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REVIEW ESSAY

Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: , Custer, and the Destinies of Nations. By Tim Lehman. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. 219 pp. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliogra- phy, index. $19.95 paper.

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. By Nathaniel Philbrick. New York: Viking, 2010. xxii + 466 pp. Maps, photographs, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $30.00 cloth, $18.00 paper.

Custer: Lessons in Leadership. By Duane Schultz. Foreword by General Wesley K. Clark. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. x + 206 pp. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $14.00 paper.

The Killing of . By Thomas Powers. New York: Knopf, 2010. xx + 568 pp. Maps, illustra- tions, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $30.00 cloth, $17.00 paper.

CUSTER, CRAZY HORSE, SITTING BULL, AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN

In the summer of 1876, the some , and a handful of . government launched the Great War, The resulting Battle of the Little Bighorn left a sharp instrument intended to force the last Custer and 267 soldiers, , and civil- nonagency Lakotas onto reservations. In doing ians dead, scattered in small groups and lonely so, it precipitated a series of events that proved singletons across the countryside—all but disastrous for its forces in the short run and fifty-eight of them in his immediate command, calamitous for the Lakotas in the much longer which was annihilated. With half the regiment scheme of things. killed or wounded, the Battle of the Little On , Lakotas and Cheyennes crippled Bighorn ranked as the worst defeat inflicted General ’s 1,300-man force at the on the army during the Plains Indian Wars. Battle of the Rosebud in southern . In retrospect, it served as the high-water mark Eight days later and thirty miles to , of Plains Indian resistance to the tumultuous, Lieutenant , transformative forces unleashed by the ideol- the “Boy General” of Civil War fame, led the ogy of . 7th U.S. into the valley of the Little In the contours and details associated with Bighorn, a river Lakotas called the Greasy the Battle of the Little Bighorn may be dis- Grass. Along its banks sprawled the largest cerned in microcosm all of the violence, cour- village ever seen in the , with age, and horror attending a monumental clash camp circles housing thousands of people who of cultures. Also observable is the creation of responded to Lakota visionary Sitting Bull’s national myth, a military disaster transformed freedom dream of retaining their way of life. into an example of noble sacrifice that came to As he approached the camps, Custer divided be known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” Add to that his force into three commands. When the the presence of the famed Sitting Bull and such bluecoats set about the business of attack- warrior-leaders as Crazy Horse, , ing the village they ran into a dust storm of Gall, and Lame White Man, along with gener- determined warriors, most of them Lakotas, ous portions of courage and arrogance, hubris

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© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of –Lincoln 64 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2012 and nemesis, and you behold a historical array the debilitating practice of either ignoring or that never seems to lose its power to entice. denigrating accounts provided by warriors who When I was a youngster in the early 1950s, fought that day and lived to tell about it, scour William A. Graham often visited my parents’ their words for clues as they attempt to piece home in . A U.S. Army colonel together what happened at the Greasy Grass. who served in the Judge Advocate General’s The observation that fascination with the Corps, Graham retired in 1939 and spent much Battle of the Little Bighorn and its actors of the rest of his life researching the Battle of remains strong is supported by the recent pub- the Little Bighorn. The Custer Myth: A Source lication of the four books under review. These Book of Custeriana, his magnum opus, appeared range from a fairly cursory examination of in 1953, the year before he died, and remains Custer’s military career to a synthesizing over- in print. (An odd point of interest: Fearful it view of the Plains Indian Wars insofar as they might prejudice his judgment, Graham ada- involved and affected the Lakotas; an attempt mantly refused to visit the battlefield, a posi- to provide the battle with a decent narrative tion on which he and my father, an old-time framework; and a retelling of events leading to horse cavalryman, disagreed.) Graham’s preoc- the death of Lakota war leader Crazy Horse. cupation with the subject included an interest In Custer: Lessons in Leadership, Duane in the broad sweep of events, but more so, I Schultz, a psychologist with books about the suspect, fascination for those telling details Civil War, the Plains Indian Wars, and the which, pieced together, often lead to a better Second World War to his credit, contributes a understanding of the truth, or as close to it as volume to his publisher’s Great Generals series. investigators are ever likely to get. For anyone who knows even a little about Graham’s wife did not share her husband’s Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn—it consuming passion, as became clear one day merits a mere ten pages and a bit here—the as he and my father, who supplied him with book is too brief and too tied to Custer’s participants’ hitherto unpublished extraordinary Civil War service to be of much accounts, closeted themselves upstairs, refight- interest. (That service deserves attention: ing the Battle of the Little Bighorn for the whatever else Custer may have been, he was umpteenth time. personally brave and far from the addled crea- “What is it that so fascinates them?” a for- ture that limned in his por- lorn Mrs. Graham, sitting downstairs sipping a trayal of the man in the film back martini, asked my mother. in 1970.) But discerning exactly what “lessons” “Oh, I don’t know,” my mother replied. of Custer’s leadership the subtitle heralds is “Perhaps it’s because no one in Custer’s imme- difficult, unless, as former NATO Commander diate command survived.” Wesley Clark suggests in his foreword, they may Mrs. Graham shrugged her shoulders and be summed up as training soldiers to do their answered wistfully, “What a pity there couldn’t best while avoiding impetuosity. have been just one.” In Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, In those days there reigned a widely held Custer, and the Destinies of Nations, Rocky bias, fueled by cultural chauvinism, against the Mountain College history professor Tom eyewitness testimony—and there was plenty Lehman offers an excellent summary of the of it—offered up by Indians who fought in general deterioration of U.S.-Lakota relations the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (Not until that characterized the period from the so- 1991 did the federally owned, 765-acre Custer called Grattan Massacre of 1854—when an Battlefield National Monument site receive argument about a white migrant’s stray cow its present name of Little Bighorn Battlefield (or ox) led to a fight between Lakotas and National Monument.) More recently research- soldiers in which the headman Conquering ers and writers, shaking themselves loose from Bear, twenty-eight soldiers, and an interpreter

© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln REVIEW ESSAY 65 were killed near Fort Laramie—to the climax my account purports to be an ‘insider’s’ view at the Battle of the Little Bighorn twenty- of the Battle of the Little Bighorn,” he wisely two years later. Ultimately, he brings us up notes (325). Nevertheless, the author succeeds to the dedication of the Indian Memorial in realizing his “firm belief that the spiritual at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, with Lee and visionary aspects of experience are essen- Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” blaring tial to understanding not only Sitting Bull but over the loudspeaker. also Custer and his wife, Libbie” (325), who Lehman’s is a well-researched, eloquently played a pivotal role in enshrining her hus- presented, attractive narrative that embraces band’s memory. historical matters of great depth and breadth. Philbrick disposes of Sitting Bull’s career This is not a book about tactics; it is, rather, after 1876—he led his followers into Canadian a volume that deals with the larger forces of exile before returning to the U.S.; served time history. Yet Lehman retains a sensitivity to the as a before ending up on a res- telling details throughout. ervation; traveled with ’s Wild West By the time the Plains Indian Wars drew to Show; and died at the hands of Indian Police a close, those on the losing side faced daunt- in 1890, serving as a catalyst for the Wounded ing prospects. But the picture is more nuanced Knee tragedy—a bit too quickly for my taste. than often assumed. “Although they had lost That said, his book provides a welcome intro- control of their own destiny,” writes Lehman, duction for newcomers to the battle and its “they had not lost all hope of shaping their and minor actors, with plenty of fodder future” (139). For Lehman, “the Little Bighorn provided in the notes for further exploration. Battlefield stands as a reminder of our deeply More experienced hands will also benefit from conflicted understanding of American history” Philbrick’s service as a literary guide while (190), a place where the “stories that walk the enjoying the ride through familiar territory. ground . . . tell us not only what we have been The lesson Philbrick draws from that but what we might become” (191). encounter along the Greasy Grass during the Nathaniel Philbrick brings the same keen nation’s centennial summer is worth noting. appreciation for significant detail to The Last “[O]ur children are best served not by a self- Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of destructive blaze of glory, but by the hardest the Little Bighorn that marked his National path of all: survival” (312). Book Award-winning In the Heart of the Sea: The Lakota warrior Crazy Horse The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2001) and played a major role at the Battle of the Little Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community Bighorn. Whereas the members of the north- and War (2006). Trying to follow the story ern Lakota tribes, such as the , of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and its lined up more or less solidly with Sitting Bull aftermath by focusing on the lives of Custer in joining the forces of opposition to the whites and Sitting Bull—two very different men that summer of 1876, such was not the case from cultures utterly alien to one another with the more southerly and Brules, who never actually met—is a formidable task many of whom remained at the agencies, either reminiscent of Stephen Ambrose’s uneven by choice or through circumstance. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of But Crazy Horse, then about thirty-four, Two American Warriors (1975). But Philbrick was not among them. A somewhat eccentric, is a fine writer who works harder than many unpredictable character—he lost his coveted readers may appreciate to convey the essence status as a Shirt Wearer, one of four elite pro- of the saga. tector-leaders, among his people by running off Philbrick makes good use of information with another man’s wife—Crazy Horse struck gleaned from Indian participants in the events many as the embodiment of the Lakota warrior he describes. “That is not to say, however, that ethos. Waterman, one of five Arapahos in the

© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln 66 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2012 fight, summed up the Oglala’s performance that and shake their heads, while those new to the day: “Crazy Horse . . . was the bravest man I subject need to tread somewhat cautiously. ever saw. He rode closest to the soldiers, yelling A few examples should suffice. “A winkte to his warriors. All the soldiers were shooting was not a hermaphrodite, as some early whites at him, but he was never hit” (320). would have it, but an effeminate man—in The arc of Crazy Horse’s story—his rise to fact, a homosexual,” Powers writes. “Berdache Shirt Wearer status, fall from grace, renown as was the word” (13). Actually, the a warrior, surrender in the spring of 1877, the Cheyenne term is hemaneh or hetaneman; ber- jealousies he aroused within a dangerously fac- dache has Farsi, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, and tionalized tribal society, and his killing during French roots. The statement that Sitting Bull an attempt by soldiers and Lakotas who bore was someone “best known among the Sioux as him no good will to incarcerate him in the a spiritual leader, not a war leader” (173) is very guardhouse at , Nebraska—fol- much open to question, as anyone familiar with lows a thrilling, doomed trajectory. the man’s war record knows. Another Sitting Nebraska historian and novelist Mari Bull, an Oglala also called Drum Packer or Sandoz published Crazy Horse, her pioneering Packs the Drum, is described as “carrying his biography of him, in 1942, rightly subtitling it great gunstock war club with its three knife “The Strange Man of the Oglalas.” Sandoz’s blades, sign of his office as a chief ofakicita work reads more like a novel than a histori- [warriors]” (219), although that club was in no cal account, probably because it is, largely, a way associated with such a position. Powers work of fiction. More recently, we have seen reports that the Oglalas “had never lived on Kingsley M. Bray weigh in with the meticulous the ” (219), though Lewis and and impressive (also well-written) Crazy Horse: Clark encountered them there in 1806 and A Lakota Life (2006). Now comes Thomas they traded at Fort Tecumseh on the Missouri Powers’s The Killing of Crazy Horse. in a quarter-century later. The Powers writes adroitly. His previous works idea that during the Plains Indian Wars period include books about terrorism and intelli- the stems of Lakota council pipes were “often gence matters as well as pieces for The New carved with a bas-relief figure of a turtle and York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Harper’s, the head of a buffalo, deer, mountain sheep, The Nation, and Rolling Stone. What may or elk” (92) is ludicrous; pipes carved in this be questioned—indeed, what cries out to manner existed, but all or nearly all date to be questioned—is whether he possesses the the reservation period and were not, strictly background to write about the killing of Crazy speaking, council pipes. Neither the Battiste Horse. The answer is a bit more complicated Good nor High Hawk picto- than a simple “yes” or “no.” graphic histories makes any specific reference In The Killing of Crazy Horse, Powers creates to a commemoration of the dead in connection a richly textured narrative that moves toward a with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as Powers dark denouement as inexorably as the acts of a asserts (527, n. 6). Shakespearean tragedy. Along the way, he tells Nonetheless, Powers crafts a powerful and us much about the people, places, and things compelling narrative that should interest and he encountered while researching the book. please those familiar with the subject as well Unfortunately, as perhaps must be expected in as readers for whom this is virgin territory. He a work embracing breadth and depth in sub- uses effectively the device of returning often to jects previously of little apparent interest to the the roles individuals played on the last day of author, some of what he relates is either errone- Crazy Horse’s life as he moves us toward that ous or misleading. As a result, readers already event, building to the climax of what is, at its familiar with the story will occasionally pause heart, a profoundly tragic tale.

© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln REVIEW ESSAY 67

The Killing of Crazy Horse is a natural com- decades ago when she bemoaned the lack of panion piece to Bray’s book; together they survivors from Custer’s immediate command. provide the best narratives so far focusing on But I suspect we have about as much chance of Crazy Horse’s life as well as its all but inevita- passing up additional explorations of this richly bly sad end. contoured historical terrain with its whos, As with the Civil War, we are a long way whats, whys, and very long reach as we do that from seeing the last book on the Battle of of the pass at Thermopylae. the Little Bighorn and its pantheon of par- ticipants—Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Ron McCoy Bull—come rolling off the presses. In a sense, Department of History Mrs. Graham was perhaps right those many Oklahoma State University

© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln