Posted on 06/25/2022 7:34:35 AM PDT by Macho MAGA Man
On June 25, 1876, a village of some five thousand Lakotas and Cheyennes camped on the Greasy Grass River (today’s Little Big Horn) was famously attacked by George Armstrong Custer and his vaunted Seventh Cavalry. The Indians were followers of the powerful Húnkpapa holy man Sitting Bull, and, like their leader, most of them wanted nothing to do with white men. They simply wanted to be left alone, to live separate from the Euro-Americans who’d been steadily encroaching and trespassing upon Lakota lands for decades.
With shouts of “Hóka hé!” (Come on!) and “The Earth is all that lasts!” the Oglala war chief Crazy Horse and other Indian leaders rapidly gathered their warriors and galloped off to defend their families. And because Custer had unwisely divided his regiment into three battalions, more than a thousand Lakota and Cheyenne fighting men were able to strike these separated detachments individually. On a grassy ridge overlooking the Greasy Grass, the warriors completely overwhelmed Custer and some two hundred troopers of the Seventh. The Indians’ stunning victory was soon dubbed “Custer’s Last Stand.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
“Here we go again, the annual bashing of Custer and White people imposing their will on Indians.”
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your fault for linking to a leftard site like Daily Beast. I dont click on lefty sites like CNN and give them web traffic. Besides, the white man almost wiped them out AFTERWARDS.
Almost all massacres or ambushes in history, the other side comes back for revenge. Most people know about the entire 3 legions wiped out by the germanic tribes aka Varus Massacre but people forget that Germanicus, went DEEP into Germany and kicked their asses, even taking the wife of Arminius, who backstabbed Rome and planned the ambush.
One can’t go over the all the sins and mistakes made by the White House and military in an article much less a single post. Suffice to say, there were many, but focusing on Custer really misses the primary question as to why the army needed to be sent there in the first place. That question certainly still has relevance for the decisions and actions taken by our government over the past 50 years.
*** If Custer hadn’t split the 7th up and won, I wonder what today would be like? ***
Custer would still be reviled because modern revisionists would claim he attacked a peaceful village of women and children because all the warriors were out “buffalo Hunting,” a modern excuse for every fight the soldiers won.
Forget the fact this was an invasion of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho into the pro-US Crow reservation.
A very good telling of what happened before is written in the book ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK by Bourke.
Also this...
He was a national hero who likely saved the Union at Gettysburg. Grant gave him the table from Appomattox.
His standard technique had worked in the past, he just did not understand in time how giant the Indian gathering was.
It’s shameful to see the way he has been trashed in recent decades.
He should have brought the two Gatling guns and 5000 rounds of amunition that were with his supply pack.
No, his own indian scouts warned him but he didn’t believe the recon. He made a mistake.
“As an Army vet I always ask, how the American GIs wounded and POWs were treated by the enemy at Little Big Horn.”
Not well.
For instance, the black army scout/interpreter Isaiah Dorman was wounded in Reno’s attack on the lower (ie., the southern end) of the village where the Hunkpapas had their camp. He was found on the field, badly wounded. The Indian women tortured him to death, even pinning his testicles to the ground with a picket pin.
The wounded were all killed, usually with their heads being crushed by stone mallets or war clubs. The very few unwounded that fell into the hands of the Indians were treated most barbarously. There is evidence suggesting that three were burned. The dead were horribly mutilated.
“I still wonder if his Indian scouts set him up by misleading him on the size of the village.”
Not at all. His scouts warned him AGAINST attacking the village because it was too big.
Yes, obscenely. The details probably didn’t get out at the time, but reading them now makes one less sympathetic to the Indians. While brave in battle and perhaps justified in their cause, the Sioux by our standards weren’t so noble that day. Nobility is as nobility does.
Buffalo shit........ General George Custer was met by a superior military force and roundly defeated to the last man in his command
Although he was always outgunned, splitting his forces was the result of arrogance and failed intellegence
——brave to extent of foolhardy.-—
Oxy moron
I think if he had won he would have ran and became President. That’s why I was wondering what today would be like if he’d had won the battle.
Always remember, Custer did not wake up one morning and decided it was such a nice day he wanted to kill Indians. This was a major operation against the hostile Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho.
The US had plenty of pro-US Indian allies fighting along side us.
Northern Plains...
Allies of the US...Shoshone, Ute, Ree, Pawnee, Bannock, Nez Pierce, Crow, Osage, Kaw, Winnebagos, and many smaller tribes such as the Poncas, Otoes, Peorias, Omahs, Mandans.
Furthermore, Crazy Horse was NOT liked by the other chiefs. They tried to get Gen Crook to assassinate him. Crook refused. Today’s modern press has turned him into some kind of super-hero.
When he died the other chiefs said he had died of his own violence, and sought no revenge for him.
According to Little Big Man (the real one), Crazy Horse was being escorted to the jail when he broke free, pulled out two hidden daggers and started slashing.
Little Big Man jumped on his back and grabbed his arms to stop him. A soldier thrust with his bayonet AND MISSED. Crazy then accidentally stabbed himself in the fight. So said Little Big Man.
The claim that Custer wanted to be nominated for President is bogus as both the Republicans and Democrats had already chosen their candidates for that year.
This bogus claim was made by Mari Sandoz in her book on Custer which I read decades ago. It was repeated in the movie LITTLE BIG MAN(1970).
The Cherokee had a written language and published a tribal news paper.
Richard Mulligan warped the public’s perception of Custer playing him that way.
The “Battle of the Little Bighorn” is described well in the memoirs, of Sergeant Charles Windolph.
Sergeant Windolph won the Congressional Medal of Honor at the battle for heroism. He describes that in the battle Custer made bad decisions and just got out generaled. He also describes that while the Sioux and Cheyenne were both present it was the Cheyenne that killed Custer. He further descirbes that the Cheyenne refused to let Custer be mutilated because they wanted everyone to know he was dead. Custer was the only one not mutilated. It is an interesting read.
Arminius was said to be uniting the German tribes. This aroused great jealousy from the German chiefdoms. Some of course were bribed by Rome but probably most probably just didn’t like the idea of being united under one guy! Tribal independence, freedom of action, sovereignty and their own personal power being the biggest motivations. Many saw advantages of a Roman connection, Arminius’s own brother stayed a loyal Roman auxiliary officer. It was said that he was later assassinated by members of his wife’s family/clan/tribe.
Of course, all this comes from Roman sources!
It’s not surprising to me if a historian digs honestly that one finds similar internal & external western tribal intrigues affecting US-Indian relations. It was certainly true in the East from Jamestown\Pilgrims to the closing of the Northwest Territories.
Look at Cortes & the Aztecs! Cortes would have ended up an Azteca-style burrito if he hadn’t had help from some 30,000 non-Aztec Indians.
As a Marine Corps vet I wonder why Custer took women and children as POWs
That was a noted tactic of his.
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