(Topic 16)

The Battle
of Little
Bighorn,
25-26
June, 1876:

The U.S. Army,

the Crows,
and Arikaras
vs.
The Lakota Sioux
and the Cheyennes
(2000) (2001)
(2001) (2000)

(1994) (1997) (1993)

(2002) (1999)
I. The indigenous background
II. Custer and the U.S. push from
east to west
 I. THE INDIGENOUS BACKGROUND:

Plains Indian Mobility and Hunting Prior to the Mid-16th-Century

Hidatsa (Sioux) bison surround employing two columns of hunters on horseback, 1832
Lakota Sioux
 3 2

1
2

1
3

4 4
~1825-50 ~1870-90

Costume: Warrior Societies:

1. Lakota Sioux 3. Yanktonai Sioux 1. Omaha 3. Strong Heart
2. Lakota Sioux 4. Santee Sioux 2. Miwatani 4. Fox or Kit Fox
 Eagle feathers

Buffalo horn

Ermine skin

Lakota warbonnet ca. 1870.

ƒ Eagle feathers signified war deeds

ƒ Ermine skin and buffalo horn

decorations evoked fleetness, courage,
Lakota Sioux Warrior and strength.
(Howard Terpning)
Plains Warrior
(H.T.)
 Warfare and the Lakota Sioux:
ƒ “War is the breath of their nostrils,” wrote Francis Parkman in 1846.
ƒ (Re)introduction of the horse to America by Europeans not only gave
rise to a new hunting culture, but also to a new kind of war.
ƒ Horses became a measure of wealth and status.
ƒ Killing people was incidental to the two basic types of war parties:
1. revenge raids (tit-for-tat …)
2. horse-stealing forays ( similar to the Apache)
ƒ The warrior’s usual objective was personal honor. Each tribe
had its system for “counting coup” (from the French for “blow”).
A Cheyenne warrior who shot and killed an enemy only gained credit
if he were among the first three men who touched the body, the greatest
honor going to the first.
Coup Sticks

Warrior Holding Coup Stick

Counting Coup (attributed to Big Cloud, a Cheyenne)
Comanche warriors sketched by George Catlin in 1834. Such scenes depict the great skills of the Comanche
in handling horses. Here, in a sham battle, a warrior uses his horse as a shield, a dangerous feat that would
seldom be used in battle. (Comanches moved from E. Wyo. down into Colo., and then into Kansas and Texas)
Sioux
shield
depicting
warriors
in
battle
Sioux or Cheyenne bow, 40” (1 meter) long, collected by the Italian traveler, Antonio
Spagni around 1850. It is decorated with trade beads and has a string of twisted
sinew. The bow case and quiver (buffalo hide) and the arrows date from 1860-70.
 spontoon-
type
tomahawk

gunstock
club

grizzly
bear
claws

Spotted Eagle, a Minneconjou Sioux, The Yanktonai Sioux, Flying Pipe,

photographed in the 1880s. He has photographed ca. 1870. He holds a
armbands of grizzly bear claws. His spontoon-type pipe tomahawk.
weapon is a gunstock club with three
knives set in the upper edge.
 shield (3’ diameter)

steel-
headed
tomahawk

Keokuk, “The Watchful Fox,” Chief of the

Sauk and the Fox. Painted from life by
George Catlin when he visited Keokuk’s
village in 1834. Keokuk carries a shield
about 3 feet in diameter and a steel-
headed tomahawk, together with a highly-
decorated staff of office.
 Missouri war axe (*)
*

Battle between the Mandan chief, Mato-tope, “Four Bears,” The Fox chief, Nesouaquoit, “Bear in the
and a Cheyenne and as depicted by Four Bears in 1834. The Forks of a Tree,” holding a classic
victorious chief carries a ‘Missouri’ war axe. (Mandan lived in Missouri war axe (painted in Washington,
North Dakota near the Heart and Little Missouri Rivers.) D.C., 1837)
 Necklace of
human fingers
taken during
during a cavalry
raid on a
Cheyenne village
in Wyoming’s Big
Horn mountains
five months after
Little Bighorn.

