Letters from an American - Battle of the Little Big Horn

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

June 25, 2026Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong lost his entire command to Lakota warriors, The road to the Little Bighorn started during the Civil War, The US government, strapped by the cost of war, stopped providing food, forcing the Santees to flee to join the Teton Lakotas in what is now Montana, The massacre at Sand Creek convinced the Tetons that they must resist, After Robert E Lee’s surrender, General Sherman was transferred to the Plains, The government abandoned the Bozeman Trail in favor of protecting the railroad, giving the Lakotas control of the Great Sioux Reservation, Miners wanted access to gold and business interests wanted land, and set out to build a fort in the Black Hills to intimidate the warriors who were skirmishing with the intruders, The Lakotas refused to sell land in the Black Hills, The War Department commanded the army to subdue the Lakotas, General George Crook planned an attack on Sitting Bull’s camp, The Lakotas and their allies who had settled on the Greasy Grass, or Little Bighorn, were unaware of Custer’s troops approaching, They recovered quickly and chased some of the men across the river, and stampeded the others,  All the soldiers were killed, the Lakotas lost about 40 men. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

June 25, 26. Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, who led the 7th Cavalry, lost his entire command to Lakota Warriors after falling on them unexpectedly in their own territory. The only army survivor of the battle was a horse, Comanche, who became the 7th Cavalry's mascot, trotted out draped in ceremonial black for years after the event itself. The road to the Little Big Horn started during the Civil War. In 1862, San Tee Warriors in Minnesota rose up against settlers there after the U.S. government, financially strapped by the Civil War, stopped providing the food promised to the San T's by treaty.

Soldiers put down the Santee uprising, now known as the Dakota War, brutally, and and terrified survivors fled west to what is now Montana to take shelter with their relatives, the Teton Lakotas. The Teton's welcomed their eastern relatives, but discounted their horrific tales of the revenge enacted on the Santee insurgents, although the army had, in fact, hanged 38 Santees in December 1862 in the largest mass execution in American history. The Teton's rarely saw an American, and they could not believe. believe the lone traders who passed through their territory were a threat.

Teton nonchalance ended abruptly in November 1864 when northern Cheyennes, their allies to the South, straggled into Teton villages with even worse stories than the Santies had told. Stories of the massacre of women and children at Colorado's San Creek, where drunken soldiers first killed surrendering Cheyennes and then mutilated their bodies, taking human remains as trophies. By 1864, American miners were pushing into Teton territory

over the new Bozeman Trail that stretched from the old Oregon Trail up to the Montana Goldfields. Stories of the Sand Creek Massacre convinced the Teton's that the interlopers must be resisted. By 1865, the conflicts, now known as the Lakota War, had escalated to the point that after Confucian, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Army leaders transferred General William to Compsa Sherman from the southern battlefields to the plains. To his intense

frustration, he found it impossible to protect both the Union Pacific Railroad, which stretched across the middle of the country, and the Bozeman Trail, which went north, from Lakota attacks. Caught between these two necessities, the government chose to protect the railroad. In 1868, it abandoned the Bozeman Trail, allowing the Lakotas to control what became known as the Great Sioux Reservation. This reservation covered most of the land from the Missouri River that runs through the center of what is now South Dakota, west to the Big Horn Mountains. The treaty each signed guaranteed that land to the Lakotas forever. Forever turned out to be short. Rising Lakota leaders, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse vowed to keep Americans off their land,

but miners wanted gold and businessmen wanted railroads. By 1874, Army officers decided to build a fort in the Black Hills to intimidate the warriors skirmishing with intruders. In 1875, they sent out the boy general, George Armstrong Custer, along with a thousand soldiers, teamsters, scouts, and reporters, to find a place to build. Custer brought back ideas for a fort, but more importantly,

he also brought back news of gold in the hills, hills that belonged to the Lakotas. Within months, prospectors in the Black Hills had thrown up boom towns like Deadwood, which attracted about 20,000 people in its first year. The government tried to buy the Black Hills, but Lakota leaders refused. We want no white men here.

sitting bull said the black hills belong to me if the whites try to take them I will fight government officials interpreted Lakota refusal to sell as hostility in December 1875 authorities told sitting bull crazy horse and other hostels to report to agencies more than 250 miles away on the eastern side of the reservation by the end of January or to expect war. For their part, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, who had never frequented the agencies, made no attempt to set off on a long journey in the brutal cold of a Dakota winter. It's not clear they even got the message. So on February 1st, 1876, the War Department commanded the Army to subdue the hostile Lakotas. A month

later, General George Crook led 800 men into Lakota Territory, hoping to fight the indigenous Americans while their ponies were still weak from the winter. In mid-March, half of Crook's men attacked a camp of Cheyenne's on the Powder River, mistaking it for a village of Crazy Horse's men. Cheyenne survivors took refuge with Sitting Bull, who had had enough. We are an island of Indians in a lake of whites, he told his people. We must stand together or they will rub us out separately. These soldiers have come shooting. They want war. All right, we'll give it to them. Sitting Bull sent runners across the reservation, calling men who wanted to fight to meet at the Rosebud River to stand against the soldiers. By spring 1876, thousands of men had rallied to him.

In early summer 1876, Sitting Bull's camp was the largest in Lakota history. There were at least 1,400 lodges with individual men sleeping on their own or as guests in others' tepees. Badly underestimating the number of warriors he faced, Crook planned a three-pronged attack. Columns from west, east, and south would converge where the Lakotas were hunting. Crook's plan was wounded on June 17th when his own column, moving up from the south, crossed Lakota warriors near the Rosebud River. In a confusing battle obscured by dust and gunpowder, the Lakotas managed to knock Crook's men out of the campaign for the next six weeks. Those weeks would prove crucial. As the other two columns continued their march,

indigenous Americans celebrating the outcome of the Battle of the Rosebud continued to pour into Sitting Bulls camp, bringing the numbers up to about 7,000 people, 1800 of whom were warriors. In the vibrant atmosphere, families visited, couples courted, and warriors danced. The numbers meant that the Lakotas and their allies had to keep moving to provide enough food for the horses. By June 24th, they had settled. on the river they called the greasy grass, the one soldiers knew as the little big horn. Unaware of the two columns approaching, the Lakotas were watching Crook's soldiers, but knew his battered troops were hunkering down. On June 25th, a hot, buggy day, the Lakotas were lazing,

the women digging wild turnips and the men swimming and lying about in the heat, when Kuster's troops fell on one end of their mile-long encampment. The soldiers' soldiers were lest, the soldiers were soldiers cut down some women and children, but the Lakotas mounted their horses quickly. Custer had divided his men into three battalions. He had sent one under Captain Frederick Bentin up the valley and out of action, and sent one under Major Marcus Reno to attack the camp. Recovering from their initial surprise, the Lakotas chased Reno and his men into the bluffs on the other side of the river. Then Custer's battalion entered the fight. fight. Custer ordered his men to dismount. The Lakota's promptly stampeded the army horses.

Then, surrounding the desperate troops, the Lakotas killed the soldiers to a man. The U.S. Army lost 263 men that day. The Lakota's about 40. I feel sorry that too many were killed on each side, Sitting Bull said. But when Indians must fight, they must. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.