He had risen to a position of influence among his tribe by 1869 when he was present at the appointment of Sitting Bull as head war leader of the Lakota.
By the time of the Great Sioux War of 1876–77, this fifty-five-year-old headman was leader of a small Miniconjou band that chose to remain away from the Cheyenne River Agency.
Black Moon is listed as one of the Miniconjou leaders who had joined the northern village by the early summer of 1876 and was present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Black Moon's daughter, Mary, married a corporal in the Royal Mounted Police stationed at nearby Fort Walsh.
[2] Black Moon lived the remainder of his life along Cherry Creek on the Cheyenne River Reservation.