History of the Battle of Little Bighorn

America before colonisation: the native peoples

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Amerindian communities were grouped into large tribes, themselves sometimes divided into several clans.

The first relevant classification concerns the way of life of the Amerindians. The sedentary peoples, living mainly in the Great Lakes region in the north-east of today's United States and in the St Lawrence valley, are the Iroquois. They lived in small villages, sometimes fortified, in longhouses that could house several dozen people. The development of agricultural techniques led them to settle down, unlike the Algonquians. The Algonquians are nomadic and live mainly from hunting, fishing and gathering. To the north of the Great Lakes region, in Hudson Bay to be precise, live the Inuit. They are also nomadic tribes, living mainly from hunting animals and seabirds, as well as fishing.

This initial classification enables us to distinguish the different ethnic characteristics of the native American tribes. All are imbued with a great spirituality, akin to shamanism. The Algonquian people are numerically the largest, geographically the most extensive and the one with the most subdivisions, differences and internal conflicts. Although Amerindian spirituality is largely based on respect for the natural elements and other living beings around them, the Algonquians are a warlike people. The various clans wage fierce war against each other, not for the conquest of territory but mainly for access to natural resources and, above all, game. It should be pointed out that the value of an Algonquian was not measured by his possessions but by his warrior prowess. None of these Amerindians were attached to territory or wealth, but rather to their bravery in battle. The incessant conflicts between the tribes led to many bloody and deadly confrontations, from which the men drew their pride. An Amerindian warrior, conditioned to fight from an early age, can launch raids against another tribe at any time. If successful, these raids bring horses and women. Most tribes practice scalping and other human trophies.

In the north-west of the American territory, certain tribes came together, sharing common lifestyles and beliefs and making it possible to forge strategic alliances. Created by the Indians under the name of the "Council of 7 Fires", this great Indian organisation became known to Europeans as the "Sioux". The 7 Fires refer to the 7 original tribes: the Sisseton, the Whapeton, the Whapekute and the Mdewakanton, who together form the large Dakota family. They are followed by the Yankton and Yanktonese, who form the Nakota family, and finally the Lakota, who make up 60% of the Sioux people. This last family was further subdivided into 7 tribes, several of which took part in the Battle of Little Bighorn: the Hunkpapas, the Oglalas, the Sihasapas, the Minneconjous and the Itazipacolas.

The arrival of European settlers

The first Europeans set foot in the New World in the 15th^century . After Christopher Columbus arrived on the continent in 1492, in the service of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, it was the turn of the other European kingdoms to send their explorers: Portugal, England, then France and even the Netherlands. However, the primary purpose of these numerous expeditions was not to establish permanent colonies. With a crew of just fifty sailors, often depleted during the long Atlantic crossing, and a lack of local equipment, it was only possible to stay temporarily in Americana, named after the discoveries made by the navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) in 1510.

It was not until the early 17th^century that the first voyages by Europeans wishing to start a new life began. In July 1620, the ship Mayflower left the port of London for the New World. Among the hundred or so passengers were around thirty English dissidents, who had taken refuge for a time in the Netherlands, determined to found their own colony across the Atlantic, where they could practise their religion freely without fear of persecution. Those commonly known as the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on American soil in November 1620 after several months of arduous travel. They founded the colony of Plymouth in what is now Massachusetts, more precisely in Cape Cod Bay on the east coast of the continent.

This promised land meant that the colonists had to endure some difficult early years: disease, difficulties in cultivating the land and a sometimes harsh climate. Relations with the Indian tribes were timid at first, but generally calmed down. Some Indian tribes, such as the Wampanoags, led by Chief Massasoit, even came to the aid of the settlers by providing them with food and teaching them techniques for cultivating the land . The cultural gap between the settlers and the Amerindians soon led to mutual incomprehension. On the one hand, the Indians took a dim view of the arrival of the "white man", who made pacts with certain tribes, thus directly entering into the internal conflicts of the natives. This new enemy also had fighting techniques that were radically opposed to those of the Amerindians. Firearms, which arrived on the continent with the colonists, were impure and disloyal weapons, as the Amerindians preferred hand-to-hand combat, as bloody as possible in order to strip their opponents of all their honour. For their part, the American colonists saw the Indians as "subhuman", wearing very little clothing, living like beasts and having no beliefs comparable to Christianity. Confrontation seemed inevitable, especially as the European settlers were convinced of their mission to Christianise this new world. In addition to this mission of evangelisation, they were driven by the idea that if a land was not claimed by a Christian people, it did not belong to anyone and therefore belonged to them. After the first colonies, the entire east coast of America was soon colonised by Europeans of various nationalities.

The beginning of the confrontations

The conflict between the colonists and the Amerindians was defined by a multitude of small confrontations over a very long period. It was not a war with two armies of belligerents facing each other. In the middle of the ^18th century, the first localised massacres were carried out by both the Americans and the Amerindians. Both sides adopted the same rhetoric: revenge .

Once again, the picture was not one of constant rivalry, as demonstrated by the active participation of the Amerindians during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). This conflict initially pitted the European powers against each other, but soon extended to all their territories far from European soil. Great Britain went to war against France and the Holy Roman Empire, joined by Prussia and the Kingdom of Portugal. In America, the French allied themselves with the Iroquois, while the English forged an alliance with the Mohicans. The Amerindian peoples took part in the fighting alongside their white allies and saw it as a new way of opposing other rival tribes. For the colonists, these alliances legitimised the capture of allied territories. It should be remembered that at this time, Europeans had a large presence on American soil, even though the political entity of the United States was still in its infancy. The territory was mainly divided between France, England and Spain.

