General George Custer's ill-fated attack on a huge encampment of Plains Indians on 25th June, 1876, has gone down as one of the most disastrouos defeats in American military history. Much less understood is how disastroous the encounter was for the "victors", the Sioux and the Cheyenne under the leadership of Sitting Bull.
Within 15 years no American Indians resided outside reservations and their ancient culture lay in ruins. This text recreates the events from the Indian perspective, relating the pride and desperation of a people systematically stripped of their treaty rights, hounded from their ancestral hunting grounds and herded into wretched reservations. Their final showdown with thousands of warriors against Custer's small force was, therefore, not least a "last stand", a final celebration of their waning power and freedom.
United States