It consists of eight
middle fingers of
Indian enemies
killed in battle, and
was considered a
source of powerful
medicine to its
owner.
ƒ Acts such as galloping across an enemy’s firing line, however brave, did
not have a military purpose. The Plains “war complex” produced
magnificent warriors. But it did not produce soldiers. Emphasis on
individual distinction discouraged strategic and even tactical thinking.
ƒ Reluctance to suffer casualties often kept victories from becoming
“decisive.” Their unspoken rule was “greatest damage to the enemy with
the least amount to one’s self.”
ƒ A war party that suffered even one fatality was deemed a failure—no
matter how much damage was done to the enemy. By contrast, a party
which rode out on a long journey, to return months later with a single
scalp and no losses, was considered a success. (Cannae: 216 BC—
Hannibal: 5700 dead/11% of forces; Rome: 75,000/88%!!)

ƒ No war chief could expect his braves to immolate themselves, Zulu-like,

against lines of flaming rifles. They would charge U.S. Army soldiers to
within ~500 yards before falling back. Determined charges (like Gen.
Grant’s at Cold Harbor, with 7000 men lost in 30 minutes) were anathema
to the Plains Indians.
Mandan Foot War Party after an unsuccessful raid on the Arikaras, 1832. They
were attacked by a larger party and lost several men and all their horses.
Lakota War Dance, 1845
Battle between the Sioux and the Sauk & Fox
George Caitlin sketch, 1835, of Mandan scalping an enemy. In order to
be considered a genuine scalp “the piece cut away must contain and show
the crown or center of the head, that part of the skin where the hair
divides and radiates from the center.”
Lakota Scalp Dance, 1835
Pictograph of a Cheyenne warrior wearing a warshirt embellished with ermine fringes. He is striking a
U.S. soldier with a Warrior Society lance. This may have been more than a symbolic coup as the lance
appears to be pointed. (dates to 1874)
The mutilated body of an English immigrant, Sergeant Frederick Wyllyams, Troop G,
7th U.S. Cavalry, who was one of seven soldiers killed in a skirmish with Cheyenne,
Lakota, and Arapaho warriors on June 26, 1867. A friend who had been visiting
Wyllyams at a nearby fort took this picture the next day and then forwarded it to
President Andrew Johnson. Although the lack of blood indicates the ritual slashing
was done long after death, sights like this hardened the hearts of frontier people who
sought revenge on innocent as well as guilty Indians.
 The Sun Dance—“Self-Torture” Among the
Plains groups
who practiced
it were the:
Arapaho
Arikara
Assiniboine
Cheyenne
Crow
Gros Ventre
Hidatsa
Lakota
Ojibwa
Omaha
Kiowa
Blackfoot

The sun dance was the major communal religious ceremony celebrating renewal,
the spiritual rebirth of participants, and the regeneration of the living earth.
“A Man Called Horse”
Richard Harris
1970
 II. CUSTER AND THE U.S. PUSH
FROM EAST TO WEST:
George Armstrong Custer
(1839-1876):
ƒ Last in his class of 32 at West Point
ƒ Brilliant Civil War record
ƒ Later court-martialed for going AWOL
to visit his wife, Elizabeth
ƒ Became an Indian fighter who attacked
“peaceful” Cheyennes and killed
noncombatants (thought Indians were
“savages” yet noble living in their
traditional ways)
ƒ Opinions are polarized about him, either
hated or admired--but his wife wrote
three books after his death that helped
stem the criticism.
 KANSAS

INDIAN TERRITORY Custer and

the Battle of Washita, 1868,
“somewhere north of Texas”:

Ft. Cobb
Indian Territory
Ft. Sill

TEXAS

W
as
hi
ta
Washita Cheyenne R .
Camp
Ri
ve

(Chief
r

Black Kettle)

(Cheyenne)

Battle of Washita (OK City Cheyenne, OK: 150 miles)

(Washita Battlefield
National Historic Site)
Cheyennes, Kiowas,
and Comanches— Battle
unlike some other
tribes—refused to of Washita,
live on reservations.
Their young men
1868
continued to attack
white settlers in “Strike One
Kansas … Against Custer!”

ƒ Black Kettle (a Cheyenne chief) went to Fort Cobb in November 1868 to petition the
commander there for peace and protection. Gen. Hazen told them only Sheridan or Lt. Col.
George Custer, had that authority.

