June 25, 1876

Greasy Grass Creek: Or Custer's Last Stand.

Following the Civil War many Americans resumed the expansion Westward, chasing open spaces and valuable mining opportunities. To protect American citizens and to deal with the Native Americans already occupying these Western lands, many regular U.S. Army units were redeployed to the frontier after the war. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, an area the local Indians considered sacred, tensions were bound to boil over. Years before, the Indians had been promised by the government that this land would remain untouched. Some tribes, led by the Lakota Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne, left their reservations and began harassing whites.

The actions prompted a quick reaction from the Army, who began sending columns of men and cavalry into the Black Hills to push the Indians out. In the summer of 1876, the Army had chased the Native Americans into the hills of Western Montana. Late in June a cavalry detachment led by General George Armstrong Custer was sent to scout a series of uncharted valleys and determine Indian presence there.

Through one of these valleys snaked the Little Bighorn River, and Custer soon began receiving reports from his scouts of a large Indian village led by Sioux Chief Sitting Bull on the river's banks. What his scouts failed to tell him, or what he chose to ignore, was that the village had been joined by hundreds of Indians for a hunt in the buffalo-rich region. Either way, not wanting to let such a large target scatter and escape, Custer decided to divide his force and attempt a pincer movement to destroy the village on June 25, 1876.

The first part of his forces swept in and attacked from the Southeast, but were driven back when they discovered the true size of the village they were attacking. What happened next is uncertain, but it is believed that the second half of the force, led by Custer himself, was lost in the maze of bluffs and hills to the East of the village. When they finally did attack, the Indians had already driven back the first assault and were free to concentrate on Custer alone. Post-battle accounts from many Indians claim that Sioux warrior Crazy Horse caught the cavalry troopers in the very same pincer move they had tried to execute. There are no accounts of the attack from the cavalry troopers. Custer was killed, along with every member of his detachment.


This painting of the Battle of the Little Bighorn depicts Custer at center, in buckskins. Note the men firing in front of him; it is believed the troopers shot their own horses to use for cover.

After the fight, the Native Americans combed the field at the spot of Custer's demise, stealing rifles and equipment and mutilating the bodies of dead troopers. Interestingly enough, the General had been dressed in buckskins that day, not the blue cavalry uniform, and thus his body escaped mutilation. The chase and the war with the Sioux continued into the next year until Sitting Bull led his people into Canada. The fight would come to be known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and would go down as the worst defeat the U.S. suffered during the Indian Wars. The Native Americans know it as the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek, as the prairie near the river that day ran slick with blood.

Ironically, the expedition that found the first gold in the Black Hills in 1874 was led by Custer himself.