Custer’s Last Stand The Tragedy of Little Bighorn is such a tale for over a hundred years. This is one of the most startling defeats in the Military history. More than two hundred cavalrymen were killed in battle on June 25, 1876. Is General Custer to blame for all this mishap with the loss of his troopers including himself? Who was the real person to blame? The details aren’t fully covered in the mystery of what happened at Little Bighorn. The Europeans came to battle with the Indians to conquer the North American land that hundreds of Indian nations had lived on for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived.
The Indians chief, Sitting Bull was a great military, political, and spiritual leader. He had a vision that the whites were going to battle with them. So the Indians were ready for battle. Who knows what would have happened if Sitting Bull didn’t get his visions. Would they be prepared? Would they have lost more men then they already did? It was a big concern to go to battle because of the loss of his people, but he knew that they were going to be successful with the challenge.
The Europeans didn’t care about the Indians. “Everywhere that Indians live the whites speak of them as lazy, living off the Federal Government, drinking up their dole. It is essentially the same view of the Indian that prevailed in the seventeenth century.” This means that the whites felt strongly about the Indians not caring or being willing to pay for the natural resources that they were using up. All the whites cared about was the value of the land and the natural precious gold’s that came with it. General Custer and his men had been traveling for on going days without food and water. Lack of energy might have been the case for most of Custer’s’ men’s deaths including himself.
The Term Paper on West Michigan Indians
This writing will compare and contrast research and knowledge that I had about Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi Indians of West Michigan before and after I visited the Anishinabek exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi Indians of West Michigan “Indian,” what exactly does that mean. If you ask a random person on the street they would probably tell you a lot of ...
Fresh trails were reported and on June 25 th an Indian village twenty miles above the mouth of the little horn was reported about three miles long and half a mile wide and fifteen miles away. Custer pushed his command rapidly though they had made a march of seventy-eight miles in twenty-four hours preceding the battle when near the village it was discovered that the Indians were moving in hot haste as if retreating. Reno with seven companies of the seventh cavalry was ordered to the left to attack the village at its head while Custer with five companies went to the right and commenced a vigorous attack. The Indians gained higher ground then they would expect.
This carried on till the next day. The Indians surrounded Custer on every side, while horses fell as they fought in the line of battle. When Custer’s cheering voice was no longer heard, the Indians made easy work of the remainder of the battle. Custer was the last to fall.
He was the only one that wasn’t horribly mutilated. He was shot through the body and through the head. He had help from both sides of the campground, but didn’t communicate with the other officers. He brought his tired worn down men to Sitting Bulls village and went into battle.
This wouldn’t have killed all the deaths that it did if Custer was so selfish in defeating the Indians with his troop. Many believe that Custer was doing the right thing by taking it upon himself to charge the Indian village. With this brief description of what happened on the battlefield, there are still questions of who is to blame for the loss of all of Custer’s men. The Indians took the first step onto the land and it wouldn’t be fair to take it away or be driven out with a battle. This historical battle cost many lives, with the cause of carelessness and selfishness of others.
The choice is yours for whom you feel made the wrong move and who’s to blame.
