Every where I go, my name always comes up . . . where’d you get that name - how many people did you have to kill to get that name .... is that a real Indian name or did you just make it up? Everybody has something to say about it.
My grandfather earned that name in the 1860’s. His family was at their winter camp in Montana, when they were attacked by the U.S. Calvary. He was 12 years old and the only thing he had going for him was a war club and the guts to go out there and use it, I guess. He hit one soldier on the head and while he was trying to get his horse another soldier rode up and stabbed at him with a saber. My grandfather threw his arms up and the saber went completely through his arm getting caught. My grandfather turned upon the soldier and with the saber still lodged in his arm, beat the soldier with his war club until he was gone.
That’s where he earned his named Kills Enemy and after that he was a man . . . you know he earned that right. He was 98 years old when he died in 1953. There’s a lot that goes with my name. I’m proud of it.
Robert Kills Enemy
Oglala Sioux
Nearby Bullhead, SD.
