good evening and welcome to the american experience i'm david mccullough
we begin tonight's broadcast the second and concluding part but the way west
where last night's episode ended
the year 1869 out on the great plains as we've seen it was the year the
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
the event more than any that marked the end of one time
and the start have another nothing had so changed life on the plane since the
arrival of the horse with the Spanish
more than two hundred years before get as big as the railroad loomed in the
news of the day
it was only one of a series of events that changed the world
changed America change this or the Suez Canal was completed in 1869
and this with the Transcontinental Railroad made it possible now
theoretically as Jules Verne would see
to go around the world in just eighty Days
young Thomas Edison set up shop in New York to begin work on the generation of
electricity
and told the world he would banish the darkness Andrew Carnegie returned from
England
having seen the light the new Bessemer process for making cheap steel
an idea from which would come skyscrapers ships
and more railroad track in barbed wire than anyone
had ever imagined but impressed as people were by such signs of progress it
would be mistaken to imagine
that no one much cared about the human cost have progress on the great plains
the voices a protest for many at risk being denounced as so the medalists
countless people spoke out against the injustices up government dealings with
the indians
spoken outrage over atrocities committed by the army
when red cloud came to New York in 1870 crowds cheered him all along fifth
Avenue
as he rode by in an open carriage thousands flock to hear him
at Cooper Union from the same platform where Lincoln had spoken
he held a packed house spellbound you have children
and so have we he said we want to rear
our children
will and ask you to help us in doing so
how then should these original possessors of the West be treated
a minister asked the crowd show we wage against them
a war extermination no no
cried the crap heartbreaking
is a word you all here said more than once in the film that follows
hand heartbreaking it was in a time
so promising in so many other ways of
I'll
Co
I think their areas out here
Cardinal Westwood him starting with the plant
going to the mounds going all the way to the ocean
there's this place isn't here
whereby
person can get in touch wit
their spiritual aspects all the No
the to begin to understand it
there are forces that created you
created all these things and and you look at the magnificence of those
beauty in you you begin to
to develop a nap a real appreciation
I'll pitcher
in someone else's whole low nature allowed to share
low I'll
the
0
I'll
on
mmm
%uh
I'm
on
are
on
one it all happened so quickly
only 25 years had elapsed since americans had first been told it was
their manifest destiny
to overspread the continent
them by 1869
that destiny seemed all but fulfilled
when the first transcontinental railroad was completed
mine linking east and west with a chain of steel
by then the homelands in buffalo ranges and native americans across the West
had been overrun by prospectors homesteaders
cattlemen and farmers
only a handful places remained were Indians could carry on their old way of
life
this is God's country I
he people did with red men implanted with wild grasses
but as the wild grasses disappeared but so the Indian disabuse
before the advances at the white man
on
humanitarian means me we
Sapporo and for the wrongs he has suffered
that he is passing away games
prayers their entreaties 0 cannot arrest the causes which are carrying them on to
their
ultimate destiny the extinction
I'll the Bismarck Tribune
all
the
it was over %uh but it was not over
0
by 1869 the battle for the land had been all but lost and won
low the what remained
there was a struggle for the soul the continent me the new in the years to
come
as the European version America took hold
crazy horse sitting bull than a handful of other Native Americans
that would rise up as never before against the white man's destiny
the midterm and at all costs the whole onto their own way in life
the new
in the fateful summer of 1876 as the republic prepared to celebrate its first
hundred years
the new three decades a rapid expansion and strike
would come to a violent climax on the wind-swept plains of southern Montana
the more
the
what happened there I'm would haunt me forever the imagination of the american
people
0 and define the character the nation's
for centuries to calm the whole world looks on that period as
as American that's where America
was a howard good warmed up
and it is true that the the american character
was formed and during that period I'm
the violence in america cared
the generosity you a Merry during
the
greediness the audacity paulk
came in that period in there was an All
even but it was marconi
minutes fact this though going on
weekend getaway the new
are
do
the three and a half centuries Native Americans and European whites had
struggled for possession of the car
by 1869 the principal a real conflict was rapidly dwindling
do a rectangle a planned on the northern plains
home
%uh when the final struggle came begin in the Black Hills of Dakota
%uh the exact center in the North American continent
one of the richest repositories of mineral wealth on earth
cool
in the wall places are the most sacred the cheyennes
the arapahoes and the Lakota Sioux
I'll
I'll the new
the all the promises made and broken
during the long struggle between native americans and whites
non would cause more heartbreak and tragedy
than the Treaty of 1868
the move on to the terms the great oglala war chief red cloud had struggled
so valiantly to secure good
