today we're looking at the battle of little bighorn
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the battle of little bighorn sometimes known as the battle of greasy grass or custer's last stand
was fought on june 25th of 1876 near the little bighorn river in what today would be south central
montana the battle was part of a larger conflict known as the great sioux war or black hills war in
1868 the u.s government and leaders of the lakota and cheyenne had signed the treaty of fort laramie
within the agreement was the establishment of the great sioux reservation which basically the entire
western half of south dakota would be designated as native american land the treaty also stated
that no white men could enter the territory except for government officials on official business
but almost immediately american settlers began to encroach or move into the territory
and in 1874 gold was discovered in the black hills in western south dakota the black hills
were a sacred area to native americans in the region but nonetheless the discovery of gold set
off a rush of americans moving into the area to get rich and the treaty that had been signed just
six years earlier was ignored native american leaders traveled to washington d.c in may of
1875 in an attempt to persuade president ulysses s grant to honor their treaty and stop the constant
flow of americans into the region the leaders were offered twenty five thousand dollars for the land
and asked to sign a new treaty and be forced to move to another reservation the native american
leaders refused the u.s government then made a proclamation to native americans in the region
telling them to move by january 31st 1876 or face possible military action the stage was now set for
conflict as thousands of native americans refused to follow the orders native american leaders such
as sitting bull and crazy horse began to lead resistance and by the spring of 1876
an estimated ten thousand sioux and cheyenne had established a camp near the little bighorn river
on june 17 1776 u.s troops attempted to march on the camp but were pushed back by native american
forces at the battle of the rosebud the u.s army was surprised by the size of the native american
force at the battle and felt they needed a a more accurate number of how big a force they were
facing in the area the seventh u.s cavalry which numbered just over 600 soldiers most of which were
veterans of the civil war was under the command of lieutenant colonel george armstrong custer
the flamboyant custer had risen to the rank of general during the american civil war
but in 1871 was demoted for not following orders custer was now given orders to scout ahead and
determine the enemy's size on the morning of june 25th 1876 some of custer's native american scouts
reported to him that they had spotted a large herd of horses custer determined that this was
the main camp and he decided to organize an attack soon more scouts reported to custer
that they had spotted the largest camp they had ever seen and that he was severely outnumbered
but custer was concerned the camp would possibly begin to break apart and so he moved forward
with his attack in the meantime sitting bull and crazy horse among other native american leaders
began to organize their forces to ride out and counter the attack estimates are that the native
american forces numbered somewhere between 1100 to 2500 warriors compared to custer's 600 soldiers
at about noon custer soldiers entered the little bighorn valley and the battle began the charging
native american warriors quickly overwhelmed the u.s forces and the battle was over in less than
an hour in the fighting 262 u.s soldiers were killed including custer himself and 55 wounded
native american forces suffered only about 31 warriors killed despite later reports the
seventh cavalry was not completely destroyed and actually regrouped and continued fighting into
the evening of june 25th and into the morning of june 26th before u.s reinforcements arrived
and native american forces withdrew many of the seventh cavalry survived the battle but
they did experience a huge casualty rate as the native american warriors decisively won the fight
against custer's battalion newspapers in the east reported the battle as a massacre
and attempted to portray the native american forces involved as bloodthirsty warriors although
native americans had won the battle many came to call little bighorn the indians last stand
as now with the outrage in the eastern part of the united states over the battle the u.s armed
forces began to increase their efforts and put more pressure on native americans over the next
five years the american government continued to push native american forces back and by the
mid-1880s almost all of the cheyenne and sioux had been forced from their land and onto reservations
little bighorn was a turning point in american and native american relations
as the battle was a victory for the native americans yet in the end led to their ultimate
removal from their land so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching