President Abraham Lincoln met with General George McClellan at Antietam following the battle there. General Custer is featured in this photo at the far right.
General Custer And The Frontier That Was
Understanding Indians
By Steven Alexander, George Custer
“The Frontier that
was,” lasted little more than six decades.
But to the American Spirit, "The
Old West" has epitomized our nature and eclipsed most periods of our
recorded history.
Mountain Men, Davy
Crockett, the Nomadic Tribes (sometimes referred to as Native Americans) and
the Festive Cowboy all bare world renown.
To the enthusiastic immigrant, the image of America is sometimes steeped
by the romantic portrayal of the West as first introduced by Buffalo Bill Cody,
and later finely tuned by Pappy Ford and John Wayne in the cinema.
Early on it was
immortalized in paint on sweeping canvas by Albert Bierstadt, George Catlin and
Karl Bodmer, then later molded in bronze by Frederic Remington. Still,
for some the “End of the Trail”
has yet to be reached. And to those 21st
Century Travelers who bravely venture outside their urban subdivisions,
they are only but an arm’s length from
legend and the allure of Louis L’Amour in their local grocery stores.
As technology micro
sizes and maximizes your MP3 Players, isn’t it comforting to know that just
over the next bluff on your cable channel, Rowdy Yates and Wish Bone are
trailing long horns to Kansas while Matt and Kitty are holding down law and
order in Dodge City. And somewhere on the
internet the iconic Iron Eyes Cody
stands vigil on a pollution free America?
Before all this the “Frontier that
Was” held a special place in the World’s imagination when art and history
blended together and was reflected in the hour glass of life and shifting sands
on the painted desert of the West.
My own journey into the
“Frontier that Was,” began when my
Great Grandparents, Harry and Kate Boley traveled west in a prairie schooner
across North Dakota and homesteaded the High Plains of Montana at the turn of
the 19th Century. As a young
boy I listened to their incredible stories intently; Ward Bond was still Wagon Master and Fess
Parker had not retired his coonskin cap. Through the pages of “True West” and “Frontier Times” I cut my teeth on adventures that later saw me
riding buffalo trails across Nebraska and smoking prayer pipes in the Lodge of
the Medicine Arrow Keeper. Along the way this writer might have fared but
little better than the bleached bones beside the wagon ruts worn in the Bozeman
Trail, and like the character I portray, if I had not grasp the importance of "Understanding Indians."
The word "Indian" today is readily
accepted, but in fact, was a misnomer as the first Europeans had designated the
inhabitants as Indians, thinking they had landed in the Far East unaware an
entire continent lay between what they thought was a short cut to the Eastern
Trade Routes.
For George Armstrong
Custer, Civil War Hero, the west was like a tonic, he had the heart of an
Indian and during the decade he served on the frontier a large portion was
understanding Indians. "Neither a
luxury nor a necessary of life. He can
hunt, roam, and camp when and where so ever he pleases, provided always that in
so doing he does not run contrary to the requirements of civilization in its
advancing tread. When the soil which he
has claimed and hunted over for so long a time is demanded by this to him
insatiable monster, there is no appeal; he must yield, or, like the car of a
juggernaut, it will roll mercilessly over him, destroying as it advances. Destiny seems to have so willed it, and the
world looks on and nods its approval."1
More than 14,000 years
ago the First Americans came to this continent from Asia via the Bering
Straits. While in pursuit of game,2
each tribal division settled in places they eventually adapted to. From the Canadian Rockies to the Gulf of
Mexico and from the Mississippi across the Salt Flats to the Pacific Shores this
at one time, was all Indian Country.
Over 2.5 Million square miles of wild uncharted prairie inhabited by
270,000 Indians of 125 distinct tribes, most friendly, but a few who would eventually be driven to hostility.