the lakotas would be allowed to keep their sacred black hills for error
along with all the code west to the Missouri River
mmm they would also retain you serve their old hunting girl
the so called on ceded territory meraz long as the Buffalo lasted
0 the treaty had scarcely been signed however
when both sides began to argue bitterly over what it meant
the new red cloud insisted his people had the right to trade in subtle
anywhere they wished within the confines of the Great Sioux Reservation
the government insisted they settle on track supply and far removed from any
white settlements white homesteaders meanwhile
were outraged at the prospect any land value:
being set aside for the sioux
we have heard it into made that a large portion
a Western Dakota embracing the wealthy black kills regions
was looked upon as a favorable section for the location of the wild tribes
no great hope calamity
could befall dakota than to have that portion
our territory close to exploration
and settlement by the whites
the white man riding a treaty had never met were good he said
when we're older trees are so you will have the black hills as long as the
crash are growing government there
it was outright lies it was
taking advantage here the indians
Navy K %uh their political and sophistication
and have their powerlessness in many cases but the trees don't hold because
one party the trees never managed to hold it was simply a temporary Expedia
it was criminal in my own view you to lie to the end and the way we did
in June 1870
as friction between the government and the sioux increased
red cloud and 20 other lakota leaders
travel East to Washington DC they put their case before President Grant
for two days they were treated like visiting heads of state
honored with the lavish reception at the White House
the tour the Capitol while congress was in session the deafening artillery
display along the potomac
well
but the talks themselves came to nothing and after two frustrating weeks
the delegation returned to the Great Plains
K
the the red cloud had conceded nothing
the huge cities in the East egress for the first time
size and power the white man's world
of in 1871
be put away is war robes forever then reluctantly agreed to move to an agency
south to the Black Hills
in the press will
red clouds fateful decision split the lakotas into
the many followed is he and other leaders abandon the old way of life
I
but others refused to leave the buffalo ranges the Powder River Country
I'll increasingly no
traditional lakotas turned for leadership to men like sitting bold
the chief holy man on the hunt published sOooo I
them to an enigmatic thirty-year-old oglala warrior
named crazy horse I'll
if I were in Indian
I would greatly prefer to cast my lot among those have my people
who adhered to the free open plains
rather than submit to the confined limits have a reservation
George Armstrong Custer well
who all the legendary figures to come out of the west 0
none embodied the dreams and their respective peoples more completely
0 and George Armstrong Custer 0
and crazy horse %uh though they had no way of knowing it
their lives had been converging for years boom
0 their names will be changed for ever
I'm in the imagination all-american
I'm
well custard one of the great legendary figures American history
he is also one of the most controversy on
even in his own time no
acquaintances either love him or hate him there seemed to be no in-between
0
he was heard a great leader
am government in combat a superb battlefield
tactician and commander 0
he was a little boring never grew up
he was a person over over row
remaining ambition who would make any sacrifice to push himself ahead
and to put his cause ahead outfits under his command show or
Turk 100 110 120 percent casualties
Custer Road to the top of the heap over the back singers
following soldiers 0
vein impulsive hot-tempered
been brave to a fault he earned 726 demerits at West Point
then graduated 34th underclass at 34
0
0 his courage in recklessness were matched only by an uncanny instinct for
self-promotion
ok
no other officer politician in the nineteenth century
was so frequently photographed I'll
not grant 0 not sure mine
not lincoln himself I'll
when missus custer met Lincoln in a receiving line
Lincoln said something like where you're the young
woman whose husband to likes to go into battle
charging with the hope in a hurry rock
and she said I hope he will always do sell
and Lincoln said you wish to be a widow I see ok
and course Lincoln neurosis genius inside I think
death all around him all the time and live very close to death
name is absolutely right and she did wish to be a widow
I think and he was a pain to live where he's come to represent
western expansion I think you know
arrogance nothing can harming kind of arrogance
it work for him in a civil war you know
the boy general did work for him
and Kansas when he was fighting smaller tribes
a base comprising the women and children was great at that
but when he tried to take on some real man
how many learned his lesson
he learned it forever the No
the man custer would eventually face on the field of battle
was the same age like custard loved war
and like him had risen quickly to become a leader a man at a young age
the
for
introverted and showed
by 21 crazy horse was already famous among the Oglala those
pres extraordinary skill in battle for his unswerving devotion to the welfare
of his people
and for his peculiar ways for
good be believe the world is made of Shadows
when that he could remember self into the real world that leap beyond
for good
he threw dust on himself before riding into battle tied a pebble behind one ear
good and always rode naked
except for a law in cloth good
but the Oglala was tolerated his eccentricities because he brought them
victory good
there aren't many adversaries their head
the played onslaught faced that the
tended not to vilify and
crazy horse was one of the few for
you kid ascension almost everything about him
that there was the singular admirable nobility
that could be dominated couldn't be
campaigned could be tamed your
nobody knows what he look like because he didn't want to be photographed
he did not want his image to be taken by the white matter
I believe it's just that he didn't trust
anything that had to do at the white man getting 1i have anything
to do with that
total an absolute resistance even to the point of not being photographed by
this enemy people
the
good the image of him as a as a different kind of american as a
completely
self invented in self realize person was never
tarnished by anything else identity is something that
sometimes it needs very bold colors
you need a very bold strong are
image to cling to when your own identity feels threatened
so went crazy horse gave
are native americans but all americans
is the idea above unshakable identity
and the idea of doing things as he saw fit to do them
and resisting an enormous cultural
attack
these two men crazy or some custard so much in common
they were both great writers
they both loved to hunt
they both loved the Great Plains they were in the stator
ecstasy when they're on the plains casing Buffalo
and yet they were so completely different crazy horse was in a state of
being
he eat did not want change
he thought the life he was leading was the perfect like
you just want to continue to be able to lead custer had that
american quality a Polish being
in a state of becoming he always was reaching out for something
in the future bigger better
more Presti more power more
recognition and crazy horse
don't wanna be better his 100 bpm
for a few more years the people crazy horse and sitting bull
would continue to lead the life they loved in the buffalo ranges in the
Powder River Country
are
but it would not be long before the catastrophe already overtaking the
central and southern plains
moved north 0 and threatened the traditional culture the Lakota Sioux
mom
I'm
what could be more attractive to the tame citizen at the East
than the prospect of traveling in the wilds at the great American desert
I'll the man whose days a pass to the excitement some Wall Street
I'll confined in the congenial Society of buffalo bulls and grizzly bears
I'll an agreeable change from the ordinary associations
up his life judd
wage
that by 1872 the slaughter the American Buffalo had been under way for some time
on it would go on for the next 13 years
most were taken up for the meet but for the skins
so many of which were shipped to tanning factories in the east
but the price plummeted to fifty cents a HOD
I'm but the killing went along
my
but determined hunter could kill up to 60 animals a day
them
in one three-year period alone
hunters killed more than eight million buffalo
for their hides one
0 Valley at the plaque for two hundred miles
0 presents the aspect slurry Arkham
got it all over with skeletons have Bahamas on
home such waste
the creatures that God has made from on
seems we can't boot every
emigrant seems to wish to signalized cell by
by killing a lot huh
low
ok when the government discovered that
the Buffaloes away the Plains Indian lived
loses clothing
his food and shelter nobody sat down and made a decision in a conference let's
kill all the Buffalo
own the indians a star but that idea was
in the minds and people sherman once said
per year ru the buffalo or rather than really indians
turn the buffalo hunters
in large numbers move down on point
Kansas Texas and destroyed Buffalo by the
hundreds of thousands from
%uh I
the
when the buffalo were gone 0 the bones were collected for souvenirs
were crushed been sold for fertilizer for five dollars
told I'll
the headhunters will do more in the next few years to settle
vexed indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty
years
me with us a couple aspin
peace 0 let them kill scale
and sell until the Buffaloes are exterminating
then your prairies can be covered with the speckled cattle
and a festive cowboy
and who follows the hunter as the second forerunner of civilization
general philip sheridan
your
more
long time
this land belong to our shoulders
know when I'm go up to the rumor
I see can observe soldiers on its banks
the soldiers cut down
timber big kill mine but for
and when I see
my heart
she was like burst
as the white man become a child
that he should recklessly cue and not used
so
by 1873 the Buffalo that it wants black in the southern and central plains from
Horizon
to rise at all but disappeared
less than two years later the Kaya was
the Comanches the apaches
in the southern cheyennes would be forced to abandon the hunting life
forever
and move on the squalid reservation lands
in Indian Territory
up in the Powder River Country Wyoming and Montana
one last great heard remains
but now that to was coming under attack by 1873
the huge cruiser the second transcontinental line
the Northern Pacific had reached out to stores bismarck dakota
in surveying parties were pushing west up the Yellowstone River
into the heartland of the lakota sioux
mmm
the arrival in the railroads in North Dakota and montana
will love itself completely solve the great sOooo
problem
and leave ninety thousand indians ranging between two
transcontinental line
as incapable a resisting the government as all the Indians in New York
more massachusetts more
commanding the column soldiers assigned to protect the surveyors
was the dashing lieutenant colonel the seventh cavalry
the new George Armstrong Custer I'm
during the summer the 1873 forces under custer clashed with the forces have
crazy horse and sitting bull
for the first time for three weeks
look older than US horse battalions skirmished along the majestic banks of
the Yellowstone River
until August when
to the astonishment at the lakotas the white troops and railroad workers
suddenly withdrew
disaster had struck the white man's world 0
it was called the panic of 1873 0
and it was brought on by the greed the west so often inspired and mom
of reckless overbuilding on the Northern Pacific line
that already brought the railroad to the brink ruin when on September 18th
the bank the back did went under
0
within days the entire national banking system had collapsed
than once the rain a misfortune began
didn't style
yellow fever swept through the Mississippi Valley 0
drought ravaged the Great Plains bold
followed by clouds locusts that devoured crops
clothing stripped houses
they're pegged
me
me in places me in sex rip I'll so high
me the trains could barely move down the tracks me before the disastrous year was
out
more than a million Americans roadwork in the nation have been plunged into the
worst
depression in its history the american people need the country the Indians now
occupy
the era
railroad building has been brought to a determination by the greed of capitalist
many are people around
employment and depression prevails on
every hand and Indian War would do no harm
for it must come sooner
or later the Bismarck Tribune
com
three years rumors had been circulating in the vast mineral wealth that lay
beneath the dark forested slopes
the Black Hills
do
by the terms of the Treaty of 1868
whites were forbidden to enter the hills 0
but as a depression grew worse been calls to release grew louder
all eyes turned toward the sous most hallowed ground
I'll everyone knew there was gold in the hills
I'll the summer 1874
0 George Armstrong Custer was set in defined
more
there is gold in the hills and rivers in the region at the white man desires to
take possession of it
what to the roaming yankee other links that bind the red man to the home of his
father's
he is but an episode in the advance at the caucasian
he must decrease that the newcomers may grow
gym well on July 2nd
1874 custer's mammoth expeditionary column
600 soldiers in all along with the 110 wagons
three gatling guns four newspapermen
to minors the 16-piece military burned
much west out of fort abraham Lincoln
near bismarck dakota
the ostensible purpose in the expedition
was exploratory and scientific but everyone knew the real object
his goal
on July 27th while the expedition was camped at a place called French Creek
company prospectors found what they had been looking for
custer immediately said his chief scout galloping off to fort laramie with the
news
there was gold in the Black Hills of Dakota
from the grassroots down one month later
the seventh marched triumphantly back into fort abraham Lincoln
up
the Indians have a new name for me custer wrote libby
they called him thief
now in his route through the black hills the thieves' road
up
the american political process was one in which the government
to its representatives responded to the voters
if gold were discovered in the black heels which is part in the great to
reservation
they demanded the voters he is at the Black Hills be open
the demand is for the day be done in some kind of an ethical or moral way
that will legitimize
the you're breaking up the treaty your
the morality well relations with the indian Prime use a casualty about
process
but he is part of the American political system
by the spring in 1875 thousands of white prospectors reporting illegally into the
Black Hills
red cloud
another resolution leaders angrily demanded the rejection
appealing to the Treaty of 1868
the Black Hills is my land
and I love it a lakota song declared
and whoever interferes will hear this gun
white prospectors in return angrily demanded that the Treaty of 1868
be revoked ok
this abominable compact
is now pleaded as a barrier to the improvement and development
have one of the richest and most fertile sections in america
what should be done but these
Indian dogs and now manger they will not big gold
all let others do it
our stories talked about this metal being
on the ground not Nuggets but
pieces and goal the size the baby's head produce sitting on the ground
and how this metal had be effective making white people crazy
and net it appeared as though they may worship it
but nonetheless it made him crazy in
good the black hills are worth more than all the wild beasts and all good game
beasts in the position and white people
the gardens place does heels here from my world
but now you want to take them from me
and make me poor good
red clown
to give the end
amblin serve legality the government sent negotiators to try to buy the Black
Hills
for six million dollars
red cloud held out for more demanding cash in rations for seven generations to
come
plus seven million dollars but the white interpreter somehow mistranslated the
some
as 70 million and the talks broke down
the indians the negotiators reported place a value upon the hills far beyond
any sum that could possibly be considered by the government
up in the buffalo ranges
non reservation leaders like sitting bull and crazy horse
we're pleased to hear the talks have failed good
I do not want to sell any land to the government sitting bull serb
rubbing his fingers in the dust holding them up
not even as much as this hey from his stronghold
their beauty north to the Black Hills E
crazy horse agreed mind is not sell the land upon which the people walk
he said my
I'm my
on in washington patience with us who ran out
on in December president grant signed an executive order
requiring all the indians in the unseeded territory
to move on the reservations within 60 days
the they did not
the unseeded territory would become a free-fire zone
the military force would be sent to compel them
them
when the January deadline came and went with no word from sitting bull and crazy
horse
the secretary war received a simple dispatch
said Indians are hereby turned over to the War Department
percentage action as you may deem proper
me
we home no me let the time approaches
for the battle that has to decide me
whether me for the United States a sovereign in the lamb the Occupy
me William Tecumseh Sherman me
as the weather grew warmer
excitement and anticipation spread throughout the country
on July 4th 1876
the republic with markets first hundred years and to celebrate the occasion
a grand centennial exposition was being planned in philadelphia
by May
the great exhibition halls bristling with the trophies a westward expansion
in the engines are the industrial age were ready to open
there was much to celebrate
in a hundred years the tide of the American Empire had swept across the
entire continent
from the Atlantic to the Pacific the nation had grown from 13
to thirty-eight states while its population swelled from less than 4
million
to more than forty it had gone through
and somehow survived a bloody civil war
now
even the last three years economic gloom were being the spilled
as rivers of gold poured in from the Black Hills
to swell the nation's Treasury
only one cloud darkened the republic's bright skies that year
far out on the northern plains where Burns
soon cheyennes still refused to submit to the Ogunquit civilization
but even now the nation's forces were gathering
to sweep the defiant indians from Dakota
Wyoming in montana it
the
sitting bull for by dune is fast approaching
the three commands that the heads up which the following
well-known names appear 0 Terry given
custom croak
we cannot see how you can escape good
better threw up to handle Boyle
if that would see the clothes up this centennial year
for helena herald
on the plan general Phil Sheridan and laid out in February
called for a three-pronged assault on the sioux and cheyennes
what
one column would drive east down the Yellowstone you
mom a second would move up through Wyoming
and strike the Indians from the south mom
the third column led by general alfred terry
and custer's elite seventh cavalry March West out-of-date code
and crush the defiant sioux and cheyennes
you I think the 7th may have its greatest campaign ahead
custer wrote to his brother Tom from fort abraham Lincoln
you as spring came
thousands of soldiers were gathering for what most agreed would be the last great
battle
in the long war with the continent's original inhabitants
mmm
well
is the hour for the campaign's commencement approached the officers and
men of the seventh prepared for war
me
I
me
well
I'll
0
well
the new
on may seventeenth 1876
Custer said goodbye to his wife liddy the name
the new
while the regimental burn played the girl I left behind me
the seventh cavalry moved west of fort abraham Lincoln's
and headed towards Indian country the
0
that
the the
home then
them something was happening
on the northern plains and
home all spring scattered bands lakotas and cheyennes
gathered from across the northern plains the joint sitting bull and crazy horse
in the Powder River countrymen
ball spring
the great leaders came low dog
in to moon
well touch the club's
be
did little big man would be
brain and the place would be goal
well
be well
for the first time in years the movement of peoples down onto the reservations
was being reversed
biz thousands streamed north into the Buffalo
Rangers on young man
eager for war would be family man
with their wives and children all galvanized by the presence of sitting
bull and crazy horse
by their outrage over the invasion in the Black Hills
been by the promise that one last summer
the old way of life booms
well
by June sitting bull's cabins swelled to more than a thousand lodges
7,000 people in all be
with more than 2,000 fighting men you
G
the buffalo were everywhere would been there was a while those
the year would be
on
sell them in so many lakotas cheyennes and arapahoes
gathered in one place at one tones
never had the field so power was a unified
would be
never at sitting bull's spirit
been so strong be on June 4th
be moved his people to the valley the Rosebud been called for the Sundance to
begin
it was one of the Supreme moments of his life
the dance lasted four days the
with his back to the sacred poll sitting bull said chatting and prayin
well as adopted brother jumping bull got a hundred pieces of flesh for his arms
then he joined the circus
the
ok he danced for 18 hours staring straight into the Sun
until it like the great vision changed
the
he saw a white soldiers on horseback riding just below the remove the Sun
me they were upside down
and they were falling into the people scattered
the
%uh
I'll
these soldiers do not possess years the boys told him
yo
the prophecy was unmistakable way
the lakotas at a strip peace 0
but the plates had not been able to hear 0
now they would die in battle falling upside down into the people's
camp well
these dead soldiers guarded cue serve ground
killed him you but do not touch dis borden's
you if you set your hearts upon the goods and a white man
that will prove I'll big occurs to this nation
you to dingell
I'll
after the Sundance was over lakota scouts rushed into camp
with news that white soldiers were approaching I'll
it was beginning just two sitting bull's vision had foretold
I'll in the first rate would come from the cell
home wherever we would
soldiers came to kill us it was
all or chrome me quit was
hours already want to watch the Chiefs
made a treaty with red
they said it was ours as long as the crash should grow
the water flow
purposes only be used before and they were chasing us now
because we remembered
Andy for GAPDH
black cock its
