Battle Of The Little Bighorn | Custer's Last Stand | Sitting Bull And Crazy Horse Documentary

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains natives as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was fought on June 25, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in Montana. It was fought between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The battle, which resulted in natives defeating U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. Events that led to the battle. The Great Plains were the last Native American holdout in America. As settlers colonized the far west before the Civil War, few had put down roots in the Plains due to its dry weather and large Native population. After the Civil War, far west land became scarcer and the U.S. government grew aspirations for the Plains land, building railroads, and offering settlers good deals on land purchases. A confrontation between the Plains natives against the settlers and government forces was inevitable. By the late 1860s, most Native Americans had been forced onto so-called Indian reservations or killed. Committed to avoiding the same fate, the Plains natives settled in for a long and fierce holdout. In the hopes of crushing the Native livelihood, the government allowed hunters to kill buffalo herds to lay railroad tracks. They also urged hunters to kill as many buffalo as possible. The more the hunters needlessly slaughtered the buffalo, the angrier the natives grew. Some staged brutal attacks on hunters, settlers, and railroad workers without regard to age or gender. Earlier participating in the Civil War on the Union side, Custer arrived on the scene in 1866. By that time, the war between the Army and the Plains natives tribes was in full force. In the years following, Custer was successful against the natives, leading a successful campaign against a Cheyenne village, but he realized this was going to be a completely different kind of war than fighting Confederate troops. He recognized the natives rode fast and knew the terrain better. In 1868, the U.S. government had signed a treaty recognizing South Dakota's Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. However, in 1874, an army expedition led by Custer found gold in the Black Hills. The United States, recognizing the hills as property of the Sioux Nation, tried to buy the hills, but the Sioux, considering them sacred ground, refused to sell. Just one year earlier, in 1873, Custer faced a group of attacking Lakota Sioux at the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey at Yellowstone. It was his first encounter with Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, but it wouldn't be his last. Custer was tasked with relocating all natives in the area to reservations by January 31st, 1876. Any native who didn't comply would be considered hostile. The natives, however, left their reservations and traveled to Montana to join forces with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at their fast-growing camp. Thousands strong, the group eventually settled on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. Those who saw the assembled encampment said they had never seen one larger. It had come together in March or April, according to the Oglala Sioux warrior, Heedong. Natives arriving from distant reservations on the Missouri River had reported that soldiers were coming out to fight, so camps of various native tribes made a point of keeping close together. There were at least six or seven close camps with the Cheyenne at the north and the Sioux in the south. Among the Sioux, the Hunkpapas were at the most southern end. Between them, along the river's bends and loops, were the Sanark, Brulé, Miniconju, Santee, and Oglala. There were also five Arapaho warriors with them. There were a total of six to seven thousand people in all, a third of them men or boys of fighting age who actually fought. They were armed with Winchester, Henry, and Spencer repeating rifles, as well as bows, arrows, and tomahawks. Sitting Bull's Sundance. Before the battle, an ancient native ritual was held. The Sundance is a spiritual ritual reserved only for men. It was performed by Sitting Bull, the Lakota medicine man. He painted himself yellow to represent the sun. He was looking for spiritual guidance and a vision of the future. The ritual began with removing pieces of flesh from his arms until they were all bloody. He then started dancing, followed by his men. The dance lasted for two whole days, until finally Sitting Bull had a vision. He predicted winning the battle, but the vision came with a warning. Nothing was to be taken from fallen soldiers, or great misery would befall the Lakota. Before the Sundance, Sitting Bull had many visions predicting the future, and they had all turned out to be truthful. So, this boosted the natives' morale. The Battle. The U.S. Army dispatched three columns of soldiers, including Custer and his Seventh Cavalry, to round up the natives and return them to their reservations. The soldiers were armed with Springfield single-shot carbine rifles and Colt .45 