Baptiste Eugene “Big Bat” Pourier (1843-1928)

Western Frontiersman. He was a Frenchman who left home on an expedition at the age of 15 to trade with the Indians, and it was this early contact that made him into one of the most acclaimed scout guides and interpreter of the times. During these trading trips, he met Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud and their friendship endured until Red Cloud's death. He was called "Big Bat" to distinguish him from Baptiste Garnier, another scout for the military. On his first trip to Wyoming he met John Richards, a fellow Frenchman and a frontiersman who was married to a Lakota Indian. In 1868 he married Richards' daughter Josephine and spent the rest of his life with her. By 1869 he moved his family to Fort Laramie where he interpreted for the Fort Laramie Peace Conference. In 1874 he guided General George R. Crook into the Black Hills to keep miners out in a effort to honor the Indian Land Treaty Agreements. While scouting for General Crook nine days after the Battle of Little Big Horn he managed the company to escape being trapped by pursuing warriors. When Oglala Lakota leadeer Crazy Horse was murdered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska in 1877, he carried his body back to Beaver Creek, where Crazy Horse's Sundance Grounds were located. After the Wounded Knee Massacre 1889, he went to Washington as a interpreter for the delegation of Sioux at the Indian Bureau. After that incident, he moved to Wounded Knee and quite the scouting service. He became a horse trader for a while and tried to live in Saint Charles, South Dakota but soon returned to the Reservation.

Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith