Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story

Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story, David Humphreys Miller, Meridian Books, 1992

June 25, 1876 started with the killing of a young Indian boy who had found a box of hardtack by US cavalry troops. It ended with the worst defeat ever suffered by the US military at the hands of Native Americans. It is known as the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and this book tells the story of that day, but from the Indian perspective.

In 1874, gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, an area sacred to many tribes and that was supposed to be off-limits to white settlement according to the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. When the Indians refused to sell the Black Hills, the Treaty was set aside and the commissioner of Indian Affairs decreed that all Indians not in reservations by January of 1876 would be considered hostile. The intention on General Custer's part was to split up the 7th Cavalry, and come at the Indians from more than one direction, catching them in a pincer movement. The trouble is, Custer and his men didn't know just how many Indians there were. Custer intended to attack at night, but the shooting mentioned above was witnessed by a couple of Sioux boys who made it back to camp to raise the alarm. Custer was forced to move the attack to midday. Meantime, back at the Indian camp, many of the leaders knew that this was a day that would be remembered for a very long time.

Once the fighting got underway, there was no communication between the groups of cavalry, so there was no way for Custer to know that the first wave was being slaughtered by a numerically superior force of Indian warriors.

Custer found out for himself later in the day. A group of Indians were on one side of the Little Big Horn (a rather shallow river about twenty to forty yards across) facing a cavalry charge across the river. All of a sudden, the charge stopped and went back the way they came. The Indians didn't know they were facing Long-Hair (Custer) himself; the author speculates that the charge was reversed because this is where Custer himself was shot. The fight seemed to go out of the cavalry at that point; afterwards, it was just a mopping-up operation for the Indians. That night, while everyone else was celebrating their victory, Sitting Bull (later to join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show) knew that Washington would send more troops and eventually overwhelm the Indians, like at Wounded Knee, several years later.

Over the years, the legend of General Custer has been built up to the point where one could be forgiven for thinking that, while grievously wounded, Custer singlehandedly held off the entire Indian "army". The author, in his many years of interviews with Indians who were there, gives a very different opinion. This is a fascinating book (perhaps best for historians and armchair military commanders) that is highly recommended.