ƒ Returning to his camp on the Washita River, Black Kettle resisted urgings to move
downriver closer to larger camps of Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Apaches wintered there,
refusing to believe Sheridan would order an attack without first offering an opportunity for
peace

ƒ Before dawn, Custer and 800 troopers attacked the 51 lodges, killing ~ 100 men, women, and
children. He also slaughtered the entire Cheyenne pony herd estimated at 800+ animals,
burned their lodges, and destroyed their winter supply of food and clothing.
Quote of a contemporary Sioux man whose grandfather was
10 years old when the U.S. 7th cavalry attacked Sitting Bull’s
camp , was shot at by the troopers and remembered bullets
whizzing around him as he ran from them (from Viola’s
Little Bighorn Remembered):

“General Sheridan would remind the raw recruits signing up for

Indian fighting: ‘Always remember that nits grow into lice.’”

[he was referring to killing non-combatants, in this case children]

 Custer and
the Battle
of Washita,
1868
“Strike Two…!”

ƒ Custer divided his forces into four and proceeded on his own out of sight of
Major Joel Elliott and his men.
ƒ Elliott was cut off by the Indians and decimated. Custer, following the battle,
withdrew from the area without ascertaining Elliott's fate.
ƒ The mutilated bodies of Elliott and his men were found several months later
when the 7th Cavalry returned to the scene.
ƒ In My Life on the Plains, Custer devotes two chapters, 10 and 11, congratulating
himself on how well he did, denying that he knew where Elliott was, and
[mentioning] but few other words as to Elliot.
Battle of Washita
Officers of
the U.S.
7th Cavalry

Osage Scouts
Custer Major Elliot
who helped
Custer find
Black Kettle’s
camp

Some of the
50+ Cheyenne
taken
prisoner
during the
Battle
Black Kettle Of Washita
 HEROIC DEATH OF WALTER KENNEDY – AT THE BATTLE OF WASHITA RIVER, I.T.
Sergeant-Major of Seventh U. S. Cavalry.—Gen. GEO. A. CUSTER, Commanding
“During the engagement, Maj. JOEL ELLIOT, with a detachment of 16 men, was dispatched to reconnoiter an Arapaho
village [down] stream, when they were suddenly confronted by the whole tribe on their way to help the Cheyenne.”
U.S. SETTLERS

U.S. SETTLERS
 “… as long as the grass was green and the sky was blue”

ƒ Treaty of Ft. Laramie (1868): U.S. Govt.

to keep settlers out of Indian territory
ƒ Custer expedition into Black Hills in
1874 was a violation of the treaty
ƒ Mark Kellogg, a Bismarck Tribune
Reporter, saw him in action on 14 May:
“Gen. George A. Custer, dressed in a dashing
suit of buckskin, is prominent everywhere …
flitting to and fro, in his quick eager way,
taking in everything in his command … with a
keen incisive manner … The General is full of
perfect readiness for a fray with the hostile of
red devils, and woe to the body of scalp-lifters
that comes within reach of himself and brave
companions in arms.”

ƒ Discovery of gold on the Custer expedi-

tion led to a gold rush into the territory
and settlement of towns like Deadwood.
(lower right)
 s
t
e

Black Hills Expedition (Custer is lying in the center leaning his head against his arm)
“Gold Seekers to the Black Hills”
(H.T.)
 (18
Little Bighorn 68)

(1851)
Laramie
Treaty Line
ƒ In the fall of 1875, the BIA ordered the Sioux and Cheyenne to return to
their reservations. The Indians ignored the order and the U.S. Army was
sent to enforce it.

ƒ Generals Sherman and Sheridan devised a plan to have General George

Crook enter Lakota territory in 1876. Lt. Col. George A. Custer was
sent as well, along with the 7th Cavalry

Campaign
of 1876
LITTE BIGHORN VALLEY: By June 25, 1876, largest known gathering of Indians
ever to occur on the northern plains (8000 total in the camp, more than 2,500 warriors).
ƒ LEADERS: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, et al.
ƒ LAKOTA TRIBES: Hunkpapas, Oglalas, Minneconjous, Santee,
Brulés, Blackfoot, Two Kettles, Sans Arcs
ƒ NON-LAKOTA ALLIES: Eastern Sioux, Northern Cheyenne
Sitting Bull (c. 1831-1890):
ƒ Hunkpapa Sioux … Counted coup on his first
Crow enemy at age 14
ƒ His father gave him name of Tatanka Iyotake
(“Buffalo Bull Sitting Down”)
ƒ Joined the Strong Heart warrior society at age
20 which he came to dominate
ƒ Waged war only against Indian enemies until
1862, the year the Santee Sioux, angered by
government’s failure to provide food, rose up to
massacre hundreds of white settlers
ƒ Camping with the Santee, his group and theirs In 1867, he reportedly said:
were attacked by the U.S. army; from that point “I have killed, robbed, and
on Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapas were at war with the injured too many white men to
palefaces … believe in a good peace … I
had rather die on the field of
ƒ He never broke any treaties, because he never battle … The whites may get
signed any. me at last … but I will have
good times until then.”
Sitting Bull’s depiction of a fight he had with a Crow warrior. His shield was a gift from his father.
 Horn-handled Bowie
knife that belonged to
Sitting Bull. Invented
Pictograph by Sitting Bull., ca. 1880. This probably shows an episode in the
in the Americas in the
killing of the mail carrier, MacDonald, near Fort Totten in 1868. S.B.’s shield
1830s, many of the
evokes the protective powers of the Sioux cosmos.
knives were later made
in Sheffield, England
 Crazy Horse (c. 1841-1877)
As one of the Iteshica, or Bad Faces, of Red
Cloud’s Oglala band, he led the decoy party
which in 1866 lured 80 U.S. soldiers under
Fetterman into an annihilating ambush by
~2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne …. Never a
formal chief, rather a leading warrior.

Gall (c.1840–1894)
A war chief, he refused to accept the treaty of 1868 by which
he would have been confined to a reservation. He was he
chief military lieutenant of Sitting Bull in the defeat Custer in
the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
 Shield captured by
Lieut.
Henry Lawton in 1877
that belonged to Crazy
Horse. The decorations
on the shield evoke
several desired
protective powers of
fleetness and strength.
Some symbols, however,
such as the red and
black power motifs at
left are Cheyenne in
origin.
Crazy Horse was a close
associate of the
Cheyenne Dog Soldiers.
 U.S. Army
officers at or
near the Battle
of Little
Bighorn
Capt. Benteen Major Reno Lt. Col. Custer

Gen. Gibbon Gen. Crook Gen. Terry


3 (MAP DETAIL—NEXT SLIDE)
1 Gen. Terry & Custer
(from Ft. A. Lincoln
1 Gen. Crook
2 (from Ft. Fetterman)
Gen. Gibbon
3 (from Ft. Ellis)
Gen.
Laramie
Treaty Line
 3000 men in the TERRY’S
COLUMN
three U.S. Army forces (coming from
Fort Lincoln)
(921 men)

(Custer arrives by
about 3 p.m. across
GIBBON’S from Indian camp Custer: 715 men,
COLUMN including
(coming from (MAP DETAIL—NEXT SLIDE
Fort Ellis) Indian Major & Capt.
Reno Benteen)
Encampment

(early in the morning of

June 25, Custer observes
a “large Indian camp”
on the west side of the
Little Bighorn) CROOK’S
COLUMN
(coming from
Little Bighorn, Fort Fetterman)

25 June 1876
The 7th Cavalry’s Approach to Sitting Bull’s Camp, June 25, 1876

1 Lt. Col. George A. Custer

2 Maj. Marcus A. Reno
3 Capt. Frederick W. Benteen

3
Custer Battlefield
* (curve in the modern road
leading to the monument)

Custer
Capt. Benteen
Little Bighorn River
Maj. Reno
Sitting Bull’s camp

Map and oblique aerial photo

showing the location of the
Indian camp, the battlefield,
and the Little Bighorn River
3:30 message to Benteen:
“Benteen, Come on. Big Village, quick, bring packs.
P.S. Bring Pac[k]s. W.W. Cooke.”
[The messenger, bugler John Martin, was the last to see Custer and the men
in his five companies alive, and Benteen arrived too late to help Custer.]
The Battle of Little Bighorn
Some of the firearms used at the Battle of Little Bighorn:
The .45-caliber Springfield Carbine
7th Cavalry: only one type of weapon (above)
Sioux et al: 47 different types of guns, including those
they were able to capture from the cavalry
The .44-caliber Henry
The .44-caliber Winchester Rifle
The U.S. Army troopers had
Springfield Carbines, which had to
be cleaned and reloaded after every
shot (repeating rifles were not
issued in 1876). Custer’s men, in
order to move stealthily, had left
their sabers behind.
.45 Colt Peacemaker
(single-action six shots)
With their traditional weapons—
tomahawks, clubs, scalping knives,
bow and arrows, and lances—the
Sioux and Cheyenne and their allies
were better-armed for hand-to-hand
fighting than Custer’s men; one in
five also had the Winchester rifle,
which was designed to be fired
from the back of a horse and
permitted firing 16 rounds in rapid
succession at a time.
Reno Retreats to Cross the River
Major Reno’s retreat across the Little Bighorn River
 Wooden Leg talks about his Wooden Leg, counts coup on an Arikara warrior,
role in the Battle of Little Bighorn one of the U.S. Indian scouts.