on june sixteenth
1876 1,000 soldiers under General George crook
were moving cautiously north along the valley the Rosebud
looking for the camp with the sioux and cheyennes
they never found crooks men were having coffee on the morning of june
seventeenth when crazy horse
and 1500 lakota and cheyenne warriors
came gliding swiftly other the ragged hills
you in bore down on them
ok it was a full frontal
in the attack even the most seasoned officers
that never seen anything like it before
here
you can talk seen Devils it
there they work in full form paid
terrifying managed some with war bonnet
adorned with horns tips two years and Behnam
bomb was enough to distract
care at any one time
the world
G human charging boldly in Manhattan
soldiers one
knocking them hold mind
mad his mommy killing
coming up being on the list on the album
carrying them away one
one
old
all day long the battle the Rose Bowl hooch in the crumpled landscape and
hills and valleys
ok organized combat was impossible
and the battle dissolved into the chaos of isolated flights
perfectly suited to the kind of fighting crazy horse liked best
by nightfall
crooked lost 84 ma'am and twenty-five thousand rounds of ammunition would be
unnerved by the ferocity the lakota attack could bribe retreated self to his
base Campbell in Goose Creek
and went fishing for the rest June
the first winger sheridan's three-pronged attack
had been repelled but the battle the Rosebud had not been the fulfillment of
sitting bull's dream
the big fight was still to come
chatting songs of triumph
the elements for the dead crazy horse's forces in the restive sitting bull's
enormous village
moved west toward the greasy grass river
the swift shallow stream the whites called
the Little Bighorn
up on the Yellowstone River in Montana the US
army awaited the outcome of crooks campaign but no word came
on June 21st
1876 anxiously Indians would slip through their grasp
general alfred terry ordered a column infantry into the field
custer's fast-moving seventh cavalry meanwhile
would pick up the Indian Trail than follow at West
towards the Little Bighorn on June 22nd
the 611 officers and men of the seventh
moved out
the commander when I hope he was a static
just actually a static he was pumped up
to an incredible degree it was his great opportunity
huge keenly aware that it was a unique moment in history
would never be repeated that he had this one chance
and he was certain that with the seventh cavalry he could take on all the
unknowns in the northwest
while
me
custard cup double relentless place June 30 miles a day
and more and pushing ever deeper into enemy territory
jiang
well
there were signs Indians everywhere mom
two days out the regiment reach the grassy plain
were sitting bull's sun damage been held the
further up the valley girl indian scouts felt scalps
beers that had been cut crooks soldiers
ok been hastily tossed aside old
in a row foreboding fell over the severed
of custer's favorite scout bloody knife
implored his commander to proceed with extreme caution while
but custer's blood was I'll
a huge past trampled grass almost a mile wide
children the Indians had crossed the rosebud
heading west toward the Little Bighorn I'll
and he pushed his exhausted men on towards the line in Lowell ragged hills
I'll
I'm
I'll at dawn on the morning of june twenty-fifth
the crow and a rigorous cults climbed to a lookout
high atop the divines
they could just make out the Little Bighorn 15 miles away
I'll and as the light grew stronger I
they gasped in astonishment my
even at a distance they could tell it was one of the biggest
Indian villages ever assembled on the great plains
the Indian scalps began chanting their deaths songs
I'll
bloody knife warned custer but they weren't enough bullets to kill all the
hostile Indians now before the home
if we go in there while the whites girls warned
I'll we will never come out I'll
well
custer shrugged off their concerns the new largest Indian camp on the North
American continent is ahead
he told his officers and I'm going to attack it
he's working under the
the theory that any Indian camp no matter how large
will scatter once its attack we leads his man from the crack of dawn
on that fateful day in a pursue the Indians
home need men were exhausted
and did lead you to wonder
what they were thinking of
had no idea how big the village was except the discounts is said
that it was the biggest village day that would come across
custer 1/2 turn
I'm sure that george custer thought that he was going to ride through
still country in cleaner been be here I'll
I have no doubt that that he believed
the story that he developed for himself 0
are I don't think that he ever thought I'll
in a society is individualistic as like oh two people were
its seven thousand and then would come together for work on sock
up 0
here in a few minutes after noon on june twenty-fifth
1876 the seventh cavalry started down into the valley the little bit bored
it was them that custer made a fateful decision
it already greatly outnumbered
he weakened his striking force still moored
sending three companies under captain frederick been team
off to the left
then he ordered major marcus reno
and three more companies across the Little Bighorn
and attacked the village the sampled
the rest to the regiment custer shorted
would give him their full support
it was around two o'clock
on the hot cloudless afternoon when reno's 140 man battalion
%uh crossed the swift sparkling streams
and turn right with picking up speed along the level plans
heading to the Indian can with
%uh once or twice reno glance behind him
looking for custom that custer was nowhere to be seen go without telling
him
custer had already changed his battle plan of
instead of supporting reno's charge he would ride north
