Author: Herman J. Viola
Publisher: Crown
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
On the morning of June 25, 1876, soldiers of the elite U.S. Seventh Cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer attacked a large Indian encampment on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. By day's end, Custer and more than two hundred of his men lay dead. It was a shocking defeat--or magnificent victory, depending on your point of view--and more than a century later it is still the object of controversy, debate, and fascination. What really happened on that fateful day? Now, thanks to the work of Herman J. Viola, Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, we are much closer to answering that question. Dr. Viola, a leader in the preservation of Native American culture and history, has collected here dozens of dramatic, never-before-published accounts by Indians who participated in the battle--accounts that have been handed down to the present day, often secretly and accompanied by oaths of silence, from one generation to the next. These remarkable eyewitness recollections provide a direct link to that day's events; together they constitute an unprecedented oral history of the battle from the Native American point of view and the most comprehensive eyewitness description of Little Bighorn we have ever had. Here are the dramatic stories of the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors who rode into battle against Custer, the yellow-haired Son of the Morning Star, an adversary whose valor they admired--but who became a mortal enemy after breaking his peace-pipe oath, a scene described vividly in these pages. Here in their own words are the stories of the Crow scouts, allies of Custer, who advised against attacking Sitting Bull's village on the Little Bighorn. Hereare tales of valor told by the Arikara scouts who fought side by side with Custer's men against the Lakota and Cheyenne; although the Great Father in Washington rewarded their heroism with silence, it is celebrated to this day in tribal stories and songs that come to us from beyond the grave with hair-raising immediacy and power. Lavishly illustrated with more than two hundred maps, photographs, reproductions, and drawings, this remarkable book also includes: An account of the battle, including startling descriptions of Custer's conduct, collected from the Crow scouts by the famed photographer Edward S. Curtis in 1908. Curtis never published this report--President Theodore Roosevelt advised him not to--and it remained a secret until his ninety-year-old son recently gave the material to the Smithsonian. New archaeological evidence from the battlefield that casts fresh light on the Seventh Cavalry's movements, along with discoveries from the site of Sitting Bull's village--including the complete skeleton of a cavalry horse with its rider's well- preserved saddlebags and personal items. A series of illustrations made soon after the battle by Red Horse, a remarkable tableau that is reproduced here in its entirety for the first time. Three letters written by Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily just days before he died at Little Bighorn that provide key and potentially controversial insights into the conduct of the cavalry under Custer's command. In short, this landmark book takes us much closer to knowing what really happened on that June day in 1876 when Custer died and a legend was born.
Author: Paul Walker
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426322461
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 68
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Book Description
A collection of stories told by indians, soldiers, and scouts who were at Little Bighorn.
Author: Jerome A. Greene
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806137919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392
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Book Description
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is the site of one of America's most famous armed struggles, but the events surrounding Custer's defeat there in 1876 are only the beginning of the story. As park custodians, American Indians, and others have contested how the site should be preserved and interpreted for posterity, the Little Bighorn has turned into a battlefield in more ways than one. In Stricken Field, one of America's foremost military historians offers the first comprehensive history of the site and its administration in more than half a century. Jerome A. Greene has produced a compelling account of one of the West's most hallowed and controversial attractions, beginning with the battle itself and ending with the establishment of an American Indian memorial early in the twenty-first century. Chronicling successive efforts of the War Department and the National Park Service to oversee the site, Greene describes the principal issues that have confounded its managers, from battle observances and memorials to ongoing maintenance, visitor access, and public use. Stricken Field is a cautionary tale. Greene elucidates the conflict between the Park Service's dual mission to provide public access while preserving the integrity of a historical resource. He also traces the complex events surrounding the site, including Indian protests in the 1970s and 1980s that ultimately contributed to the 2003 dedication of a monument finally recognizing the Lakotas, Northern Cheyennes, and other American Indians who fought there.
Author: Herman J. Viola
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496206444
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 96
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Book Description
"I am an old man, and soon my spirit must leave this earth to join the spirit of my fathers. Therefore, I shall speak only the truth in telling what I know of the fight on the Little Bighorn River where General Custer was killed. Curly, who was with us, will tell you that I do not lie." So spoke White Man Runs Him, a Crow Indian who with five other Crow warriors had served as a scout for Custer's Seventh Cavalry on June 25, 1876, the day of the battle known to generations of white Americans as "Custer's Last Stand." They survived the battle, but Custer and more than 250 troopers did not. Thus their accounts and those of the Lakotas and Cheyennes who triumphed at Little Bighorn (or Greasy Grass, as it was known to the Lakotas) offer the only firsthand picture of what happened that fateful day. These stories--from leaders as renowned as Black Elk and Sitting Bull, warriors such as Wooden Leg, a Cheyenne woman, and Arikara and Crow scouts--at last bring one of the most unforgettable showdowns in American history to vivid, complex, multifaceted life.
Author: Johnny D. Boggs
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN: 1504787986
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 488
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Book Description
Johnny D. Boggs turns the battlefield itself into a character in this historical retelling of Custer’s Last Stand, when George Custer led most of his command to annihilation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876. More than forty first-person narratives are used—Indian and white, military and civilian, men and women—to paint a panorama of the battle itself. Boggs brings the events and personalities of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to life in a series of first-hand accounts.
Author: Larry Sklenar
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806134727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418
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Book Description
"Sklenar contends that Custer did have a battle plan, one different from any other suggested by scholars thus far. Custer, he argues, had reason to believe that his scheme might succeed with minimum bloodshed; made decisions consistent with army regulations and his best instincts as an experienced commander; had subordinates who could not overcome the limits of their personalities in a desperate situation; and made a selfless commitment to save the bulk of his regiment. Along the way, Sklenar appraises the officers and other men who served in the Seventh, evaluating the survivors' testimony and assessing the intent and motives of each."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Joseph Marshall
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670038534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
An account of the legendary battle, told from a Lakota perspective, documents key Lakota oral traditions to reveal the nuanced complexities that led up to and followed the conflict.
Author: Thomas Allen
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 142632250X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 66
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Book Description
The story of the hardships and difficulties endured by General George Washington and the Continental Army during the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Author: Evan S. Connell
Publisher: North Point Press
ISBN: 0374708738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484
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Book Description
Son of the Morning Star is the nonfiction account of General Custer from the great American novelist Evan S. Connell. Custer's Last Stand is among the most enduring events in American history--more than one hundred years after the fact, books continue to be written and people continue to argue about even the most basic details surrounding the Little Bighorn. Evan S. Connell, whom Joyce Carol Oates has described as "one of our most interesting and intelligent American writers," wrote what continues to be the most reliable--and compulsively readable--account of the subject. Connell makes good use of his meticulous research and novelist's eye for the story and detail to re-create the heroism, foolishness, and savagery of this crucial chapter in the history of the West.
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497659256
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 711
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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history and the battle at Little Bighorn. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.