At left Wooden Leg grabs the carbine of a U.S. soldier during Reno’s
retreat across the river, and at right he stands over a dead soldier.
Meanwhile up on the ridge …
Meanwhile up on the ridge …
White view of Custer’s Last Stand
 “Strike three…”
three…”

White views of Custer’s Last Stand

Comanche, Capt. Myles Keogh’s horse and
sole survivor of Custer’s Last Stand
‘White-eye’ views of the Indians
 Indian
views
of themselves
and of
Custer’s force
 Red Horse, a Minneconjou
chief (drawings done in 1881)

Indian
view of
fighting
Custer’s
soldiers
 Indian
view of
Custer’s
dead
soldiers
Account of the Battle of Little Bighorn by the Sioux woman,
“She Walks With Her Shawl,” 54 years afterward:

“… The morning was hot and sultry. Several of us Indian girls were digging wild
turnips. I was then 23 years old. We girls looked toward the camp and saw a
warrior ride swiftly, shouting that the soldiers were only a few miles away. … I
dropped the pointed ash stick … and ran towards my tipi. I saw my father running
towards the horses. When I got to my tent, mother told me that … my brother had
been killed by the soldiers. My brother had gone early that morning for a horse
that strayed from our herd. … I knew there would be a battle because I saw warriors
getting their horses and tomahawks.
I heard Hawkman shout, Ho-ka-he! Ho-ka-he! (Charge! Charge!) The soldiers
began firing into our camp. Then they ceased firing. I saw my father preparing to
go to battle. I sang a death song for my brother who had been killed.
My heart was bad. Revenge! Revenge! For my brother’s death. By this time the
soldiers (Reno’s men) were forming a battle line in the bottom about a half mile
away. In another moment I heard a terrific volley of carbines. The bullets shattered
the tipi poles.”
 “I heard old men and women chanting death songs for their warriors who were
ready to attack the soldiers. The chanting of the death songs made me brave,
although I was a woman … … Father led my black horse up to me and I mounted. We
galloped towards the soldiers. Other warriors joined in with us. When we were
nearing the fringe of the woods an order was given by Hawkman to charge. Ho-ka-he!
Ho-ka-he! The warriors were now near the soldiers. The troopers were all on foot.
They shot straight, because I saw our leader killed as he rode with his warriors.
The charge was so stubborn that the soldiers ran to their horses and, mounting
them, rode swiftly towards the river. The Greasy Grass river was very deep. Their
horses had to swim to get across. Some of the warriors rode into the water and
tomahawked the soldiers. … The Indians chased the soldiers across the river and up
over a bluff.
The valley was dense with powder smoke. I never heard such whooping and
shouting. ‘There never was a better day to die,” shouted Red Horse.
Long Hair’s soldiers were trapped in an enclosure. There were Indians
everywhere. The Cheyennes attacked them from the north, and the Sioux encircled
the troopers. Not one got away! The Sioux used tomahawks. It was not a massacre,
but a hotly contested battle between two armed forces.”
After the Battle, by J. K. Ralston,
in the lounge of the Olive Hotel,
Miles City, Montana (hotel dates
back to 1899)
Randy Plume, a member of
the Sioux tribe, sitting with
his two sons on the Custer
Battlefield.

He is showing them two of the

14 Elgin pocket watches that
his great-grandfather gathered
from the bodies of dead soldiers
of the 7th Cavalry.
 Scene of the
Little Bighorn
Battle one Crow
year later … Scouts
 Archaeological finds made
since the wildfire of 1983 …
“we chose to view the battleground as a crime
scene …using forensic techniques.”
Evidence shows that of the Indian
warriors 200 had Winchesters, and
another 375 had muzzle loaders or single-shot
rifles such as Sharps and Ballards

Bullets fired by the Indians from a

.50-caliber Springfield carbine

Bones of a left forearm, belonging

to a soldier about 25-five years old;
mortally wounded with .44-cal.
repeating rifle, finished
off with a Colt revolver,
skull later crushed with
war club and knives
used to hack at his back
in several places as well.
Assuming that at least 1500 warriors went up
against Custer’s 210 men, then his command
was outmanned at least 5:1 and outgunned
at least 2:1. Indian rate of fire approached
an advantage of 5:1.

