Bloody Knife found employment as a courier and hunter for the American Fur Company and later served under Alfred Sully before scouting for George Custer on several military expeditions.

While his exact date and place of birth are unknown, Bloody Knife was probably born between 1837 and 1840 in Dakota Territory.

Along with brothers and perhaps one sister, he lived with his father's tribe during his early childhood, but was not well-treated by them because of their enmity with his mother's people.

About fifteen, he found himself on the Upper Missouri River at an American Fur Company trading post called Fort Clark.

[2][3][4][5] After working for the American Fur Company, Bloody Knife accompanied Brigadier General Alfred Sully in 1865 as a scout on his Sioux expedition.

He also worked as a messenger, helping the troops to communicate with other military units in the area, which was still mainly controlled by the Sioux.

[1] In 1874, Bloody Knife took part in the Black Hills Expedition, which included over a thousand men, geologists, infantry, cavalry, two miners, several reporters, and sixty-five Arikara scouts.

Although some reports suggested the presence of thousands of warriors in the hills preparing to attack, and most of the expedition thought that a fight would occur soon, Bloody Knife discovered a group of only twenty-seven Oglala Sioux, who had been cutting lodgepoles and hunting in the Black Hills and intended return to the Red Cloud Agency, one hundred miles south of their location.

[9] On August 7, 1874, Bloody Knife encountered a grizzly bear roughly seventy-five yards from where Custer was searching for a campsite.

Custer asked whose fault the delay was and a scout named Charley Reynolds blamed Bloody Knife for the incident.

[4][10] On November 30, 1874, Private Bloody Knife was discharged from service,[1] and for his efforts in the Black Hills Expedition, he received an additional $150 for what was called his "invaluable assistance".

"[3] Bloody Knife was assigned to Major Marcus Reno, who had a command of 140 soldiers, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

During the battle, Custer directed Bloody Knife and the other Arikara and Crow scouts to drive off the herds of Indian ponies in the Sioux camp.

The soldiers quickly dismounted and formed a skirmish line to shoot at the enemy, but they kept coming and Reno's unit, in danger of being flanked, took up a position in timber close to the river.

Reno and his men retreated from the woodland across the river with the braves in aggressive pursuit, and his poor response cost many of his troops their lives.

[1][15] Bloody Knife was one of three Arikara scouts assigned to Reno to die during the battle; the others were Little Brave (also known as Bear's Trail or Little Soldier) and Bobtail Bull.

[19] According to David Humphreys Miller, an interviewer who talked with many of the participants and witnesses from the battle, she cried out: "Gall has killed him at last!"

[3] In the aftermath of the battle, Colonel John Gibbon's troops found and identified by its gray color pattern the scalp of Bloody Knife in an empty Sioux lodge.

[3] Bloody Knife's deeds were remembered in song composed by the Arikara scouts after his death at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

[2] In the 1991 television mini-series Son of the Morning Star, Bloody Knife was portrayed by Sheldon Peters Wolfchild.