The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-05-09
Little Journeys in
Americana
Custer Sacrificed to Graft
BY LESTER B. COLBY

custer SacrlEced to Graft
DOR more than fifty years hundreds
Of writer's have sought II solve the
mystery of Clusters massacre. They
have searched the battlefield in vain,
have paved over letters and records
throughout the West and have piled
Indian survivors with questions. Al
ways they have been on cold trail.
New York and Washington were the
places to search. Custer was sacri-
feed to graft
Gen. George Armstrong Custer, U. s.
A., and the 225 men who died with
him, were destroyed utterly because
Custer had discovered the most
colossal conspiracy. probably, in the
history of the world. He had dseov-
cred conspiracy which, at that time.
was costing the United States gov
eminent as much as S20,000000 a year
in loot. Ner was that all of it.
When Custer went into action to
break up the ring he signed his own
denth warrant. Very soon repeating
Winchester rifles began to flow to the
Indians of the northern plains country
by the boat load. up the Missouri
river. The Indian department, rotten
with the conspiracy, through licensed
agencies, was copartner In the sell
ing.
Accompanying the boat loads of
rifles went more than 100000 rounds
Of ammunition. The Indian depart
ment, STEPPED in crookedness at the
time, through grating agents. was
giving the sellers protection. Big
profits were taken on all of these
death-dealing machines by the post
traders who were paying tribute to
the clique.
Agitators were busy among the In
dams for months, stirring them up,
getting them excited, preparing them
for war. In little time 5000 of them
were "off the reservations and on
the warpath. They were armed with
the best repeating rifles ever manu-
featured up to that time. They had
more ammunition than the 5000 war
riors in the field could lug into battle.
Nor did Custer, who was sent
against them with q handful of men,
know their strength. Why? Simply
because the conspring Indian agents
were reporting them on their reserva-
tons. And Clusters men were armed
with obsolete single-shot rifles; wea-
pons that had been used in the Civil
war, row ten years ended.
Gen. Phil Sheridan, in his official
report of the battle, gave a clew to
the situation when he wrote:
ut now becomes apparent that the
hostile forces had been augmented by
large numbers of young warriors from
agencies along the Missouri river and
the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agen-
cles in Nebraska, and that the Indian
agents of these agencies had con-
cealed the facts of tie departure of
these warriors, and that in most cases
the agents continued to issue rations
as though the Indians were present at
their agencies"
A pretty mess of affairs.
Sitting Bull, Gall and those other
Sioux chieftains, as much victims of |
the conspiracy as Custer, because they
did not know what il was all about, |
had plenty of help from men at the
agencies.
Custer had been told that not more |
than 1000 Indians were on the war
path. Old Indian fighter, he had often
whipped Indians when outnumbered by |
them five to one. SO he dashed to the |
strike. The Indians, knowing he had |
been informed that a party of about
1000 was on the warpath, left a trail |
such as 1000 Indians might make.
He followed it, riding boldly to his
doom. The battle of the Little Big
Horn was no battle at all. 1t was a
slaughter. Merely a shambles. The
Sioux were so thick that only a part
of them could crowd near enough to
wet their hands in blood.