Right leg of a Custer soldier

The effect of a steel-headed arrow on the
found during recent
human body. A pierced vertebra found at
excavations. Remains of
Little Bighorn, 1877, one year after the battle.
shoe are still on the foot.
 KANSAS
Letters to the Editor, Cavalry Times

Dear Editor,
“I fought alongside Lieutenant Colonel Custer in the Battle of Washita. I hope that
after this awful Battle of Little Bighorn people can begin to realize how terrible
Custer really was. Not only was he selfish he was also stupid. He forced his men
to move ahead to the battlefield of Little Bighorn before the other parties because
he wanted the Seventh Cavalry to have all the glory. He only cared about himself
and often made stupid decisions in order to put himself ahead. Custer was a man
who lost his head on the battlefield easily and became unreasonable. Overall this
battle, along with Custer, was a disgrace to our great army.”
Sincerely, John Carter

Dear John Carter,

“I am well aware of Colonel Custer's decisions in battle. Although some are
questionable, his heart was in the right place. Your opinion is popular around the
army right now but I urge you and your peers to reconsider your position. The
mental strain on Colonel Custer at the time of his death was very great. He was put
into a dangerous position which was out of his control. His decisions were based
on the orders given to him and it is unfair to criticize him.”
The Editor
 Quiz
How Well Would You Fit Into the Cavalry?
(on the Cavalry Times website quoted on preceding page)

1. If you ran out of food [SCORING YOUR QUIZ]:

would you:
a. Drink salty seawater. • a. (2) b. (3) c. (1)
First of all, b. Eat little insects that crawl around at 2. a. (1) b. (2) c. (3)
let’s see how the campsite. 3. a. (1) b. (1)
c. Eat nothing and pray that food 4. a. (3) b. (1) c. (2)
tough you are! comes across your path.
2. If it began to rain and you
had no shelter would you:
a. Turn back and go home.
b. Find shelter in the woods.
c. Be a man and deal with it.
3. If you were being attacked
by Indian[s] what would
Second, let’s you grab first?
see how you a. The food.
b. The tents.
feel about 4. If Indians were attacking
your family would [you]:
being attacked a. Run in front of your family and try
by Indians! to protect them.
b. Back away and run for your life.
c. Stand there and watch your family
gets [sic] killed.
 Quiz
How Well Would You Fit Into the Cavalry?
(on the Cavalry Times website quoted on preceding page)

1. If you ran out of food [SCORING YOUR QUIZ]:

would you:
a. Drink salty seawater. • a. (2) b. (3) c. (1)
First of all, b. Eat little insects that crawl around at 2. a. (1) b. (2) c. (3)
let’s see how the campsite. 3. a. (1) b. (1)
c. Eat nothing and pray that food 4. a. (3) b. (1) c. (2)
tough you are! comes across your path. 1-4
2. If it began to rain and you You are a coward
had no shelter would you: and you need to start
a. Turn back and go home. accomplishing things Hmm …
b. Find shelter in the woods. that you start.
c. Be a man and deal with it. 5-8 what
3. If you were being attacked You are not a
by Indian[s] what would coward, but you are you’re
Second, let’s you grab first? also not brave. You like
see how you a. The food. need to start doing
b. The tents. things for other overall,
feel about 4. If Indians were attacking people.
your family would [you]: 9-12 you
being attacked a. Run in front of your family and try You are way to [sic] schmuck!
by Indians! to protect them. brave, you need to
b. Back away and run for your life. back down and let
c. Stand there and watch your family other people have the
gets [sic] killed. glory sometime.
 U.S. Army dead: 268, including five dying of wounds.
Indian dead: 56, including 38 Sioux and 18 Cheyenne.
Indian Wars Service Medal for the Crow and Arikara scouts who
served in the U.S. Cavalry in the Little Bighorn campaign.
Former 7th-cavalry and Lakota combatants at the Battle
of Little Bighorn pay a visit to the battlefield on the
50th anniversary, 1926.
Four generations of descendants of Little Warrior, a Lakota
medicine man who fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn.