On June 25,1876 General George Armstrong Custer and his command came upon the main camp of Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief, on the Little Bighorn River. When he got to the edge of the camp he attacked and charged through the thickest part of the camp with five companies. As Custer was attacking this side, Major Marcus Reno attacked the other side of the village with seven companies. Soldiers from Reno's company were repulsed and a wholesale slaughter unused. But on the other side of the village Custer and his company were pushed back into the Little Bighorn plains and were slaughtered. Gen. Custer, his brother, nephews, and brother-in-law were killed and not one of his detachments escaped. Once again on the other side of the village, the Indians had surrounded Maj. Reno’s command and held them in the hills the whole day, until John Gibbon’s command came up and the Indians left. The number of started deaths were 300 soldiers and Indians together and of those 300, 17 were commissioned officers.

            The Cover-up

               It is said that many orders were disobeyed at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but not by Custer.  It was said that Maj. Reno and Major Frederick Benteen had been ordered forward to attack the Indian village, but they didn’t. Because of that, Gen. Custer’s command had no help and they all perished.  Although, about 400 soldiers and scouts of Reno and Benteen’s commands survived a two-day siege on a bluff about 4 miles from were Custer was inhabited.

              The Indians of the Battle of Little Bighorn

   Crazy Horse- (Tashunca-uitco)

                     (1849-1877)

   Crazy Horse is known for being the only in American History to ever defeat the U.S. Military.  He was a member of the Lakota tribe. He fought in the Plains and Indian wars from 1865 to 1868, which was led by the Ogala chief Red Cloud.  When the War department ordered all Lakotas to go onto reservations in 1876, Crazy Horse became a leader in the resistance.  Crazy Horse fought in many battles including Little Bighorn.  But in 1877 when he left the reservation without permission, to take his sick wife to her parents, General George Crook had him arrested, fearing he was plotting a battle.  He didn’t resist arrest at first, but when he realized they were taking him to a guardhouse he fought back and in the process he was bayoneted in the back.

                                         - (Tatanka-Iyotanks)

                                                (1831-1890)

    Sitting Bull was Known as a great leader in the Little Bighorn Battle.  He was a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man.  He was born around 1831 on the Grand River, in present-day South Dakota, a place the Lakota called “Many Caches.”  Like Crazy Horse, he led warriors to fight Custer and his men in the Battle of Little Bighorn.  He led many Indians in the Ghost Dance religion, which led to many battles like Little Bighorn.  But in the fall of 1890 a Lakota policeman put a bullet through his head. Sitting Bull was buried 3 months later in Fort Yates in North Dakota.

                                                                    - (Pizi)

                                                              (c.1840-1894)

    Gall was a Lakota, who got his name, Gall, because he ate the gall of an animal killed by a neighbor. He was a warrior in Red Cloud’s campaigns.  But eventually he became Sitting Bull’s military chief and led attacks on troops in many battles including Little Bighorn.  After the battle of Little Bighorn he fled to Canada with Sitting Bull.  But a quarrel between the two forced Gall to lead his band back across the border.  He died on Dec. 5, 1894 at his home on Oak Creek in South Dakota.

8th Grade

2001 American History

Rossville Junior High

Bibliography