Omaha daily bee., 1907-12-29
ON THE CUSTER BarTLEFIELD
Late Investigator Thinks the General
Threw Away the Lives of
His Men.

When the true story of the Custer fght
is told 1t is probable that the teliink will
add no luster to the Custer name, unless
a willingness to gamble with the lives oi
others to accomplish personal end may
be considered laudableo
Such is the conclusion reached by Ed
ward s. Curtis after months spent In
tracing every foot of the route taken BY
General Custer Just before and during tht
historic battle OF the Little Big Horn ir
1876, the battle in which Custer and his
immediate command were butchered by the
Sioux.
In his field work for "The North Ameri.
can Indian" the most pretentious histori
cal, chronological and pictorial compilation
on the Indian tribes of America of which
j. Pierpont Morgan is chief patron, Mr.
Curtis spent the summer in Montana and
has just returned to New York Most OF
the summers work was devoted to study
of the battle of the Little Big Horn Mr.
Curtis was assisted by White -Man-That-
Runs-Him and Hairy -Moccasin, Grow
scouts who were with Custer; Two-Moons
and Red Hawk, Sioux scouts who served
in the engagement, and nearly a hundred
other Indians.
THE time has not arrived" said Mr.
Curtis recently, ito write the real story
of Custer's last fight, and it is a question
whether this story properly may be in
corporated in the work being compiled
There are too many persons still living who
could not gain any glory by the narration
OF the facts in the last Custer engagement
my investigation of the battle of the
Little Big Horn has been more minute and
complete than any previously made.
started in the Rosebud country and fol-
-
into the Wolf mountains, then to the point
where Custer and Reno separated. From
this point took up Clusters trail and fol
lowed every foot of 1t. / was fortunate In
finding several of Clusters old Indian
scouts. all of them now more than &
years old.
1.-The clearness of the memory Of White
Man-That- -Runs-Him / found to be phe-
nomenal. / took him over the battlefield
from every side and did everything l could
TO disprove what he said were facts Not
once did he vary from his story. With the
Crow scouts l went over the ground to
the point where Custer, telling them they
had kept their promise to him, to show
him where the enemy. was camped, sent
them back out of the fight to save their
lives. Then 1 took up the inquiry with the
Sioux scouts, who knew every detail of it.
The stories of these old scouts / verified
later.
"Such an investigation as / made can
bring the inquirer to only one conclusion
that General custer unnecessarily sacrificed
the lives of his soldiers to further his per-
sonal ends. know 1t is unpopular even to
criticise a military commander whoNis dead
and who died as did Custer, but some day
the truth of this fight must be written.
fe nn that
ter could have won this fight with little
loss of life When the wise old Indian
warriors that were in this fight are asked
what they think Of Custer's course in the
battle they point to their heads and say:
He must have been wrong here This is
the most charitable view that can be taken
even by the Indians. They can explain his
acts in no other way.
IT can refute positively the charge that
Custer and his men were drunk. New
York Herald.