an early-morning attack surprised the Indians,
who abandoned their lodges and fled to the
shelter of some neighboring caves. The battle
then continued in earnest once the main force
under Crook arrived, and after more hard
fighting, small bodies of Sioux came forward
to surrender. Among them was American
Horse, so badly wounded in the stomach that
he held his intestines in place as he walked.
An army surgeon attempted to operate and of-
fered chloroform to kill the pain, but the
proud warrior refused, preferring instead to
stoically bite down on a piece of wood as the
process continued. American Horse died
shortly thereafter, the first of many victims to
fall after Custer’s defeat.
See also
Crazy Horse; Red Cloud; Sitting Bull
Bibliography
Greene, Jerome A. Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of
the Great Sioux War.Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 1982; Johnson, Michael, and Jonathan
Smith. The Tribes of the Sioux Nation.Oxford: Os-
prey, 2000; McDermott, John P. A Guide to the In-
dian Wars of the West.Lincoln: University of Ne-
braska Press, 1998; Michno, Gregory F.Lakota Noon:
The Indian Narrative of Custer’s Defeat.Missoula,
MT: Mountain Press, 1997; Price, Catharine M.
“Oglala Politics, 1851–1889: Chiefs, Headmen, and
Warriors.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue
University, 1987; Robinson, Charles M. A Good Year
to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War.Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Werner, Fred H.
The Slim Buttes Battles, September 9 and 10, 1876.
Greeley, CO: F. H. Werner, 1981; Welch, James, and
Paul Stekler. Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Big
Horn and the Fate of the Plains Indians.New York:
W. W. Norton, 1994.ANABUKI, SATOSHI
Anabuki, Satoshi
(1921–)
Imperial Japanese Army Fighter Pilot
T
he youthful Anabuki emerged as the
leading ace of the Imperial Japanese
Army’s (IJA) air force during World War
II, one of only a handful of pilots to be pub-
licly decorated. During his most intense com-
bat he single-handedly shot down three B-24
bombers and two P-38 fighters over Burma.
Satoshi Anabuki was born in Japan in 1921,
the son of farming parents. Like many young
men of his generation, he expressed interest
in flying and passed through the Army Youth
Preparatory Flight Program. It should be
noted that the imperial army (rikugun) main-
tained it own aerial service, totally indepen-
dent from the better-known naval (kaigun)
air arm. Anabuki gained admittance to the
Tokyo Army Aviation School in April 1938 and
three years later was assigned to the 50th Sen-
tai on Formosa as a fighter pilot. At that time
his squadron was equipped with the Nakajima
Ki 27, a slow but highly maneuverable fighter
craft. Allied intelligence assigned it the code-
name Nate.When World War II commenced,
Anabuki participated in the air campaign
against American forces stationed in the
Philippines. On December 22, 1941, he
claimed his first kill, a Curtiss P-40 belonging
to the 17th Pursuit Squadron. American
fighter pilots such as Ed Dyess and Boyd D.
Wagner fought bravely but were outnumbered
and outgunned by Japanese aviators. On Feb-
ruary 9, 1942, Anabuki shot down two more P-
40s, one of the handful of Americans fighters
still operational. Shortly after, he transferred
back to Japan and transitioned to a new and
better aircraft, the Nakajima Ki 43 Hayabusa