revolvers. General Alfred Terry, Colonel John Gibbon, and Lieutenant Colonel Custer met up in mid-June, and after a scouting party of Crow and Arikara scouts serving in the U.S. Army found a native trail headed toward Little Bighorn Valley, they decided Custer should move in, surround the natives, and await reinforcements. Around midday on June 25th, Custer's scouts located Sitting Bull's camp. Instead of waiting for reinforcements as arranged, Custer planned a surprise attack for the next day, advancing toward the encampment and shooting a few natives on the way. Custer divided his more than 600 men into four groups. He ordered one small battalion to stay with the supply train, and the other two, led by Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, to attack from the south and prevent the natives from escaping. He sent Benteen scouting southwest to ensure there were no other native forces that could attack their rear, and ordered Reno to head west and attack the south side of the camp. Custer led the final group, 210 men strong, and planned to attack from the north. Reno's group attacked first from the south. The natives, caught by surprise, picked up their arms, organized, and started firing back. Reno's group had around 100 men who had been skirmishing with the natives. Some of the natives, He-Dog and Braveheart among them, rode out, circling a small hill behind the soldiers. At that moment, Crazy Horse came riding fast with reinforcements, boosting the natives' morale. Reno's soldiers, now engaged from two sides, quickly retreated after realizing they were completely outnumbered, with natives chasing them uphill. By the time they regrouped on the top of the hill, now known as Reno Hill, at least 30 men were dead. Meanwhile, Custer moved north at a gallop. He spotted the Cheyenne camp and saw mostly women and children. He then divided his forces, sending two companies west to the river in an attempt to remove the pressure from Reno. Custer and his remaining three companies continued heading north, looking for a suitable place to cross the river. On the south side, hearing the gunfire, Benteen's troops came to Reno's aid, and the combined battalions joined forces. At that moment, Crazy Horse and his warriors turned back and started heading toward the center of the great camp. They feared a second attack on the camp from some point north. They had seen soldiers heading that way on the opposite bank. At that point, a group of Lakota Sioux, led by White Thunder, started heading east, where they were soon joined by many other natives. They started firing at the soldiers from the tall grass. Natives were coming up from the south on that side of the river in great numbers and soon attacked the two companies. The soldiers retreated to higher ground. Meanwhile, Crazy Horse continued heading north. In effect, White Thunder said, Custer had been surrounded even before they began to fight. Custer ordered his men to stay in a defensive position while he was looking for suitable terrain to cross the river. The natives attacked the first line of soldiers who were overwhelmed, and the formation broke. The natives continued attacking, and the second defensive line now came under intense pressure. Custer returned to the high ground and sent soldiers to intercept the natives, who were now advancing from another direction. After some fierce fighting, the second line suffered heavy losses and retreated to the reserve line. On the other side, Crazy Horse successfully encircled the soldiers. As the warriors started to attack the soldiers from one side, Crazy Horse smashed into the soldiers, which left them completely surrounded. Many of them were killed, while others started retreating toward Custer's position, with the natives chasing them. Custer's men panicked and dismounted from their horses, using them as cover. Now surrounded from all sides, Custer's last stand wasn't much of a fight. It was a slaughter. The natives attacked once more, and Custer was killed along with every man in his battalion. He had suffered two bullet wounds, one near his heart and one in the head. Some of Reno's officers, who had ridden out with their men toward the shooting, watched a hill in the distance, swarming with natives who seemed to be shooting at things on the ground. These natives were not fighting, but finishing off the wounded, also taking things from the dead soldiers, contrary to Sitting Bull's warning. The officers at Weir Point also saw a general movement of natives, more than any of them had ever encountered before, heading their way. Reno's and Benteen's soldiers formed a circled defensive line, and the exchange of fire soon began. They fought all day until General Terry's reinforcements finally arrived. Now it was the natives who were outnumbered, so they packed up their camps and retreated, bringing the largest defeat of the U.S. Army during the Plains Wars to an end. At the end of the battle, the U.S. Army had lost about 280 soldiers, while native losses numbered around 160. Thank you for watching. 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