President Thomas Jefferson
In 1803 President
Jefferson authorized the Corps of Discovery to map out and explore the West. Unexpectedly
revealed were those myriad of Indian tribes and the vast Buffalo herds that
were to all the tribes their mainstay
food source. As late as 1832 this area
was viewed as permanent Indian territory where the American Aborigines could
pursue their ancestral way of life without interference. During the 1840s the tribes became familiar
with the white man, chiefly the French
who adopted the Indian ways. As
traders and trappers, they integrated into the lifestyle of the various tribes,
often times marrying Indian women and having children. In May of 1841 the first
immigrant wagon train passed westward along the Oregon Trail known to the
Indian as "The Great Medicine
Road." With them came the
Missionaries who wanted to save their heathen souls, while the English tried to
civilize them. Years earlier
Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, had traveled to England. She shed her leathers for fine lace and took
tea in the court of King James.3
Wampanoag warriors Samoset and Squanto,
cultivated a friendship with the Pilgrims and “directed them how to set their corne, where to take fish and procure
other commodities…” Those
experiences conjure images of our traditional Thanksgiving. But yet, through the better part of
Indian-White relations a familiar scenario seemed to run, “First the Indians would share their food with the newcomers. Then the supply ships would be delayed and
the settlers, having made no attempt to grow a crop, would become
demanding. The Indians, with their
stores depleted, would refuse aid. Then
would come bad feeling, even open hostility.” This
proved to be the true clash of values for which Europeans, framed by
traditions, failed to grasp in their study of the complexities of the Indian
beliefs.4 For the
Indian, his “integrity of spirit was
deeper than conscious reasoning;” his love of homeland and founded fears of the
Whiteman’s encroachment, which the Indian likened to “the horror of
dismemberment."
Tecumsah
While early colonists
to America saw them as pagans, almost animalistic in nature, they failed to see
their deeply religious nature, their artistic nature and their love of
beauty. All of these attributes were
expressed in the Indians' everyday life, with strong family ties and a deep
commitment to their tribe. These values
sustained him as he was pushed westward in an excuse called manifest
destiny. Even with these values, their
ties to the land ran deeper. Lakota
Mystical Warrior Crazy Horse once stated, "One
does not sell the earth upon which the people walk."7 And Tecumseh, a military strategist, who
united his people and when asked to sell his lands replied, “Why not sell the air, the clouds and the
great sea…?”
Civilization also brought
small pox and almost as infamous, “Fire Water” which today is as
threatening to the Redman as it was a century ago. "He is in danger of becoming a drunkard before he has learned to
restrain his appetites, and of being tricked out of his property before he is
able to appreciate its value."5 Over 24,000 Creeks diminished in number to
13,537 after their real estate became coveted and they were forced to move to
Oklahoma on The Trail of Tears. Indian
resentment increased, "As
the white frontier advanced tribe after tribe fell before new diseases to which
they had developed no resistance.” The outbreak of Asiatic cholera, introduced
to North America from Europe in 1832 spread like wild fire across the plains.6
While at their peak the Apache numbered 8,000
individuals distributed between the Chiricahua, Mescalero, and Tonto Apache
tribes all considered " gentle
people, not cruel, and faithful in their friendships." That is until the Spanish came to
conquer, “leaving a trail of death and destruction." Although never confronting them in battle
Custer visited their villages and had interviews with their prominent chiefs
during the Hancock Expedition of 1867.1
That campaign began
what would saddle our military with the thankless job of policing the
territories with a total troop force of 27,000 soldiers to pacify and keep
peace between the Indian and non-Indian.
An unlikely task of surrounding ten Indians with one soldier while
enforcing policies set in Washington and changing when those policies soon became
obsolete. Initiation into the west causing
one to learn quickly and adapt skills and knowledge in dealing with a society
so diametrically opposite to modern European tactics. And
quickly it became apparent that, "no
one was going to pin a medal on you for killing Indians and stealing their
land."
