02/26/2026
With the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn just a few months away and as comes to a close, we thought it proper to pause and remember expedition interpreter Isaiah Dorman, known to the Lakota as Black Hawk.
Born in 1832 in Pennsylvania as a free man, Dorman was the son of an African-Jamaican father and an African-Delaware (Lenape) mother. By the 1850s–1870s, he had worked at several frontier posts, including Fort Ridgely, Fort Rice, and Fort Kearny. Over the years he served in many roles: servant, scout, guide, mail carrier, but he was most valued as a language interpreter to the Sioux. He likely strengthened his fluency through his Dakota wife, Celeste St. Pierre. For a time, the couple operated a horse ranch and wood lot near the Missouri River close to Fort Rice.
In 1875, when 7th Cavalry officer Frederick Benteen arrived at Fort Rice, Dorman’s prospects declined. Benteen reportedly distrusted him and declined to employ other Dakota scouts Dorman recommended. Instead, Dorman was assigned the dangerous duty of driving livestock between Fort Rice and Fort Abraham Lincoln.
In the summer of 1876, Dorman joined the Dakota Column departing Fort Abraham Lincoln for Montana Territory. On June 25, 1876, he rode with Major Marcus Reno during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Attached to Reno’s battalion alongside other scouts and interpreters, Dorman advanced during the initial attack on Sitting Bull’s vast village. As Reno’s line collapsed under heavy resistance, Dorman attempted to provide covering fire for retreating soldiers. His horse was shot out from under him, and accounts suggest he may have also been wounded.
In a biography of Sitting Bull, historian Robert M. Utley recounts a story that Sitting Bull reportedly said, “Don’t kill that man, he is a friend of mine,” and gave Dorman water. But the chaos of battle overtook the moment. After Sitting Bull rode off, a Hunkpapa woman known as Eagle Robe is said to have killed the wounded Dorman in vengeance for her brother’s death earlier.
Today, Isaiah Dorman rests in Custer National Cemetery, alongside the men with whom he fought. He is remembered as the only Black man known to have fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn—a life that reflects the complex, intertwined histories of the American frontier. ?
For more information about the life of Isaiah Dorman check out the link below at the national park service: https://www.nps.gov/libi/learn/historyculture/isaiah-dorman.htm
