Custer lost at Little Big Horn, but nobody really won
On June 25, 1876, a village of about five thousand Lakotas and Cheyennes encamped on the Greasy Grass River (modern-day Little Big Horn) was famously attacked by George Armstrong Custer and his famous Seventh Cavalry. The Indians were followers of the powerful Húnkpapa saint Sitting Bull, and like their leader, most of them wanted nothing to do with white men. They just wanted to be left alone, to live apart from the Euro-Americans who had been constantly invading and trespassing on Lakota lands for decades.
With shouts of “Hoka he!” (Come on!) and “Earth is all that remains!” Oglala warchief Crazy Horse and other Indian leaders quickly rallied 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 fighters were able to attack these separate detachments individually. On a grassy ridge overlooking the Greasy Grass, the warriors completely overpowered Custer and about two hundred soldiers of the Seventh. The Indians’ overwhelming victory was soon dubbed “Custer’s Last Stand.”
“The people of the States accuse me of killing Custer and his army,” said Sitting Bull in 1878. “He came to attack me, in sufficient numbers to show me that they wanted to destroy me and my children .”
Read more at The Daily Beast.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/custer-lost-but-no-one-really-won-at-the-little-big-horn?source=articles&via=rss Custer lost at Little Big Horn, but nobody really won
