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A rare eye-witness account from the perspective of a Native American man of the Battle of the Little Bighorn has been discovered by the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives.
The battle – known to Native Americans at the time as the Battle of the Greasy Grass – took place near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. It saw Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes face off against federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, following a betrayal of a treaty by the US Government. Prior to the battle and throughout the 19th Century, the U.S. Government had been attempting to confine Native Americans to reservations, which tribes of the area did not welcome. After the discovery of gold in South Dakota’s Black Hills in Native American territory, the US Government ignored treaties between the two groups and invaded.
Following a battle on June 17, 1876, Officer George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry was ordered to scout the area for enemies, which he found in abundance. Rather than do the sensible thing and wait for reinforcements, he decided to attack around 3,000 Native American warriors with just 600 men, who were later further divided up into groups of 200.
Not many accounts are available from the US Army side, given how precisely 100 percent of the soldiers were killed. As well as it being rare to have an account of the battle from eyewitnesses, it's incredibly rare to have a written – rather than oral – account like the one handed to the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives.
The account – written nearly 60 years after the battle – describes how Lakota leader Standing Bear witnessed the battle, and the arrival of Custer's men, shortly after he had attended a Sun Dance ceremony.
"I heard a man shouting that the soldiers were coming," the account shown to CBC Radio reads. "They had shot a boy that was on his way to get our horses. I ran back and saw that another man was bringing our horses, I sprang onto a horse but I didn't have time to dress, I had only my shirt but no shoes.
I rode with my uncle in the direction toward Reno when on the hill we saw Custer advancing. Before we got closer we saw hundreds upon hundreds of our people around us. A few of them had guns and most of them had bows and arrows."
The letter was accompanied by a drawing of the Sun Dance ceremony, including an illustration of Lakota leader Sitting Bull, though due to depictions of a sacred ceremony, it is unknown whether it will be published.
