Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-03-28
CUSTER'S LAST fight
New Story Of q Famous Battle on
the Little Big Horn.
VERSION OF INDIAN PARTICIPANT

----- = al.
Statement Disagrees With Narrstivs
of White Man-FIying Hawk Claims
| that il was Fair Fight and that the
Soldiers Were Thoroughly Frishten-
ed
| or the hundreds OF fights that mark
ed the era of warfare between the
whites and the abor!gines in the course
of our winning the West" that which
stands out most distinctly in the MEM
ory of men still living and In the more
or less veracious chronicles that form
the basis of thousands Of tales Of wild
adventure is the battle Of the Little
Big Horn on June 25, 1876. Particu-
lar pathos was given to this event
described by the whites as mas
sacre" and by the Indians as bat
tle") by the death of one Of the most
dashing and romantic, of cavalry lead
ers, General George A Custer, himself
the hero Of hundred fights and idol
lied by the army and the frontiers
men of his time for his picturesque
and charming personality, his valor
and his soldierly qualities. In the ga
laxy that included General Nelson A.
Miles, Phil Sheridan, Buffalo Bill and
Pawnee Bill, Custer was bright and
shining star. -
j In connection with the celebration
of the forty-fifth anniversary of the
battle last June, when monument IN
honor of General Custer was unveiled
on its site, several narratives of sur
viving witnesses Of the fight have ap-
peared in the magazines and news
papers. 1t Is hardly strange, in view
of the fact that Custer and all his men
all the actual participants on the
side of the American troops-were
killed, that these narratives should be
inmany instances cloudy and con-
fiicting. The writer's saw the action
from a safe distance and In the con-
fusion and excitement Of the occasion,
1t is scarcely to be expected that they
could have noted the incidents Of the
battle with any degree of accuracy,
to say nothing Of. the allowance to be
made for the faults Of memory In the
lapse of As years. Most of these ac-
counts, indeed, are made up from OBJ
servation Of circumstantial evidence
after the battle was, over All of Them
are written by white men. Moreover,
the fact that Indian fighting was not
carried on with the nice regard for
system, design and carefully plotted
plan taught at West Point and prac-
ticed by the Civil War veterans of
that day, makes 1t reasonable to as
sumo that these reports could posi-
bly, be in agreement or entitled to any
high degree of authenticity.
For the first time, the actual story
of the battle of the Little Big Horn is
now given to- the public from the
standpoint of the Indian. In regard
to this particular fight as in regard
to the major events of the century
long strife on the American frontier,
American history is practically silent
as to the Indians side of the story.
Some day the whole sanguinary tale
will be told impartially. And when 1t
Is told, the reputation Of the Indian
will perhaps emerge, IL not untarnish-
ed, at least bit less black than 1t has
been painted. 1t Is the old story of the
difference 1t makes whose OK is go'ed
Just now we are learning how much
1t matters whether the story Of war
is told by victor or vanquished in re-
gard to the greatest of all wars, a war
that involved much of the world.
Custer of the Seventh Cavalry, di-
vid' forces to the north and south
of the junction of the Big Horn with
the Little Big Horn, and with five
companies; containing 20S men, dashed
at the center Of the Sioux position,
whose strength he had underestimated
He was pushed back, completely sur
rounded, and his command killed to q
man. When two days later Captains
Gibbon and Terry came upon the
bloody scene and wired their report
to Washington it is little wonder that
the country was thrilled with the hor-
ror Of the story.
1t is to be noted that in the accept
ed historical records, the killing of
Custer and his troops looms large even
to this day while comparatively no
mention is made of our violation of
the Black Hills Treaty which led up
to the Indian insurrection of which
the Custer massacre was an incident.
One must search carefully to find men,
tion of the fact that Custer and his
command killed more than 100 Indians
in an engagement at Washita that
preceded the Little Big Horn fight.
Possibly this Washita incident is re-
garded by the Indians much as we
have all along regarded the later fight
-Gs "butchery" and q massacre"
For the sake of the sharp light of
contrast. let me cite briefly the ac-
cepted historical version Of the san
culinary struggle in which Custer was
killed before coming to the version re-
lated to me by an Indian participant
still surviving among the nations