Battle of the Little Bighorn |
History — Military
history — List of battles
History -- Military History -- List of battles
Battle before: Battle
of Rosebud
Battle after: Wounded Knee Massacre
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand, was an engagement between
a Lakota-Cheyenne combined force and the
7th Cavalry of the United States Army that took place on
June 25, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in the eastern Montana Territory. The battle was the most famous incident in the
Indian Wars and was a crushing victory for the Lakota and their allies. The
U.S. cavalry detachment commanded by Lt. Col. George
Armstrong Custer was killed to the last man.
The American forces were sent to attack the natives based on Indian Inspector's E.C. Watkins report (issued on November 9, 1875) that stated that hundreds of
Sioux and Cheyenne associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were hostile to the United States.
The widow of Custer helped popularize this defeat in memory of her husband and the event as recreated in numerous films as a
heroic American officer fighting valiantly against savage forces. By the end of the 20th century, the general recognition of the mistreatment of the various Native American nations in the conquest of the American west, and Custer's role in it, has changed the image of the battle to one of a bloodthirsty
conqueror meeting his match against courageous warriors defending their land and way of life. One of the Native Americans -
Crazy Horse - played a leading role in this battle and the Battle of Rosebud one week
before.
On Memorial Day 1999 the first of five red granite markers denoting where warriors fell during the battle were placed on the
battlefield for Cheyenne warriors, Lame White Man and Noisy Walking. The warrior markers dot
the ravines and hillsides like the white marble markers representing where soldiers fell. Since then, markers have been added for
the Sans Arc warrior, Long Road and the
Minniconjou, Dog's Back Bone. On June 25, 2003
an unknown warrior marker was placed on Wooden Leg Hill, east of Last Stand Hill to honor a warrior who was killed during the
battle as witnessed by the Cheyenne warrior, Wooden Leg.
On June 25, 2003 the first Indian Memorial was dedicated. The bill that changed the name of the battlefield from Custer
Battlefield National Monument to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument also called for
an Indian Memorial to be built near Last Stand Hill. President George
H. W. Bush signed the bill into law on December 10, 1991.
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is located in southeastern Montana near Crow Agency, Montana and administered
by the National Park Service.
For more information about the Battle of the Little Bighorn and updates from the battlefield, including the Indian Memorial
dedication and warrior markers, see the website of the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the only non-profit
organization affiliated with the Little Bighorn Monument.
Further reading
- Wind on the Buffalo Grass, The Indians' Own Account of the Battle at the Little Big Horn River, & the Death of their
Life on the Plains, collected and edited by Leslie Tillett, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1976, Illustrated hardback, 158
pages with many drawings by Native Americans, ISBN 0-690-01155-5.
- Custer: Cavalier in Buckskin, by Robert Utley, Univ of Oklahoma Pr; Revised edition (June 2001),176 pages ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 13.28 x 10.20, ISBN 0-806-13347-3.
- Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, by Douglas Scott, Univ of Oklahoma Pr; Univ of
Oklahoma Pr (Trd); (September 2000) 328 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.00 x 9.93 x 6.86,ISBN 0-806-13292-2.
- Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors / Stephen E. Ambrose. - 1975.
External links
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