screen by the hills on the east side of the River
circle the village and strike the Indians as leaflet world
the for all intents and purposes
reno was on his own in
dreamlike sequence in advance that would be called
the battle Little Bighorn the man because the man
them
I in for women where a short distance from the cam
taking wild turnips sternly
one of the women attracted my attention twin cloud of dust
rising short distance from the cams
jeans
I so agree task rising I'll
looms like a Bruins
be soon horseman came russians shouting
the soldiers com the planned
quite soldiers the
this the first bullets whistle tops
lodgings the huge village exploded and actions
sitting bull
blue circle lodges was nearest were the first attack
com rallied his warriors to defend their families
shouting brava boys
it will be a hard time Brevard
I crazy horse rolled up and down in front of his men
%uh urging them to restrain their hard
until the right time %uh
determined out like custer's column he spurred his horse toward the far end the
village
away from where the fighting would begin calling out to a blonde cheyenne
warriors
passed along the way helga her day
it is a good day to fight have a good day to die
them
strong hearts to the front we cards to the rear
them
they knew that soldiers were coming that's a fact
the did not expect an attack that would come
in the afternoon that it never happened before
so I don't think they were prepared for that at all
based on their accounts
and one I witness I witness accounts
have said you know about women and children killed
things like this and they know children come in
those things went down happened
from high atop the bluffs on the east side of the River custer watched reno's
battalion thunder into battle
one
custer would never know what happened Torino and Ben teams
the reno's charge would be quickly repelled
as waves of lakota warriors swarmed up to stop
that reno himself would leave the desperate retreat back across the river
defenses positions on the other side
that only the last minute arrival have been teens column
would save reno's battalion from complete annihilation
looking on now is the battle began still certain that victory was in his grasp
custer sent a messenger bag with orders for been team
to bring up reinforcements as quickly as possible them
custer waved his broad brimmed hat in the air shouted elving
a rock boys we've got them
and spurred is five companies towards the north hood
no one would ever know precisely what happened to george armstrong custer
and his five companies have murdered
the event so that terrible glorious afternoon would forever after be
shrouded in speculation
fantasy admit
the column probably never reached a little bit bored
as custer's advance companies neared a shallow
forward to the river fifteen hundred warriors rode screaming across the
shallows to stop
hundreds more left up from concealment the ravines
dollars
it was probably them that custer first understood
nature disposition
you realized at that moment he suddenly looking on the offenses longer
he was on the defensive the Indians had
she's their moment that didn't mean everything was lost
the F interest are going to come up the next day all he had to do was to hold
off on a defensive position and wait for the reinforcements to arrive
jerry is mounted arrows flying all around shops all over the place men
falling indians coming across the river Adam
his attempt to get across has been blocked any
cast his eyes about any luck any picked the right shape
stand out there today absolutely the right thing get up there on Custer Hill
what's up there I can take up the defensive position
and I can hold indefinitely with these two arms
yeah hola Linda
as waves of lakota and cheyenne defenders counter charged across the
Little Bighorn
the men at the seventh fell back fighting all the way
desperately seeking higher ground
he could not have could not have anticipated
so many Indians column him
fighting spirit all of them coming right at me and
what would have become an American
true massacre opinions then turned out to be an American Indian mass
troops was
care 3 game green the Indian who
ever had a bone to pick with the United States Army
whoever had personal glory
to seek took it out on george Armstrong Custer's
in my own mind it is simply one enormous
scaled with the virtually no
organization on either side
a year ARM retreat along the main battle rage
thats Barnaul smaller pipes on either side
it is just awful lot of Indians all over the place
killing sold I believe that discipline
%uh and come I am broke down on the military side
and as lemme one Indian characterized it would just like
tracing a lotta Buffalo the to the keel
and of course the final kill took place on the last I am healed itself
they were only a few yards topple the wrongs
when they were hit with the final shahar applying surprise
cool over the crest game Crazy Horse
than 1,000 blah blah then cheyenne warriors
you
running the year blood-curdling were cries crazy war servicemen
swept down the ridge crushing
everything before the in
in I could see
routier's flying all around me like shadows
on games
ca
San crimes were school athletes Klein
dinner com
and forces seem to be on top cloud
on
do worse universe tonight think we did not need guns
ok just whose
would have been enough
standard beer
they may be sold for on horseback can I let him an odd
payroll went through from side to side
100 group and it stuck out on both sides
I'll he screamed into called his saddle horn home on
wobbling I'm with his head hanging down
he fell from his saddled
and I beat him to death row with my Bold
iron hawk
up
soldiers became wish
many me that comes raising their hands
sayin soon BTS
take Springs some did not
takes spud but cue
pop
none pippen
p.m.