With the
re-introduction of the horse by Spaniards, Indians were able to embrace a new
hunting culture, dominating a larger portion of warfare on the Plains and became
more mobile. "Indians mounted their ponies, first having fixed their toilets in
war paint, and adorned their head and hair with feathers. Also the mane and tail of their ponies, and
those having white ponies (which are very plenty amongst them) they daub red
paint on so as to look as though they had been wounded."8 Horses were a measure of wealth and
prowess. Warriors gained honors for the
theft and capture of enemy horses. The
Comanche, thought by many to be the greatest horsemen in the world, were often compared
to mythical centaurs; horse and rider appearing as one.9 Streaking wildly bareback across the western
plains, they would drop their bodies on either side of their ponies' back,
screening themselves from their enemies' weapons and cut loose with arrow or
firearm at a full gallop.10
"They shall hold the bow and
the lance: they are cruel, and will not
shew mercy: their voice shall roar like
the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to
the battle, against thee..."11
Indians Hunting The Bison by Karl Bodmer
Preferring the three and a half-foot
or four- foot bow, the Sioux and Crow were known to make the best bows. Their arrowheads, fashioned from metal barrel
hoops and fastened to the shaft of the arrow by sinew. Arrow wounds were especially dangerous to
humans because bodily fluids would effuse around the point of penetration, which
then softened the "tendon wrapping," holding the arrowhead. Thus when the shaft was pulled from the body,
the loosened head always remained. If
the head could not be removed by
surgery, such wounds would always prove mortal.12
The
Warrior was most esteemed above all others who could throw the greatest number
of arrows in the sky before the first one fell to the ground. Two Lance, a Brule could shoot an arrow clear
through a running buffalo as evidenced during Custer's hunt with the Grand Duke
Alexis at Red Willow Creek, Nebraska in the winter of '72. The Grand Duke was given this arrow as a
trophy and took it back home with him to Russia.
Petroglyph of a mammoth hunt in Florida.
"To me, Indian life, with its attendant ceremonies, mysteries, and
forms, is a book of unceasing interest.
Grant that some of its pages are frightful, and, if possible, to be
avoided, yet the attraction is none the weaker.
Study him, fight him, civilize him if you can, he remains still the
object of your curiosity, a type of man peculiar and undefined, subjecting
himself to no known law of civilization, contending determinedly against all
efforts to win him from his chosen mode of life."13 Custer felt theirs' was a system based on
courage, yet plagued by duplicity and falsehood. Although one might appreciate their wit and
humor and admire their color and pageantry, their passionate fondness of
dancing; one must also recognize their
brutal side. Almost like children, but
don't be fooled, these were survivors of the stone age-savages 20,000 years
behind modern civilization. Young boys
of the tribe were raised with warrior ethics in a warrior society. Raiding for them was not only a rite of
passage, but also necessary training to build self-esteem. A Blackfoot song expressed a common Plains sentiment,
"It is bad to live to be old, Better to die young fighting bravely in
battle."82 Indian culture was based upon permanent war with their neighbors as
evidenced by the Chippewa who were successful in driving the Sioux whose
sign was "cut throat" the
Chippewa word for "enemy"
from Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.14 In 1851,the Uncpapa stubbornly refused to
make peace with the Crow.
Mountain Chief demonstrates the Plains Indian Sign and Gesture language.
Some tribes though
peaceful by nature, never considered peace, but immediately attacked the
Spanish or other tribes they deemed trespassing on their hunting grounds. Although they shared a common way of life,
they belonged to a dozen or more different
tribes speaking languages of a half-dozen totally unrelated groups. So it was for them to communicate through the
use of sign language which became the universal talk of the plain tribes.15 Through smoke signals, mirrors, drums or the
water telegraph they communicated through the ages. Basic paints,
colored beads, and use of items
from Mother Earth told stories, gave warnings or guided those who would seek a
trail. To the Indian all things were
interconnected. All objects had
life. And life continued, even when this one they knew ended, in the Happy Hunting Ground. Wakan Tanka the Everywhere Spirit was with you
and all around you. Your medicine was
either good or your judgment indelibly tainted by your impureness of heart.
Nomadic by nature and driven by the
pursuit of food sources, the Indian adapted to the land and it was from the
land he found his means. As the
prairies grew lush grasses, thus it allowed the Indians to pursue their main source of food-the Bison.
Reliant on the Buffalo for subsistence the warriors could successfully hunt and
kill 12 buffalo thus supplying a band of
a hundred 12,000 lbs of meat. A
similar requirement would be of 120 deer to feed the same band for a
month. Besides the hides used in the
clothing and homes, the Indian utilized the skin from the buffalo neck to make
his war shields. The skin was soaked and
hardened with the glue extracted from boiling the bison hooves and when
finished allowed a surface impenetrable by arrow and curved sufficiently to
deflect the path of a bullet.12
Before the coming of the white man
the buffalo numbered some 600 million, thundering across the grasslands and
wooded forests of the mid-west.
Although buffalo commonly traveled in small bands of 5 to 50 head, it
was not uncommon for a herd to hold up a train for several days while that same
herd continually passed that particular spot.
Estimates ranging up to 60 million bison were calculated in the 1860's
with 100,000 hides processed annually since the early 1840’s. Buffalo hides, highly prized were shipped eastward to tanneries
that accepted them as alternative sources of commercial leather. Buffalo tongues, considered a delicacy by
Indian and Non-Indian alike, were pickled and canned while whole carcasses were
left to rot on the Plains.
But
it was the .50 calibre Sharps alone that had such a devastating effect on the
Bison herds. A single hunter armed with a Sharps Rifle could bag 150
bison per day keeping 15 skinners busy full time. Hides selling from $2.75 went on to hit an
all time high of $5.00. Once the Overland route
was established, the Indian felt the White man had maliciously achieved the
undesired consequence of driving away
the buffalo.6 By 1867 the westward progress of
the Union Pacific Railroad had in fact, driven
a wedge through the great bison herds.
Indians’ superstitious beliefs foretold, that once the buffalo scented the white man, the bison would not return to that part of the
prairie.
General Phil Sheridan
“Destroying the Indian’s commissary,”
commented General Sheridan, “ for the sake of lasting peace, let them kill,
skin and sell until they have exterminated the buffalo. Then your prairies will be covered with
speckled cattle and the festive cowboy.” So destroying the Bison became the overall
strategy and mission for subjugating the tribes. And was entirely successful when it was
estimated that only a total of 800 Bison was all that remained in the
continental United States by 1890.
Sioux tribes who once
had formerly lived and hunted on the Platte until gold was discovered in
Colorado, now turned to the elders of the Nations. Resistance to this insurgence took a variety of
forms. At first alliances, then movements seeking solutions based on native
experiences and ideologies. Oglala
councilors, composed of older and respected community leaders, sometimes called
“The Big Bellies” adopted various strategies in response to the
challenge of incessant encroachment on their lands; treaty diplomacy, or merely
leading their bands away from American settlements. These men who sat in councils were basically
legislators sometimes called chiefs who evidentially called for outright
warfare.
The Dog Soldiers, between the ages of 17-37 generally led in battle followed by the
Fox Men, Those With Headed Lances, Red Shield Owners and the Foolish Dogs
mostly made up of younger warriors not yet proven in battle. They made up part
of the ten clans of the Cheyenne headed by forty- four chiefs who when it came
time for council would send out forty-four painted sticks to all the villages.16
Entrance into such societies was
accomplished by obtaining coups against an enemy. Evidence was sometimes exhibited by weapons
wrenched from an enemy’s hands in battle, possessions, captured women or horses. When groups
approached each other, the initial actions consisted of attempts to frighten
the other side, and to show bravery.
Chanting war songs or “Wolf Songs” they went into battle with the
object of insulting the enemy, rather than killing him. Counting coups or touching the enemy brought greater honors than taking of a life. This touch was performed by either
hand or short weapon at close quarters.
A coups might be made with a quirt or a special coups stick varying in
length but almost always adorned with paint, feathers and scalps of
enemies. Sometimes curved at the end it
was similar to looking like a whiteman's cane, but longer and often displayed
in front of the warrior's lodge where all the tribe could know of his
achievements in battle. The highest honor
fell to the first touch, with three consecutive honors awarded for those who
touched the enemy next. Other
warriors might rush up to each touch the enemy up to four times. After the fourth touch no more points were accumulated. Many warriors felt that to touch a live enemy
or one who had been felled in combat was equally honorable. Many times the enemy might feign death only
to deliver a fatal blow to an opposing warrior attempting to count coups on
him. Another example might be to spare
the life of an enemy in battle, touching him in a humiliating way that would
steal his honor. The act of killing
under any circumstance was never rated as credit to a warrior. When an actual death occurred in combat each
warrior who had killed some enemy followed such an act with a death wail many
times misconstrued as a “Yell of
Triumph.” When in fact it was a
wail of utter sadness at the taking of a human life and prayer for forgiveness
to the Everywhere Spirit. Most
ceremonies before or after a battle consisted of the death wail for those who
may be killed and those who actually were.
But
since Indians were unwilling to accept even a few casualties, under most
circumstances they simply withdrew. The
feeling of awe at taking life was also felt-probably to a lesser degree-when
animals were killed. To the American
Indian everything possessed a living soul.
