The Black Hills are located in the western part of South Dakota and spill over into the northeast corner of Wyoming, and the southeast corner of Montana. For the Sioux (pronounced "Soo"), the Black Hills had been the center of their lives for generations. It was the sacred "Paha Sapa", the place of the gods. It was a place where warriors went to have visions and to speak with the Great Spirit.
In 1868, a treaty was signed between the United States and the Sioux Nation which granted this area to the Sioux forever.
Then gold was discovered in the Black Hills.
Miners and settlers began flooding the area. The army sent General Crook and some troops in a half-hearted effort to get the miners to leave, but Crook made no effort whatsoever.
Chief Red Cloud and Spotted Tail strongly protested to Washington. They knew that soon, their young warriors would start taking matters into their own hands. A Commission was set up in Washington.
The commission recommended that the Sioux either sell or lease the land. Spotted Tail speaking for the Sioux, categorically refused. The U.S. government however, regarded this as a "take it or leave it" proposition.
Now, in late 1875, the outraged Sioux and Cheyenne tribes defiantly left their reservations and began gathering in eastern Montana under the great warrior Sitting Bull.
The following spring 1876, two victories were won over the U.S. Cavalry that emboldened the Sioux to keep fighting.
Also, during a Sun Dance festival, Sitting Bull had a vision. The vision depicted "soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky".
To force the large Indian army back to their reservations, the army dispatched three columns to attack in a coordinated effort.
Colonel John Gibbon led a mixed force of infantry and cavalry east from western Montana towards the Yellowstone River.
General Crook led another mixed force north from Northern Wyoming, but was turned back at the Rosebud River by the Sioux.
Brig. General Alfred Terry led the main column from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory west towards the valley of the Little Bighorn.
Included in Terry's column was the 7th Cavalry. It was commanded by Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
Custer was a war hero during the Civil War, and was a part of Crook's initial expedition into the Black Hills. He was regarded by Terry as impetuous and somewhat of a glory seeker.
Unaware of Crook's situation, Gibbon and Terry proceeded with their plan joining forces in early June at the mouth of the Rosebud.
On June 22nd, Terry ordered the 7th Cavalry, consisting of around 600 officers and men south down the Rosebud on a reconnaissance and pursuit mission. Custer had some latitude in his orders. He could depart from his orders if he saw "sufficient reason".
This was all Custer needed.
Custer was offered the use of Gatling guns and other reinforcements, but he refused.
At sunrise on June 25th, Custer's Crow Indian scouts reported that a very large Indian encampment was on the Little Bighorn River.
Custer ignored the news, and fearing that the Indians would flee at their approach, he decided to attack.
He left his baggage train behind and split his force into three columns.
He sent Captain Frederick Benteen with a squadron to block an escape route along the upper valley of the Little Bighorn.
Major Marcus Reno was sent with 175 men to swing around to where Custer felt would be the south end of the Indian village.
Custer would lead the remaining 210 troopers towards the north end of the encampment.
Reno was to attack from the south, and Custer from the north. Benteen would block the escape route. It was to be a coordinated effort.
Without sufficient knowledge of the size of the encampment, Reno attacked. But he quickly found himself in a desperate battle with a large force of Sioux, and retreated first to the trees and brush along the river, and then to a bluff east of the river harried all the while by the Sioux and Cheyenne.
Benteen eventually arrived to reinforce Reno's men just in time to avert disaster.
In the meantime Custer had misjudged the terrain on the way to the north side of the village. There were a maze of bluffs and ravines to negotiate.
By the time Custer got into position, Reno had already retreated. But Custer did not know this.
Custer was spotted moving towards the village, and free from having to worry about Reno, Sioux and Cheyenne warriors poured across the Little Bighorn right at Custer. The troopers were forced to retreat to a long high ridge to the north.
The cavalry then dismounted and fought in the traditional skirmish line formation on the ridge.
The cavalry were armed with single shot Springfield Model 1873 carbines. They tended to jam when overheated.
The Sioux warriors, reported to be around 1,800 strong were mostly equipped with the traditional bow and arrow, but many of them also had repeating Winchester rifles.
Many of the Indians fought on foot, approaching the skirmish line shooting and then ducking for cover. They were able to get in close and started picking off the troopers one by one.
Then a large party of Sioux on horseback, purported to be led by Crazy Horse swung around the skirmish line and outflanked it.
The whole idea of fighting from a skirmish line is to provide a wide field of fire without clumping up into large bodies of men which merely provides a bigger target.
But the physcological tendency of stressed troops under fire from two sides is to clump in groups for protection.
This is what happened.
A cloud of arrows and gunfire poured into them mowing them down in bunches.
Panic now ensued.
A group of men under Custer retreated to what came to be known as "Last Stand Hill". This was where the most effective resistance was.
But many other troopers tried to escape. Panic stricken, they ran pell-mell into the prairie where they were cut down one by one. One Sioux later described it as a "Buffalo run".
Eventually Custer and his men were overwhelmed on Last Stand Hill.
It took less than an hour.
When General Terry arrived on the scene the next day, what he saw was horrific.
The troopers were all stripped naked and mutilated. Custer was stripped, but his body was cleaned. He had a bullet wound in his left chest and one in his temple.
It was the last victory for the great Sioux and Cheyenne tribes.
