By 1867, Army work had dwindled. Dorman took employment with the firm of Durfee and Peck as a "Woodhawk." These woodcutters cut and stacked wood along the Missouri for the use of the river boats at the rate of $ 1.50 per cord. Relocated in 1869 to the Standing Rock Indian Agency, Dorman moved in with the Santee Lakota woman he had recently married

In 1871, Dorman was hired as a guide by the Army escort for the Northern Pacific Railroad survey team. He performed this duty until October of 1871 when he was hired as a full-time interpreter at Fort Rice. Dorman served in this capacity for almost five years.

His expertise with the Lakota tongue came to the attention of Lt. Colonel George A. Custer and on May 14th, 1876, Custer asked for Dorman to accompany his Little Big Horn expedition.

When Custer's column found the Indian camp on the Little Bighorn on the afternoon of June 25th, 1876, he ordered his command split into separate groups. Custer ordered Major Marcus A. Reno down into the valley to attack one end of the camp. Custer himself would take another group of troops and attack from the heights across the river from the camp.

Reno's contingent spread out and made a charge on the south end of the camp. Here, Reno had his men dismount to fight on foot.

Indian warriors grabbed their guns and poured out of the village, fighting to allow the women, children and older people to escape north to safety.

Dorman was shot and fell to the ground. He was probably recognized by some of the Lakota, because the Lakota called out to him while the fighting continued. They called him by two names. One translated as "Teat" and the other was "Black White Man." Dorman died later in the afternoon of his wounds.

Isaiah Dorman's life on the plains and his participation at the Little Bighorn makes it possible to look at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the wars against the Indians in a very different way.