The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

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    Sitting Bull: forty-five-year-old political leader and holy man whose sun dance vision presaged the victory at the Little Bighorn
    MINNECONJOU LAKOTA
    Red Horse: spoke of a single soldier who “alone saved his command a number of times by turning on his horse in the rear in the retreat”
    Standing Bear: seventeen years old at the time of the battle; described the slaughter as Reno’s battalion retreated across the river
    White Bull: brother of One Bull and nephew of Sitting Bull; counted seven coups during the battle
    OGLALA LAKOTA
    Black Bear: leader of a seven-person band seen at the divide by Custer’s scouts on the morning of June 25
    Black Elk: twelve years old at the time of the battle; later related the story of his life in the classic Black Elk Speaks
    Crazy Horse: thirty-five years old at the time of the battle; the preeminent Lakota warrior
    Eagle Elk: twenty-four-year-old cousin to Crazy Horse; one of the many warriors who reported seeing Yellow Nose capture a company’s flag
    Flying Hawk: twenty-four-year-old nephew of Sitting Bull
    He Dog: thirty-six-year-old warrior and Shirt Wearer noted for his bravery
    Low Dog: also about twenty-nine years old; married to a northern Cheyenne woman; later fled to Canada with Sitting Bull
    Red Hawk: part of the Crazy Horse–led charge of Reno’s skirmish line; later drew a detailed map of the battle
    SANS ARC LAKOTA
    Long Road: killed just seventy-five feet from the soldiers’ line on Reno Hill
    SANTEE SIOUX
    Inkpaduta: veteran of Minnesota Uprising of the 1860s and ally of Sitting Bull
    TWO KETTLE LAKOTA
    Runs the Enemy: leader of a hundred-warrior band that fought both at the Valley Fight and on Last Stand Hill

Acknowledgments

    Special thanks to Mike Hill, friend and researcher extraordinaire, without whom this book would not have been possible. Thanks also to Steve Alexander for talking about his career as the country’s foremost Custer reenactor; to Jack Bailey for sharing his knowledge of Montana’s Rosebud Valley and for providing access to the Deer Medicine Rocks; to Rocky Boyd for all his research help and especially for his insights into the life and writings of Peter Thompson; to Ladonna Brave Bull Allard at the Standing Rock Sioux Agency for speaking with me about the history of her people; to Jim Court, past superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, for his help in retracing Custer’s route up the Rosebud River to the Little Bighorn; to Joan Croy for a tour of the Custer sites in Monroe, Michigan; to the Delta Queen , the historic sternwheeler that showed me what it’s like to travel upriver by steam power; to Major Ray Dillman of the English Department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, not only for directions to the Crow’s Nest but for putting me in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Kilner of the Center for Company-Level Leaders at West Point, who shared with me his extensive firsthand knowledge of leadership in battle; to West Point’s Alicia Mauldin-Ware and Gary Hood for their research assistance; to John Doerner, historian at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, for all the leads and research help; to Michael Donahue, author and seasonal ranger at the battlefield, for his insights into the battle; to Sharon Smalls at the battlefield for her help with the images; to Zach Downey at the Lilly Library at Indiana University; to Robert Doyle for the tour of Myles Keogh’s birthplace in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, and also to Elizabeth Kimber for sharing documents relating to Myles Keogh; to Dennis Farioli for his research help; to Jeffrey Flannery at the Manuscript Reading Room of the Library of Congress; to the Gilcrease Museum Archives at the University of Tulsa for permission to quote from the Benteen-Goldin papers; to Susan Goodall for photographic assistance; to Mark Halvorson at the State Historical Society of North Dakota for the tour of his institution’s collection relating to Sitting Bull, to Greg Wysk for the archival assistance, and to Sharon Silengo for her help with the photographic collection; to Bruce Hanson at the Denver Public Library; to the Reverend Vincent Heier for some late-inning research help; to June Helvie for permitting me to quote from the writings of both her mother, Susan Taylor Thompson, and her grandfather Peter Thompson; to Marilynn Hill for sharing her writings about Libbie Custer; to Eric and Betsey Holch for navigational and moral