What emerges from these accounts is a sometimes contradictory, but always fascinating story of the battle. Readers will, of course, have to be cautious. Some of these memories are those of old men, thinking back decades. In addition oral history is also at risk of distortion from either faded memories or the desire to change the narrative. However readers must also be cautious not to apply their own prejudices to this form of history. Native Americans thrived on oral history. Accounts were told, and retold. Indeed one of the interesting things about this book is it tells how the victorious Sioux told their war tales on the evening of the Battle. The memories of the day were already being cemented on the very evening of the victory.
The accounts here are made with the desire to remember and tell a story. Indeed Miller does tell a story - the book reads like a novel, and the reader will be hardpressed to work out exactly what is memory. What emerges however is a slightly different narrative of the day of the battle. The Native American story begins the conflict earlier, with an attack on small groups of Indians early in the day by Custer's forces. That said the rough outlines of the battle follow those told in countless other stories. There is one significant difference. Several of Miller's sources tell that Custer was likely killed, or injured, very early on in an attempt to ford the stream at Medicine Tail Coulee. It is then suggested that his troops carried his body with them as they tried to regroup. In his counter-revisionist study of Native American accounts of the battle Gregory F. Michno is emphatic in his argument that this is a myth, and that Custer did not get killed or injured early. That said Michno's rejection of this specific part of the Native American oral history is in part because his whole book is designed to place the "Last Stand" back at the centre of the history of the Little Bighorn, and the "Custer myth".
The truth of the matter is that no one really can tell. Not least because no one at the time knew that Custer, or "Long Hair", was at the Little Big Horn. In addition several other individuals worse buckskin on the day, Custer's characteristic outfits. But what matters for Miller's account is that many Indians believed that this is what happened. There are always different tellings of history, and the story that Custer was killed early on is a central part of the Indian account of the day. The story is important though, because for many Native Americans it explained why the troops behaved as they did. As Miller recounts, something "seemed completely to demoralise the soldiers - something that occurred within their own ranks".
There are plenty of other pieces of information here that will readers. The behaviour of the Native Americans after the battle, the actions of Custer's Native American scouts, the way the news spread among the Native Americans faster than it could have been communicated by the Whites. There is even a fascinating account of Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them who "normally wore woman's dress, but changed to warrior's clothing before riding into battle. Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them was a Crow who fought as part of General Crooks command against the Sioux at the Battle of the Rosebud before the Little Bighorn. Miller uses the term "hermaphrodite" to describe Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them. The term is incorrect and very dated, as Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them was a badé, or Two-Spirit person, "a male-bodied person in a Crow community who takes part in some of the social and ceremonial roles usually filled by women in that culture." The story of how Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them fought at the precussor to the Little Big Horn (albeit on the side of the Whites) is important as it shows how Miller places Native American culture at the heart of the story of these conflicts. Crucial to this was the democratic decision making processes of the tribes.
One final thing is worth recounting to illustrate this. Its the story of how at the "last great Indian Council on the Little Big Horn" in 1909, a wealthy businessman offered very large financial reward to the tribes for definitive information on "who killed Custer". For several tribes the chiefs debates this, mindful of the benefits of the cash reward. Not being able to decide, not least because no one actually knew, the tribes elected Chief Brave Bear to be the person who was given the honour of killing Custer. Chief Brave Bear had, after all, been "on th Washita when Custer had destroyed Black Kettle's village" and had "spilled pipe ashes on Custer's boots" at a later peace conference. Chief Brave Bear fully expected to be killed by the Whites after accepting the cash for his impoverished kin. He wasn't, but as Miller points out his only statement afterward before his death in 1932 was to say that "I was in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The Indians called the General 'Long Hair'. It is a fight I do not like to talk about."
While the Whites continued to celebrate Custer's defeat and alleged heroism, the Native Americans were magnanimous and subdued in the aftermath of their victory. Their accounts here are not celebratory, but tell of a battle fought and won, of bravery and solidarity. It is well worth a read if you ever want to visit the Greasy Grass.
Related Reviews
Hämäläinen - Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power
Donovan - A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn
Philbrick - The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Stevenson - Deliverance from the Little Big Horn: Doctor Henry Porter & Custer's Seventh Cavalry
Brown - Showdown at Little Big Horn
Michno - Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat
Cozzens - The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
Interestingly enough, as the fates would have it, I have just finished reading Son of the Morning Star: Custer & The Little Bighorn by Evan S. Connell. I was turned onto it several years ago in an essay on the author, who also wrote the books Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge. I had started to read Son of the Morning Star at that time, but couldn't get going on it. On a recent trip to see family in and around Ohio, our travels took us close to New Rumley, OH, scene of Custer's First Stand, so we stopped in. A sleepy little crossroads in eastern Ohio with a "museum" and a statue and information kiosk. We visited the "museum" when the wonderful woman from across the street was kind enough to unlock the door and take my money for the book. It was a great read - with all kinds of side stories about life on the plains, the Army post-Civil War, animals, native Americans, travel in the 19th century, and innumerable glimpses into the lives of so many of those involved. David Humpreys Miller and his book figure pretty prominently. So - thanks for the review and love finding your blog - hat tip to Stephen Mitchelmore.
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