Therefore every part of an animal which when killed was either consumed
or utilized for clothing or tools, insuring it had not died in vain. Indians unlike non-Indians, never hunted for
sport. The sorrow one might endure at
killing of an enemy could last up to 30 days in which time the warrior blackened
his face, his hair flowed loose and his general appearance was neglected and
unkempt. Such is the shame that in most
battles if one or two participants are killed on either side the whole conflict
might be called "quits" as
both sides would retreat from the field.
Most myths recounting
the warrior’s lust for torture were greatly exaggerated as the act of torture was
performed in a symbolic gesture of purification and bravery. Those on the receiving end may have thought
differently as "...they persisted in
the hellish work until every inch of the bodies of the unhappy men was haggled,
and hacked and sacrificed, and covered with clotted blood."17
Sitting Bull's pictographic account of stealing a mule and counting coup at the Battle of Big Mound.
When
a full-blown battle occurred and half of the opposing forces sustained mortal
causalities the victors allowed the defeated to surrender. The survivors were then treated to a big
feast and released “on parole” owing their lives to the victorious band. The survivors from that moment on were honor
bound never to attack or make war upon those who had spared them. If they ever
should, they ran the risk of capture and ultimate torture from the band that
had befriended them. If a warrior
undergoing torture could display fortitude and bravery defying his tormentors
to do their worst and survive, in most cases he was nursed back to good health,
praised by his torturers, released or persuaded to become a permanent member of
their tribe. Custer stated "...the
Indian forfeits his claim to the appellation of the noble red man. We see him as he is, and, so far as all
knowledge goes, as he has been, a savage in every sense of the word; not worse,
perhaps, than his white brother would be, similarly born and bred, but one
whose cruel and ferocious nature far exceeds that of any wild beast of the
desert."13
The ambush remained their favorite
tactic, and was used both offensively and for defense. War parties relied on swift attacks. First, there was little time available during
a raid to engage in a shot for shot contest.
The purpose of a raid was to strike fast and leave. Second, the loss of a single warrior took a
lifetime to replace. Indians during a
raid on a settlement were cold, cruel and heinous. Their best weapon was fear and terror. The brutal and hideous mutilations of their
victims created an unsightly horror when dismembered beyond recognition. Once human,
they could only be discerned by the smallest bit of flesh still clinging
to clothing of the unfortunate soul.
When warriors rode off
to war, they usually dressed in their finest clothes and painted themselves not
to frighten their enemy, but to impress the Everywhere Spirit should they be
killed. The purpose of the paint was to
prepare for their burial and to radiate a handsome and respectable appearance
in the afterlife. "Indians are very fond of bright and gaudy colors, and if they see
any trinket which they like they will have it regardless of cost, if they have
the price of it in their possession.
And jewelry they all wear. Of
course, it's nothing but brass or German silver. Some of them will have a cord around their
necks filled with all kinds of stuff just so it shines. I have seen some with rings on all their
fingers-not only one on a finger, but 3 or 4 on each. And for earrings, it's awful. They will be from 2 to 2 1/2 inches across
and from 3 to 4 in each ear, one above the other. And the holes in the outer edge of their ears
are as large as an eyelet in a shoe."8
Streaming in the wind
their large
headdresses sometimes referred to as "War Bonnets, " made from
buckskin turbans or the crowns of traded or captured slouch hats affixed with
eagle, hawk or turkey feathers, often earned or given in allegiance from other
warriors in the tribe. Sometimes the
standing feathers would encircle the crown and flow at length to a long train
that reached in some cases to the ground.
They were never without their Hudson Bay trade blanket even in warm
weather when they draped it over their arm or wore it like a cloak. Their legs were covered by their long breach
cloths and leggings often fashioned from trade blankets or animal skins with
beads and fringe at the seams. Their
feet covered by soft tanned buckskin moccasins with intricate bead work or
quills in various shades or colors, the soles being made of tough durable
buffalo leather. By the 1800's the
traditional buckskin shirt became replaced by trader's cloth and cotton fabric shirts
manufactured by the white man. While
only the Warrior Societies continued the tradition of the "War
Shirt" made from hides and decorated with beads, scalps and feathers
all honors earned in combat.
