Custer's Foes Memorialized At Little Bighorn

channeloklahoma.com ^

[chance33_98]

Custer's Foes Memorialized At Little Bighorn

Monument To American Indians Erected To Remember Historic Battle

POSTED: 7:11 p.m. EDT June 25, 2003 UPDATED: 7:17 p.m. EDT June 25, 2003

LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT, Mont. -- More than a century after Custer fell at the Little Bighorn, the American Indians he was attacking are being memorialized as well.

About 4,000 people turned out for the dedication of the first permanent memorial to the Indians who fought on that Montana battlefield on June 25, 1876.

On that historic day, Lt. Col. George Custer ordered his forces to attack an Indian village on the Little Bighorn River, but he apparently miscalculated the size of the opposing force. As many as 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho wiped out about 260 soldiers.

For more than a century, a granite obelisk and headstones have honored the U.S. soldiers. The new memorial includes a wiry sculpture, a sunken stone circle and an open space for tribal ceremonies.

Donlin Many Bad Horses, a Northern Cheyenne, said the Indians have finally gotten their due.

[ThreePuttinDude]

Saddam and General Custer

Q. What do Saddam Hussein and General Custer have in common?
A. They both want to know where the hell those Tomahawks are coming from!

[chance33_98]

I am waiting on the government to rename those.... =)

[somemoreequalthanothers]

I recently watched a show on PAX, 'Encounters With the Unexplained' that demonstrated how Custer was more than likely hung out to dry by President Grant. Very interesting, stuff that I hadn't learned before.

[ThreePuttinDude]

General Custer and an Indian scout are on top of a hill over-looking Bull Run when they start to hear drums in the distance.

General Custer says, "I don't like the sound of those drums!"

The Indian scout listens for a second and says, "That's not their regular drummer."

[beaversmom]

A recent subject of European culture on the Michael Medved radio program recently got me and another person into a discussion of Indians and scalping. The person told me that scalping was introduced to the Indians by the French. To me this doesn't sound correct (revisionist history) so I tried to look it up on the internet. Basically a couple of sites said the same thing (introduced by Europeans) and another site said that scalping was used long before the white man showed up. The latter site did also add that whites encouraged the practice because scalps of enemies were paid for. Anyone know anymore about this or can point me in the direction of a book on American/Indian history that is generally considered factual by conservatives. So many lies get told anymore because of political correctness and idealogies it's hard to know what to believe.

[Burkeman1]

It is a liberal myth that scalping was introduced by the white man. Scalping was never a practice in Europe before colonization began in the New World. It was a practice of East Coast Indians long before the white man came. The practice however was encouraged by white settlers who pitted groups of Indians against each other and offered money for scalps. Thus the practice of scalping was passed to other Indian tribes as the white man settled further and further west.

[Wolverine]

http://www.newsoftheodd.com/article1003.html

 

THE EARLIEST SCALPING VICTIM IN AMERICA

by
Dr. Maria O. Smith
Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, and
Research Associate, Frank H. McClung Museum

[Wolverine]

Scalping: Myth and Reality

FrontPageMagazine.com | May 15, 2001

[stboz]

I always liked Bill Cosby's portrayal of the prelude to the Battle of the Little Bighorn....

Referee: Cap'n Sittin' Bull, this is Cap'n Custer. Cap'n Custer, this is Cap'n Sitting Bull. Visitors call the toss. Call the toss, 'Cuss.

He calls "Heads!" It's tails!

You lose the toss, Cap'n Custer! (Huuh!)

Alright, Cap'n Custer, Cap'n Sitting Bull says you and your guys have to wait down here in this little area while he and all the Indians in the world ride right down on you!

[Wolverine]

Source: http://www.gordon.army.mil/eoo/native.htm

Some examples of Native-American stereotypes portrayed in the media were the Cavalry always wins and the Native-Americans were always on the warpath scalping soldiers.  However, the Europeans, not the Native-Americans introduced scalping to America.  It was easy for the media and historians to distort history and Native-Americans, because it was difficult for the Native-Americans to defend themselves, since until recently there was no written language.  Native-American passed on history through the word of mouth from one generation to the next.  Many tribes have become extinct and their history was not passed on.  As a result of the stereotypes and omissions in history or distortions of history,  the Native-Americans have taken on a generally negative identity.

From the source above:

NATIVE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

The following information is included:

1. Definition of Native-American as defined by DoD Dir 1350.2.

2. Description of the origins of Native-Americans.

3. Explanation of the beliefs and values of Native-Americans.

4. Description of the population trends of Native-Americans.

5. Explanation of concepts of treaties.

6. Description of the legal status of Native-Americans

7. Description of historical events which impacted the Native-Americans and their population.

8. Description of the cultural values, attitudes and behaviors, and social problems.

9. Description of the Native-Americans contributions.

[Wolverine]

It was the rising militia, rather than Washington, who were to provide the Northern Army with its main reinforcements. Nothing worked more to produce this result than Burgoyne's employment of Indians. The murder and scalping of a beautiful white woman, Jane McCrea, dramatized the Indian threat as nothing else probably could have done.

 

Excerpted from:

 

THE WINNING OF INDEPENDENCE, 1777-1783

Extracted from

AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY

ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES

 OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY

UNITED STATES ARMY

[Wolverine]

http://spacr.state.wy.us/cr/wsm/plainsind.htm

Teacher's Manual Text for Plains Indians Discovery Trunk

[beaversmom]

Thanks to you both. Lots of contradicting information out there. The liberals love to muddy the waters so the truth is hard to discern. The article from Frontpage Magazine rings true to me because it is well foot noted. The sites that I have seen saying that the white man introduced scalping come across more as opinion.

Another thing that has been passed around is that white men used biological warfare (smallpox) on the Indians. Seems that Michael Medved once mentioned some book on his show that dispelled that myth as well--can't remember for sure though and can't remeber the author or researcher's name.

Once again thanks to you both.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Your #9: good find. Thanks for posting.

[beaversmom]

The Frontpage article was a good find--that's the kind of thing I was looking for the other night but couldn't find it. Thanks to Wolverine.

[Wolverine]

http://www.nps.gov/mwro/loesshills/executivesummary.pdf

Executive Summary

In 1999, Congress directed the National Park Service to conduct a special resource study to evaluate the Loess Hills of Iowa for possible designation as a unit of the National Park System. The study includes a natural and cultural resources overview that describes the study area, and evaluates the national significance of the Loess Hills as well as the suitability and feasibility of including this entire landform region as a unit of the National Park System. In accordance with this legislative direction, the National Park Service has provided management recommendations for the long-term preservation of the Loess Hills of western Iowa in this study document.

The Loess Hills of western Iowa are a distinctive topographic region encompassing more than 640,000 acres and extending for nearly 200 miles in a narrow band that parallels the Missouri River valley.

http://www.nps.gov/mwro/loesshills/AppC.pdf

....earliest known evidence of the practice of scalping in prehistoric North America

The skull of one of the Hanging Valley individuals exhibited cut marks suggestive of scalping, and is among the earliest known evidence of the practice of scalping in prehistoric North America (Tiffany et al. 1988; Alex 2000). The Hanging Valley site dates to between approximately A.D. 450 and A.D. 600 (Alex 2000).

[El Gato]

I am waiting on the government to rename those....(Thomahawk missles)

not to mention "Apache" and Blackhawk, Iroquois (UH-1), Cayuse(OH-6) and Kiowa (OH-58) 'copters, and a whole class of Navy ships (Powhatan class sea going tugs, which as a type have long been named after Indians) and the second in the "Lewis and Clark" class replenishment ships, the Sacagawea. And a bunch of things named after cities and states that are themselves named after Indians and or Indian tribes, cities like Pontiac, Omaha and so forth. Plus a few states, such as Utah, the Dakota's and others with Indian words or meanings, such as Nebraska.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

From my gleanings of history about scalping I have found the following...

Hernando de Soto mentioned Indians taking scalps from their ememies as war trophies.
Captain John Smith (of Pocahantas fame) told of Indians scalping fallen enemies. "They cased off the scalp with knives made of shell and reeds and hung them on a rope between two poles".
Many years ago National Geographic Magazine had an article on the Le Moyne drawings showing scalps, arms and legs taken from ememies.
Now we have the problem of canabalism in the southwest and various defenders of the indians don't want to deal with it either.

Various TV shows of the 1960's and 70's and movies such as HECK RAMSEY and SOLDIER BLUE have always blamed the white man for starting scalping. They just don't want to deal with the real facts of history.

[El Gato]

"Custer was a Pussy", Sgt. Major Basil Plumley, as portrayed by Sam Elliot. I'll have to re-read the book to see if Plumley actualy said it.