June 26, 1876: Custer’s Last Stand

On this day in 1876, Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces decisively won the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southeastern Montana. Among the dead was Lt. Col. George Custer; the battle is popularly known as Custer’s Last Stand.

Like the Cherokee and other nations had done four decades earlier, the tribes were fighting annexation of their ancestral lands following the discovery of gold. They, too, would be moved to Oklahoma.

Said Spotted Tail, a Sioux delegate sent to Washington to negotiate a treaty with President Grant in 1875: “If it is such a good country, you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone.”

Not all of the tribesmen wished to fight; those who did were led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. What actually happened to Custer is unknown, as the members of all five of his companies (totaling more than 250 men) were killed.

Although bolstered by this victory, the Native Americans could not match the firepower of the U.S. forces. By the following April, most of the tribes had surrendered and been moved to Oklahoma.

For more on the Sioux Wars, visit Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.

Image: Edgar Samuel Paxson (1852–1919), Custer’s Last Stand (1899). Whitney Gallery of Western Art via Wikimedia Commons