The Battle of Greasy Grass

The Battle of Greasy Grass, June 25-26, 1876, also known as The Battle of Little Bighorn and Custer’s Last Stand, marks a great victory for the Oceti Sakowin people. The battle’s roots started with the Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes (1867); after the report was issued, “the  United States government set out to establish a series of Indian treaties that would force the Indians to give up their lands and move further west onto reservations.” One of these treaties was the (second) Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, which the Oceti Sakowin people signed with the United States government. The treaty “allowed the United States to build its railroad along the Platte … but it set apart a distance territory for Lakota’s ‘absolute and undisturbed use and occupation.’ This was the Great Sioux Reservation that encompassed all the lands west of the Missouri across the Black Hills and extended about two hundred miles from south to north. Article 16 of the Fort Laramie Treaty designated the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains as “unceded Indian territory” and agrees that in that territory, “no white person or persons could settle or occupy any portion of.”

Six years later, Lt. Col. Custer, who had great career ambitions and was “reinventing himself as an Indian fighter”, reported that he found gold in the sacred Black Hills. In 1875, “a five-month scientific expedition was sent to confirm Custer’s report. Custer had given “exaggerated reports of the area, describing its suitability for settlement and indicating that engineers… had discovered gold”; these reports led prospectors and settlers to flood into the area “despite the army’s sporadic attempts to drive them out” (Wright, 82).

Custer, commanded by Major General Alfred Terry, was directed to lead his unit approximately 70 miles away on the Rosebud Creek, separated from the rest of Terry’s force, contradictory to Terry’s orders and military tactics (Wright, 106). There was a general lack of intelligence and insufficient planning; Custer was commanding the 7^th Cavalry, with 750 soldiers and 31 Arikara and Crow scouts, yet he was outnumbered by as much as seven to one (Wright, 115). Regardless, Custer planned a surprise dawn attack for June 26, and thought he could “get through with them in one day”, only later revising his plan to attack in daylight on June 25 (Wright, 123).

However, the Lakota had been working to lead the U.S. soldiers to the Greasy Grass, a tributary of the Little Bighorn River, and were preparing for battle, as they knew the U.S. soldiers were doing. Sitting Bull, a holy man, statesman and warrior of the Hunkpapa Lakota, had been praying in the days prior to the battle, and had a vision in which he saw soldiers falling like grasshoppers; a voice said to him, “I give these to you because they have no ears.”

The U.S. soldiers gave themselves away with a dust cloud rising up as they approached the Greasy Grass encampment. The Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors were quickly ready. Crazy Horse led as many as 1,000 warriors to flank Custer’s forces. Sitting Bull was older, so he sent his nephews White Bull and One Bull to fight; Crazy Horse, Rain-In-the-Face, Lame White Man, Black Moon, Wooden Leg, Big Road, He Dog, Inkpaduta and Gall took key actions as well. The Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors routed U.S. troops; 268 U.S. soldiers were killed, including Custer and all of the personnel in the five-company battalion under his immediate command. It’s difficult to say how many Indigenous people died; the most commonly cited figure is 100 men and women. The battle is remembered as a day of victory by their descendants.

Spotted Tail said, “This war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land from us without price.” Greasy Grass was the firm response to that attempt. It was a watershed moment in the history of Indigenous-U.S. relations, and the first time, but not the last, that the still-in-force Treaty of Fort Laramie was tested; both the treaty and the battle have a long reach that is still shaping policy conversations, decisions, and battles today.

Sources

KF7221 .W75 2016  Wright, Charles E. Law at Little Big Horn: Due Process Denied.

Treaty between the United States of America and different tribes of Sioux Indians : concluded April 29, et. seq., 1868 ; ratification advised February 16, 1869 ; proclaimed February 24, 1869.

E83.876 .L27 1997 Hardorff, Richard G. Lakota recollections of the Custer fight : new sources of Indian-military history / compiled and edited by Richard G. Hardorff ; introduction to the Bison Books edition by Jerome A. Greene.

E90.W8A3 2003 Wooden Leg.  Wooden Leg: a Warrior Who Fought Custer / interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis ; introduction to the new Bison Books edition by Richard Littlebear.

Map of a reconnaissance of the Black Hills, July and August, 1874, with troops under command of Lt. Col. G.A. Custer, 7th Cavalry.