Primary to a raid was to steal
horses and mules. If homes were burned,
settlers killed and scalped; women and children taken captive, then the raid was
considered a success. In 1862 the eastern
or Santee Sioux under Little Crow perpetrated the Minnesota Massacres.6
"Since 1862 at least 800 men,
women, and children have been murdered
within the limits of my present command, in the most fiendish manner; the men
usually scalped and mutilated, their private parts cut off and placed in their
mouth; women ravished sometimes fifty and sixty times in succession, then
killed and scalped, sticks stuck in their persons, before and after
death." And in a few
cases an enemy’s scalp would actually be removed before or after death. Although this practice has been attributed to
the Indian’s barbaric nature, the true act of scalping was introduced to the American
Indian by his sophisticated European counters, the French and the English and
dates back to the Middle East in Biblical times.
In November of 1864
Colonel John Chivington and his Colorado Volunteers deliberately stirred up the
Cheyenne hostility resulting in the Sand
Creek or Chivington Massacre. Many warriors
in the village had been on the warpath and fresh scalps of white women and
children were found by troops in the village.6 For those
carried off it is certain torture at the hands of these unmerciful
savages. If spared, they were usually in
for a long hideous night of misery.14
When a white woman fell into
Indian hands she could expect to be forced into the brutal lust of her captor.
Indians tended to gamble almost day and night. An Indian smoked incessantly
while he gambled. He would gamble all
that he owned including his wife. More
often than not it was a captured woman from another tribe or a captive
white woman who upon tiring of her would gamble or barter her away to another
Indian for two horses or such then traded to another before being traded on
once again. Should she try to escape
her bare feet were placed into a campfire until every portion of the cuticle was
burned away preventing her from running away.18
Custer's standing order remained, that should the
column come under attack and there was fear of maintaining his wife's
safety, the escort was directed to put a
bullet in her brain. Furthermore the old
frontiersman adage had always been, "Keep the Last Bullet for
Yourself."
Therefore the Military’s task was to secure
the release of these captives as soon as possible, and hopefully return them
home unharmed. During the summer of
1866 twenty-eight women and children were captured and carried off by Dog
Soldier raiding parties. In the winter of '68-'69 Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in a successful
retaliatory campaign against the Southern Cheyenne. Although the Regiments causalities
included Officers Hamilton, Elliott and 19 enlisted men; over 103 warriors were
killed, Fifty- three Indian Women and
Children were secured and captured.
Eight Hundred and seventy five ponies put to death. One thousand one Hundred buffalo robes, 500
lbs of powder, 1,000 lbs of lead and 4,000 arrows destroyed. This was
regarded as the first substantial US. victory in the Southern Plains
War, thus effectively crippling and helping to force a significant portion of the Southern Cheyenne onto a U.S.
appointed reservation.19
Custer was credited
with negotiating with numerous tribes and securing the release of two white
women, Sarah White and Annabelle Morgan
captured six months before on the Kansas border. The result of these actions during that same long winter campaign saw the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and
Kiowa eventually come into the
reservations. It would be, not for the
number of Indian lives that were lost during the Staked Plains Campaign, but for those who were spared that Custer
became known as the Foremost Indian Fighter on the Plains.
General Ely Parker served in General Grant's field command during the Civil War. After Grant was elected president, he appointed Parker as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In 1869, President
Grant appointed a commission of nine men to examine all matters pertaining to
Indian Affairs. Their findings reported "The history of government connections
with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfilled
promises."20 Driven
by their lack of understanding Indians.
Custer had always believed peace would have lasted longer than the
outbreak of '74, had diplomacy and proper treatment of the tribes been
practiced over government duplicity.21
Cadet Custer at West Point before the Civil War broke out.
Even though written
during Custer's time at West Point his thoughts on the Indian were reflected in
his essay "When we first beheld the Redman, we beheld him in his home, the home of
peace and plenty, the home of nature.
