Rescuing History | Pandora’s box on the western plains | the Battle of the Little Big Horn

One of the remarkable things about history is that there are “Pandora’s boxes” wherever you look. Open one, and from that moment you can be reading book after book for years to come.

For example, simply open yourself to the possibility that the Warren Commission report on the assassination of JFK was a cover-up – as millions of people have, including me. Those of us who did that are still reading today, for new evidence is still emerging sixty years later.

Back in the winter of 1977, exploring shelves in the York University library in Toronto, I came upon a long shelf that held nothing but books about the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn (called by the native people, the Battle of the Greasy Grass, referring to their name for the river), when William Armstrong Custer and five companies of the US Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by an alliance of Lakota and Arapaho Sioux, and Northern Cheyenne people.

I took one book off that shelf, opening one of the most astonishing of Pandora’s boxes. More than forty years later, I still haven’t been able to close it.

Why has this battle near the Little Big Horn river, that involved only about 650 cavalry soldiers, and maybe 1500 native warriors, been studied and written about more than most battles in history?

Part of it is the fact that the 210 soldiers with Custer were all killed. The soldiers under the other two commanding officers, Major Reno and Captain Benteen, heard heavy gunfire coming from Custer’s direction, but they saw nothing.

Something about the complete extinction of a group seems to inspire myth creation. Endless speculation followed here, giving birth to a an American myth that will last a long time. But there has been, along with that, extensive research. The soil of that remote battle field has been sifted and catalogued carefully. A lot more is known today than when Hollywood made its famous movies of the battle

What’s maintained my interest for so long is the cast of interesting characters. Look at the major ones:

• Colonel George Armstrong Custer, age 37, who became famous in the civil war for his flamboyant reckless charges that pulled out several unexpected victories. Because he had political ambitions, Custer wrote articles for eastern newspapers, and a book , My Life on the Plains, 1874, about his adventures. To ensure coverage of his exploits, he invited journalists along on his expeditions against the native people – so a reporter from Associated Press was with him at the Little Big Horn, and died there with him, along with Custer’s two brothers.

• Sitting Bull, a Lakota Sioux chief largely responsible for the degree of cooperation among the Indian forces.. A talented strategist in any human undertaking, had he been born in the twentieth century he might have been CEO of General Motors, or maybe he’d have replaced Eisenhower as head of the World War II allied forces. He’s also one of the most quoted men in history – for example, when he took part in a conference where he’d resisted another treaty giving up more Indian land, but had been outvoted by other tribal leaders, he was asked by a reporter what he thought the future held for Indians. He famously replied: “Indians? There are no Indians left but me.”

• Crazy Horse, a younger chief famous for his spectacular feats on horseback in previous battles with the US Cavalry. A taciturn loner, he refused to be photographed or submit to a portrait – there is no picture of him. But he too is famous for quotes, like the one referring to the sale of Indian land to the US government: “You don’t sell the land on which the people walk.” At the Little Big Horn, he upstaged and fooled Custer completely. He would be killed a couple of years later by soldiers, after he gave himself up to a reservation. The circumstances are still disputed today.

• Major Marcus Reno, leader of the battalion that initiated the attack on the Indian villages (the plan was to take enough women and children hostage that, to protect them, the male warriors would give up the fight – Indians were known for putting women and children first). But stopped in his tracks by unexpected resistance, and taking serious casualties, Reno ordered a retreat that saved most of his men. But, partly because of his heavy drinking – accused of it during the battle by his own men – he was subject to a famous court trial where he was charged with incompetence and cowardice for not going to Custer’s aid – the charges were dismissed. It was evident that Reno’s men had to fight hard to save themselves .

• Captain Frederick Benteen, who didn’t go to Custer’s aid either (sent by Custer to the other side of the Indian encampment, he said he got lost). His men did little fighting, but Benteen was not charged. A month or so prior to the battle, he’d told some other officers – “Custer will get us all killed one day.”

Those are the main characters at the Little Big Horn. Look at some others:

• Buffalo Calf Road Woman – a number of Indians claimed to have killed Custer, but the only real evidence points to this Cheyenne woman (Indian women often fought), for native witnesses testified that it was she who knocked Custer off his horse.
• Half Yellow Face, a Crow scout who argued with Custer that they should back off from the Sioux/Cheyenne camp. When Custer rejected his advice, Half Yellow Face is reported (by some scouts who took his advice) to have said: “You and I are going home today on a road we do not know.”  

• Isaiah Dorman, a big Afro-American man with Reno, who, according to some sources, fought in the Union army in the civil war, then went west, married a Sioux/Dakota woman and became a personal friend of Sitting Bull. He sometimes worked as a translator for the 7^th cavalry, the reason he was there. One soldier under Reno said he last saw Dorman, his horse shot from under him, down on one knee calming firing at the attacking warriors. Sitting Bull is said to have found him badly wounded and disabled, so he got off his horse to give him a drink of water. He told the Indians there not to kill Dorman because he was a friend, but Dorman was killed anyway, and his body mutilated because he was considered a traitor. Only recently did I learn that the idea of mutilation was to prevent someone from arriving whole in the spirit world.
  

• Lieutenant William W. Cooke, age 30, was one of 17 Canadians that died in the battle. Born in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, he became friends with Custer when they were fighting together in the civil war. When Custer was appointed to the 7th Cavalry, he invited Cooke to join him. According to some Sioux accounts, the last officer fighting was on a white horse – Cooke was the only one who had a white horse. In the midst of the action, he sent a message on a scrap of paper (the messenger being an Italian with limited command of English) – “Benteen, come quick!” Benteen instead joined up with Reno. In 1877 family members dug up Cooke’s remains in Montana and re-buried them in the same cemetery in Hamilton where my father is buried.

  Do you see why I’m still reading books about the Battle of the Little Big Horn? Why I’ll never stop reading history?