Custer's Last Stand

On June 25, 1876, the Seventh U.S. Cavalry rode along the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana in pursuit of the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians that had left their reservation. With a regiment numbering about six hundred men, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) attacked an Indian settlement of nearly two thousand warriors from two sides. The Battle on the Little Bighorn River became known as “Custer's Last Stand” because Custer and the two hundred men directly under his personal command were killed within the first hour of battle. It was a significant event in the Great Sioux War of 1876 and a major Indian victory.

Conflict

By 1875, many Indian tribes had been forced to live on reservation lands defined by treaties with the U.S. government. The Sioux and Cheyenne tribes were among those that had been settled in the Dakota Territory, present-day South Dakota . Conditions on the Indian reservations were failing, due mostly to maladministration by the federal government's Bureau of Indian Affairs , so the people faced starvation. As a result, members of both tribes left the reservation to engage in their annual buffalo hunt.

Leaving the reservation was a bold move that contradicted the federal government orders, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs directed all Indians to return to the reservation by January 31. If they failed, they would likely be attacked as rebels and forced to return by the U.S. Army . The improbability of getting word to the hunters, even if they were willing to return, made confrontation probable.

The true cause of the federal government's aggressive tactics stemmed from the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The lands had been guaranteed to the Indians by treaty, but white miners were ignoring the boundaries and settling in to prospect for gold. The government was doing little to discourage the invasion onto Indian lands, but angry tribes were unwilling to sell their land. Using the notion that occasional Indian attacks on white settlements released them from the treaty, the government wanted to reclaim the mineral rich land from the reservation and sell it for profit to white miners. In hopes of destroying the Indians’ independence and weakening their ability to resist the sale of the Black Hills, the government chose to force the Sioux and Cheyenne hunters back onto the reservation.

Early in 1876, General Philip Sheridan (1831–1888) ordered troops on the upper Yellowstone River to capture or disperse numerous bands of Dakota who were hunting there. The army organized an offensive from three directions, one of which was led by General Alfred Terry (1827–1890) and included Colonel Custer. Custer was eventually detached to lead twelve companies of men against the Indians while the rest of the regiment would prevent flight of the Indians as he attacked.

On June 25, Custer located the Indian village. He divided his regiment into three battalions. Though Custer's approach was successful in the beginning, it quickly turned in favor of the Indians when one of the battalions retreated, leaving Custer and his men to bear the brunt of the Indian's counterattack. Within an hour, Custer and all of his men were slain. Over the course of the next day, the rest of the troops arrived and forced the Indians to retreat to the south.

The Battle of Little Bighorn was an empty victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne. News of the death of Custer and his men stunned the American people and led to greatly intensified military efforts. By the spring of 1877, most of the Sioux and Cheyenne had surrendered and resettled on the reservation. The federal government forced them to give up the Black Hills. The Great Sioux War marked the end to major Indian fighting in the American West.