Sorrows furrowed lines were unknown on his dauntless brow. His manly limbs were not weakened by being
forced to sleep in dreary caves and deep morasses, fireless, comfortless and
coverless, through fear of the hunter's deadly rifle. His heart did not quake with terror at every
gust of the wind that sighed through the trees, but on the contrary. They were the favored sons of nature, and she
like a doting mother, had bestowed all her gifts on them. They stood in the native strength and beauty,
stamped with proud majesty of free born men, whose souls never knew fear, or
whose eyes never quailed beneath the fierce glance of man. But what are they now, those monarchs of the
west? They are like withered leaves of
their own native forest, scattered in every direction by the fury of the
tempest. The Red Man is alone in his
misery. The earth is vast desert to
him. Once it had its charms to lull his mind
to repose, but now the home of his youth, the familiar forests, under whose
grateful shade, he and his ancestors stretched their weary limbs after the
excitement of the chase, are swept away by the axe of the woodman. The hunting grounds have vanished from his
sight and in every object he beholds the hand of desolation. We behold him now on the verge of extinction,
standing on his last foothold, clutching his bloodstained rifle, resolved to
die amidst the horrors of slaughter, and soon he will be talked of as a noble
race who once existed but now have passed away."23
From 1866 to 1876 the
cost to the United States Government for the Reservation System rose from an
annual budget of $1Million to $20 Million per year. Even though the prices went up the annuities
promised to the Indians never arrived at the reservations.
Indian people on the
reservations literally starved or sought relief by exiting the agencies. A delegation from Standing Rock Agency
arrived at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the winter of '75 seeking council with
General Custer. Running Antelope the
emissary from the Sioux exclaimed, "The Great Father may choose only good
men when they leave Washington, but by the time they get to us they are damned
thieves..."22
Aware
of this, Custer's own testimony before Congress in the Spring of 1876 about the
corruption and inadequacies of the reservation system was punctuated by his own
writings and was summed up by his own beliefs of understanding Indians, "If I were an Indian, I often think
that I would greatly prefer to cast my lot among those of my people who
adhered to the free open plains, rather
than submit to the confined limits of a reservation, there to be the recipient
of those blessed benefits of civilization, with its vices thrown in without
stint or measure."13
Steven Alexander is the foremost Custer living Custer historian.
Footnotes, Bibliographies And Sources
1. Wild Life on the Plains and the Horrors of
Indian Warfare, General George Armstrong Custer
Sun Publishing Co. St. Louis, MO 1883
2. Daily
Life in a Plains Indian Village 1868, Michael Bad Hand Terry Clarion Books
1999
3. 500
Nations, Alvin Josephy Gramwercy Books, NY 1994
4. Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
Holt, Rinehart & Winston NY 1970
5.The Indian Dilemma-Civilization or
Extinction, Carl Schurz, Annals of
America, Volume 10,
1866-1883.
Reconstruction and Industrialization, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976
6. Custer's
Luck, Edgar Stewart University of Oklahoma Press Norman, OK 1983
7. Native American Indians: Quotes and Thoughts, Steven Redhead
www.stevenredhead.com/Native/contact.html
8. Frontier Soldier: An Enlisted Man's Journal of the Sioux and Nez Perce Campaigns, 1877,
Private William Zimmer, edited by Jerome
Green Montana Historical Society Press, Helena, MT
1993
9. The
Little Bighorn Campaign Wayne M. Sarf Combined Books Conshohocken, PA 1993
10. Indians
and the Old West Anne Terry White Golden Press New York 1958
11. Book
of Jeremiah (50:42) King James Bible/Old Testament
12. My
Native Land James Cox Blair Publishing Co. Philadelphia 1903
13. My
Life on the Plains G. A. Custer The
Galaxy, Vol. VII January 1872 to June 1872
14. The
Custer Tragedy Fred Dustin Upton and Sons El Segundo, CA 1987
15. Indian Signals and Sign Language George Fronval and Daniel Dubois Bonanza
Books New
York 1985
16. The
Horsemen of the Plains Joseph Altsheler
Macmillan Co. NY 1966
17. Little
Big Horn 1876 Robert Nightengale Far West Publishing Edina, MN 1996
18. The Plains Indians Jay Smith Research
Review: The Journal of the Little Big
Horn Associates
Vol. 1 No. 2 December, 1987
19. Custer
and the Cheyenne Louis Kraft Upton and Sons Publishers El Segundo, CA 1995
20. The
Indian and the White Man Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor Boston
1887
21. Bugles,
Banners and War Bonnets Ernest L. Reedstrom Bonanza Books New York 1986
22. Eyewitnesses
to the Indian Wars 1865-1890 Volume 4 Peter Cozzens Stack Pole Books 2001
23. The Redman George Armstrong Custer The Harrisonian Journal of the Harrison
County, Ohio
Historical Society Number 2 1989
