Little Big Man

***Subtitles by gnl***

I am, beyond a doubt,

the last of the old-timers.

My name is Jack Crabb.

And I am the sole white survivor

of the Battle of Little Big Horn...

uh... uh...

popularly knowed as Custer's Last Stand.

Well...

Mr. Crabb, I'm more interested

in the primitive lifestyle of the Plains Indian

than I am in the...

Tall tales about Custer.

Tall tales?!

Are you calling me a liar?

- No, no... - Huh?

No, it's just that...

I'm interested in the way of life

of the Indian rather than, shall we say, adventure.

You think the Battle of Little Big Horn was... was a...

Was an adventure?

Oh, shit.

Little Big Horn was not representative of...

encounters between Whites and Indians, Mr. Crabb.

You see the... near genocide of the Indian...

The... the... the near what?!

Near genocide.

It means: "extermination;

the killing off of an entire people."

That's practically what we did to the Indian.

But of course, I wouldn't expect an old Indian fighter like you

to agree with me.

Turn that thing on.

I beg your pardon?

I said, turn that thing on

and shut up.

Now you just set there, and you'll learn something.

I knowed General George Armstrong Custer

for what he was.

And I also knowed the Indians...

for what they was.

111 years ago, when I was ten years old,

my family... in crossin' the Great Plains...

was wiped out by a band of wild Indians.

Everybody was killed or drug off

by them murderin' varmints,

except me and my sister Caroline.

Good-bye, Jack.

I'll see you in Heaven.

Good-bye, Caroline.

We didn't know the difference then,

but it was a band of Pawnee what attacked us before.

I ain't had no use for Pawnee ever since.

But this one wasn't a Pawnee.

He was a Cheyenne brave.

I later got to know him well.

His name was Shadow That Comes In Sight.

At first sight of an Indian camp,

what you think is, "I see their dump, where's the camp?"

He brought us to their chief.

His name was Old Lodge Skins,

who later become my granddaddy.

What do they want, Caroline?

It's as plain as day what they want, Jack.

What?

Me.

To show good manners,

Old Lodge Skins smoked with our oldest male survivor.

They didn't know I was a woman.

That explains why they didn't rape me right off.

I don't think they're gonna bother you, Caroline.

No such luck, Jack.

They'll get me tonight, for sure.

Poor Caroline never did have no luck with men.

I reckoned she figured we both couldn't get away,

and she'd send help back to rescue me.

Next morning, I found myself in that Indian camp all alone.

But the Cheyenne, who call themselves the "Human Beings,"

had no idea to hurt me.

I was an honored guest,

and they gave me a real treat for breakfast: Boiled dog.

Dog ain't bad, neither.

Now dog is greasy, I'll admit, but you'd be surprised

how downright delicate the flavor is,

especially when you're starving.

You see, the Human Beings adopted me as one of their own.

Shadow That Comes In Sight taught me the bow and arrow

and how to stalk game.

Burns Red In The Sun

showed me how to protect my pale skin from sunburn.

It's a little known fact that some Indians, like Burns Red

will sunburn their own selves.

But my real teacher was my adopted grandpa,

Old Lodge Skins.

He taught me to read a trail, the Cheyenne language,

and lots of other things.

For a boy, it was a kind of paradise.

I wasn't just playing Indian,

I was living Indian.

Only one thing bothered me.

I was small for my years.

In fact, a durn near runt.

The Pawnee stole seven of our ponies.

There's gonna be a war party.

But you can't go.

You're too little and weak like a girl.

Run away now or I'll kick you.

The Indians had never heard of fistfightin;

and it plum amazed 'em.

How did you do that?

I'm sorry, Younger Bear.

I didn't mean to hurt you.

The Indian way... you should never feel sorry

about beating an enemy unless having conquered his body,

you want his spirit as well.

I had made the first real enemy of my life.

There once was a Human Being,

and he was very small,

but he won a name:

Little Man.

You've heard of him.

No, Grandfather.

He went on a war party against the Pawnees.

But the Pawnees were many.

One by one, the Human Beings were rubbed out.

Little Man was very brave.

The Pawnees called out to him,

"If you will quit fighting, we will let you go."

But Little Man answered, "It's a good day to die."

Finally, they cut off his head.

But he kept fighting without his head.

He rode among the Pawnees like a whirlwind.

And his head... it was stuck on a spear...

started to shout the war cry.

The Pawnees could take no more,

and they ran away.

When they looked back,

they saw the body of Little Man

lie down among his friends.

Little Man was small, but his bravery was big.

The Human Beings don't require

a boy to be a warrior if he ain't got

the temperament for it,

and Little Horse didn't.

If he wanted to stay behind with the women

that was all right with the Human Beings.

We will leave the ponies here.

You two will hold them.

No! I don't want to stay here.

I want to go to the Pawnee camp.

You!

You aren't even a Human Being!

You're white.

He didn't believe it himself.

Younger Bear was just trying

to hand me the worst possible insult.

Little white man.

Fool poor Pawnee.

Big fooling.

You want to eat?

Shit, Pawnees was always sucking up to whites.

Little white man not mad, huh?

See? Pawnee friend.

See?!

Fixes bad Injun for little white man.

I always felt kind of bad about that poor Pawnee.

I didn't mean to kill him.

I just meant to distract him.

I had made a real enemy of Younger Bear.

I give you these ponies...

but...

I owe you a life.

Saving his life was the final insult.

This boy is no longer a boy.

He's a brave.

He is little in body, but his heart is big.

His name shall be "Little Big Man."

I don't understand it, Grandfather.

Why would they 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.

This will be the first time, my son,

I face the whites as an enemy.

I don't know whether you remember

before you became a Human Being,

and as dear a son to me as those

I made with Buffalo Wallow Woman and the others...

But I won't speak of that unfortunate time.

I just want to say, if you believe

riding against these white creatures is bad,

you can stay out of the fight.

No one will think the worse.

Grandfather,

I think it's a good day to die.

My heart soars like a hawk.

Idm sorry to say that Old Lodge Skins' war

against the whites was kind of pitiful.