Westward Ho: I Never Liked Him Anyway

[Editor's Note: Pretend you're reading this post before you read the last one.]

I've had a thing against General George
Armstrong Custer since 1967. There was a one season TV show (back when a season was 17 episodes) called The Legend of Custer that ran that year. It's set some time before his last stand when he was stationed in Kansas.

Unfortunately for me, in this show Custer and I had a similar blond hairstyle. The Indians in the showed called Custer "Yellow Hair". Similar to when the Chatty Kathy doll came out, my brothers decided it would be fun to call me something other than my real name…so, I became Yellow Hair for the next 17 weeks. I hate that Chatty Kathy doll, too.

So back to our trip. After Yellowstone we stopped at the battleground of the Little Big Horn. This is now another National Park. It's also a national cemetery--which neither of us knew.

You really have to be on the Indians' side when you learn about the battle. Custer's mission was to force the Lakota Sioux, the Arapaho, and the Cheyenne onto newly set up reservations, so there would be safe passage for gold miners and settlers. Sitting Bull created a loose alliance of the Indian nations to fight back. Crazy Horse and Chief Gall led the Indians in the fight.

The story is more complicated than I knew previously, and spread out over hundreds of acres of land and several days. A few key points:

The military scouts were looking for the Indians and the Indians didn't want to be found
Custer's men grossly underestimated the number of Indians they'd be fighting. Apparently they didn't believe the Indian nations would band together for a common cause
Custer split up his men into 3 regiments to cover the ground, which also diluted their firepower at any one spot
Custer's fighting men weren't educated or well trained. There were a lot of alcoholics and men who couldn't find jobs doing anything else. They were not a lean, mean, fighting machine.
The Indians were highly motivated and determined to fight to the death to defend their land
Custer's actual fight on last stand hill lasted less than 30 minutes

Long story short, the Indians won. 50% of Custer's men were killed including him and a couple of his brothers.

You can drive around the areas of the battle and there are stops along the way that explain things. You definitely get the sense of what the Indians were fighting for, and how Custer could miscalculate his foe.

Bottomline, Yellow Hair lost the battle. Unfortunately, the Indians lost the war and within 20 years were herded onto reservations.