governor
not like reimbursement on that's my opinion
because of the the Indian accounts the soldiers broken ran
their knees hit their chance there and so hard
and we watch them for a while and shot them down like bottle
molested on
on
some love custer's men fought valiantly to the in
some panicked than Rick up the pieces leer en
the moon
some may have killed themselves to avoid torture
the new delay should be
he was dressed in buckskin cold
pants was on his hands and knees
and he had been shot to decide
then there was blood coming from his man's
me she seemed to be watching the Indians mom
four soldiers were sitting around home
the world bedlam
call the other soldiers were down it
that
the Indians closed in around
home
and I did not see you anymore would be
would be took less than an hour
for the sounds a battle to begin to subside would be one warrior said later
the fight had lasted as long as it takes a hungry man
to eat his dinner moon
dug in on their hilltop
three miles to the south reno and been teens embattled man held out all through
the night
at all true the long scorching day that followed
late on the afternoon of june 26 the lakotas and cheyennes began to withdraw
striking their huge camp
setting fire to the prairie then heading south toward the Big Horn Mountains
the Battle of the Little Bighorn
was over it had been the fulfillment
up sitting bull's dream for
the next day Terry Ann Gibbons infantry column marched up the valley
and into camp they were stunned
to discover the stripped mutilated bodies custer's command
225 man in all lying in scattered groups
where they had fallen
custer's brother Tom was so badly disfigured
his body could be identified only by the initials tattooed on one arm
your
custer himself had been shot twice once
through the left temple once in the heart
I'm according to the Army's official report
the body had not been mutilated
but Kate big head the cheyenne woman who had been on the battlefield that day
I'll insisted the sioux cut off one of his fingers
than punctured his eardrums with the sewing all
to enable them to hear better the afterworld
on the new they tell me I murdered custer
the new is Eli in
he was a fool en route to his death
I'll sitting well
I think I would have like to have been that
Little Bighorn to see
all other lakota people in there
allies together in to see
to find the city US head terms a perforating machine
come rolling over these hills trained attack this
in our reaction to it that for me would be
high point because militarily
it was suicide for them to do that
Mysore reinforced allow data ideas we had about
0 non-indian said you know they were
mentally inferior this is one of the pointed
where they really showed up you know who the government he got
old I'll hit Holy Synod we knew that
but it was a rare gets that like to been there to see
American arrogance you know just
stepped-up play that little
forty-five minutes it took to to do marlin
ok I think they would have given me
last satisfaction
mmm
it took eight days forward to the massacre
to reach the town of Helena Montana
it was not until July 4th that the first shocking reports for flashed by western
union
the newspapers across the country
0
ok myself father coming up the street
his happen
waiting paper
field trip your
your
general custer's entire brigade has been wiped out Gaston
great silent scheme
than all the bells I'll pick and home
the film
to this day I never hear a bell tolled I'll
does not bring back memories
I'll
0
in philadelphia people who had gathered to celebrate the nation's hundredth
anniversary
were stunned and outraged by the slaughter
who was the greatest oops in history
nobody believed it when they got word
couldn't believe the custard and defeated not
george custer not the seventh cavalry
not by indians boy they got players
ago what they were looking for
and he walloped
I'll
just six weeks after sitting bull and crazy horse's triumph
the homelands Liam fought so valiantly to defend
were gone I'll
in July General William Tecumseh Sherman
placed all the reservations on the northern plains under military control
for 2500 recruits were soon pouring into dakota
Wyoming montana it eager to avenge the murder
Custer and his mental
the knee
many compulsions about annexing soon learns
vanished the main August
congress passed the law compelling the sioux the new the sign over the Powder
River Country Head
in the Big Horn Mountains of in the Black Hills
I'll and move on the reservations the new
be a factor the Battle of the Little Bighorn was too
shock and done the army
and the american people and lead to demands that those who
be Cocker day ago whatever it took to conquer them
now the Indians were simply given
ultimatum sign the paper
or else we cut off your rations this was highly illegal
vs was a blatant violation love them I am a prescribed by the Treaty of 1868
for making changes but public opinion would now support
are him are all on the epic called
the techniques to accomplish the in because they were
are also angry over the killing of long hair
it's commonly called the seller star
legislation lakota people refuse to sell
and in March have 1877
the United States government unilaterally confiscated Black Hills
tears were
they also said that the lakota people
in signing the treaty seeded the unseeded territory
and just applied their own interpretation
and so that land then was no longer
available to us for prayer for food
for anything
battle the Little Bighorn marked the beginning to the end of the old way of
life
for Native Americans
sporadic resistance continued here and there for a few more years
but it would not be long before even crazy horse and sitting bull
began to give up hope
in the years to come as Native Americans across the West
struggled to adjust to their new existence on reservations
white americans would not be content with merely taking away their way of
life
they would attempt to reach inside the hearts and minds of Native Americans
to transform their very souls
that final onslaught would give rise to a desperate attempt on the part of some
Native Americans
to dream their way back to the old way of life
it would also give rise to one of the most tragic events
in the annals of American history
the race lies crushed tum groaning under an alien yoke
a natural is the dream of the Redeemer
and after who to return from exile
for a week from some long sleeve
to drive out demons super and win back
for his people would have lost
the whole becomes a shame
and the faith becomes the creed of priests and prophets
until the euro is a God and the dream
a religion
look into some greet miracle of nature for its culmination
an accomplishment
james won
mood
viene the
sir
are
the