On the morning of June 25, 2006, I read items published in two newspapers about the Battle of Little Big Horn:

New York Times: “On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana.”

Halifax Chronicle Herald: “General George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry was massacred in Montana at the battle of the Little Big Horn, 130 years ago today, in 1876. The U.S. government had sent the army to fight Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, who were refusing to live on the great Sioux Reservation. The Indians banded together as the military threat increased. Custer ended up attacking a group of up to 7,000, for which his regiment of 647 was no match.”

It never ceases to amaze me to discover that the White man, in this supposedly enlightened age of 2006, can still use words to describe historical events, involving conflicts between North American First Nations Peoples and Caucasians, that imply that the White cause was just and civilized and the Indian’s cause was uncivilized. I’ll add a few words to both quotes that would have made them acceptable to First Nations Peoples and accurate.

New York Times: On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry, part of an army sent by the U.S. government to force the Indians back on the reservation, was defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne Warriors in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. Custer, shamefully, in striving to achieve personal glory, incompetently jumped the gun and attacked a vastly superior force, resulting in the complete annihilation of his men. There is nothing for the Nation to be proud of here, the army’s overall goal, which was eventually realized, was to neutralize the Indians and clear the way for non-Indian gold prospectors and settlers to steal remaining tribal lands.

Halifax Chronicle Herald: “General George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry was defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne Warriors in Montana at the battle of the Little Big Horn,130 years ago today, in 1876. The U.S. government had sent the army to the area to fight the Indians because they were refusing to live on the great Sioux Reservation. It was a refusal that had to be overcome because it was preventing non-Indians from appropriating, without paying compensation, remaining Tribal lands for the purposes of mining for gold and building white settlements. Custer, in an unabashed push for personal glory, and a shameful disregard for the lives of his men, attacked a vastly superior force in comparison to his small contigent and his troops were wiped out.”

Many of the hunter's historians have glorified Custer as a hero, depicting that he and his men were brutally massacred by heathen savages. Now I'll play the hunted's historian. In reality he had that fate in mind for the Tribes, but had the tables turned on him. The truth of the matter is that Chief Sitting Bull and his people were making a last stand against an army that vastly outnumbered them, and which had access to an almost unlimited array of modern weaponry. A fitting comparison would be a match between an Elephant (US) and Mouse (Indians).

Daniel N. Paul

Quoted from: www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_the_little_big_horn.htm

Then in 1862, gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains in Montana. As with all gold rushes, such a find attracted many prospectors to the area. They needed to be supplied. A supply route was opened up by John Bozeman - the Bozeman Trail - which went from the Oregon Trail to Virginia City, running along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains. The Bozeman Trail ran straight through the hunting grounds of the western Sioux nation. While the Oregon Train was an irritation to the Sioux, the Bozeman Trail was a serious threat to their way of life. For the gold miners, the Bozeman Trail was vital; to the Sioux it was yet another example of the whites affecting their lives in a negative manner.

Quoted from: www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm

THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN

Outraged over the continued intrusions of whites into their sacred lands in the Black Hills, in late 1875, Sioux and Cheyenne Indians defiantly left their reservations,. They gathered in Montana with the great warrior Sitting Bull to fight for their lands. The following spring, two victories over the US Cavalry emboldened them to fight on in the summer of 1876.

To force the large Indian army back to the reservations, the Army dispatched three columns to attack in coordinated fashion, one of which contained Lt. Colonel George Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. Spotting the Sioux village about fifteen miles away along the Rosebud River on June 25, Custer also found a nearby group of about forty warriors. Ignoring orders to wait, he decided to attack before they could alert the main party. He did not realize that the number of warriors in the village numbered three times his strength. Dividing his forces in three, Custer sent troops under Captain Frederick Benteen to prevent their escape through the upper valley of the Little Bighorn River. Major Marcus Reno was to pursue the group, cross the river, and charge the Indian village in a coordinated effort with the remaining troops under his command. He hoped to strike the Indian encampment at the northern and southern ends simultaneously, but made this decision without knowing what kind of terrain he would have to cross before making his assault. He belatedly discovered that he would have to negotiate a maze of bluffs and ravines to attack.

Reno's squadron of 175 soldiers attacked the northern end. Quickly finding themselves in a desperate battle with little hope of any relief, Reno halted his charging men before they could be trapped, fought for ten minutes in dismounted formation, and then withdrew into the timber and brush along the river. When that position proved indefensible, they retreated uphill to the bluffs east of the river, pursued hotly by a mix of Cheyenne and Sioux.

Just as they finished driving the soldiers out, the Indians found roughly 210 of Custer's men coming towards the other end of the village, taking the pressure off of Reno's men. Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Sioux together crossed the river and slammed into the advancing soldiers, forcing them back to a long high ridge to the north. Meanwhile, another force, largely Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse's command, swiftly moved downstream and then doubled back in a sweeping arc, enveloping Custer and his men in a pincer move. They began pouring in gunfire and arrows.