Seeking to break away from the British monarchy, the colonists declared their independence in 1776: this was the birth of the United States of America. The territory of the United States was then limited to the thirteen colonies on the east coast of the continent. Amerindian territory lay beyond the Appalachians. On the other side of the Mississippi, the continent was under French and Spanish domination. The rest of this territorial epic is commonly referred to as the "Conquest of the West". In 1800, the United States took over the Amerindian territory and extended its reach to the border with French Louisiana. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the United States for the sum of 50,000 francs. This purchase by the United States doubled the surface area of the territory and enabled them to lead the first expeditions to reach the west coast . The European powers gradually left American territory, leaving the field open to the United States, which was becoming increasingly organised politically and militarily. As a result, laws were passed concerning the fate of the Amerindians. In 1830 , the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Jackson. It ordered the deportation of "all Indians living in the territories from the boundary of the Thirteen Colonies to the banks of the Mississippi River, to a territory beyond the latter". This law marked a complete and definite break between the United States and the Amerindian peoples and signalled the end of a possible conciliation that was already well and truly eroded. It was also the first in a long series of acts aimed at confining the Amerindians to reservations and capturing their territories. Those who rose up were silenced by violence, as was the case in 1810 with the massacre of the Cherokee.

For almost a century, the territorial expansion of the United States was virtually uninterrupted. Nearly 400 treaties were signed with the Amerindians to guarantee them territory, but they were all violated one by one by the Americans. These violations led to numerous conflicts and confrontations between the Amerindian peoples and the American army. The technical difference in weaponry and the existence of a professional army on the American side led to unequal fighting.

Little Bighorn: the American Indian victory in the Black Hills

In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie, preceded by the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek in 1867, guaranteed the Sioux a protected territory from the Americans. This territory stretches between the present-day states of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota. However, American incursions into the Sioux reserve were frequent, and Native raids in response were just as numerous. It has to be said that interest in this territory is only growing on the American side: numerous gold deposits have been discovered and the settlers intend to make them their own, even if it means driving out the Sioux. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876), a veteran of the American Civil War and head of the ^7th Cavalry Regiment, was sent with his men to guarantee the safety of the American expeditions in the Black Hills. These lands, sacred to the Sioux, were repeatedly visited by groups of over 1,000 men, scientists and soldiers, in search of gold deposits and the promise of wealth they held.

Faced with this violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Amerindian resistance organised itself. Around Sitting Bull, spiritual leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux, and the warrior chief of the Crazy Horse Oglala Sioux, a congregation of Amerindian warriors was formed, soon to be joined by the Northern Cheyenne, led by Lame White Man. They also brought with them warriors from their long-standing allies the Arapaho. This congregation of around 1,500 warriors was led spiritually by Sitting Bull and militarily by the warlords of the various allied tribes.

In September 1875, a commission was set up to negotiate with the Amerindians over the territory of the Black Hills. The Sioux refused to compromise and threatened the Americans with severe reprisals if they entered their territory again. For the Americans, it seemed necessary to neutralise the free Amerindians before they could harm the expeditions. Several American attacks took place in the spring of 1876, in order to round up and neutralise the Sioux. These attacks only increased the number of warriors ready to fight alongside Sitting Bull against the American army.

On 25 June, Custer led 216 men, accompanied by Major Marcus Reno (1834-1889) and his 170 men, Captain Frederick Benteen (1834-1898) and 165 men. Finally, Captain Thomas Mower McDougall (1845-1909) was responsible for transporting ammunition and manning the rear base with 101 men. Custer's plan was to attack the Sioux and Cheyenne camp along the Little Bighorn River from several sides, forcing them to fight by trapping them. At around 3 p.m., Custer's Crow Scouts informed him that the Amerindian camp had spotted the American troop movements and that it was time to go on the offensive. Reno was the first to attack from the south, while Custer went along the surrounding hills to attack the camp from the north, assuring Reno of the support of his troops. The troops led by Reno soon found themselves in difficulty against the Amerindians who had come to meet them. With no visual indication of Custer's position and possible assistance, he decided to withdraw and join Benteen. The Amerindians had pushed Reno back, but had spotted Custer and his men. Crazy Horse leads a small group of warriors to meet them. Meanwhile, Hunkpapa Chief Gall leads a bloody attack to the east against some of Reno's and Benteen's companies, who have come to reinforce Custer. Divided in several places and misinformed about the real number of Amerindians, the American forces were decimated and Custer died during the battle. More than 250 men of the American army were killed compared with around 100 Amerindians . The Cheyenne chief Lame White Man was among the Amerindian casualties.

The Amerindians after Little Bighorn

The battle of Little Bighorn remains in the collective memory as the last and most dazzling victory of the Amerindians over the American federal army. In the years that followed, the American army gradually took control of the Black Hills and developed gold mining. From 1879 until 1886, the last confrontations known as the Apache Wars took place in the south-west of the United States. Their fate was similar to that of the rest of the American territory. The surrender of Geronimo, the Kiricahua chief who resisted the reservation system imposed by the Americans until 1886, marked a turning point. From that date onwards, the United States continued to legislate to prevent the Amerindians from rising up. The Dawes Act proclaimed in 1887 changed the territories into individual properties, forcing the Amerindians to appropriate them by name. This approach went against their customs, but those who refused had their land bequeathed to Americans. Between 1887 and 1934, the territory officially occupied by the Amerindians fell from 560,000 km2^to 190,000 ^km2. Today, there are 326 American Indian reservations in the United States, with a population of around 5 million, guardians of the traditions of their ancestors.

Places of remembrance and the battle in the collective American memory

The historic site of the Battle of Little Bighorn is located not far from the Crow Agency Indian Reservation in Montana. Custer was buried there in 1877, prompting the authorities to make it an American national cemetery. It serves as a memorial to the soldiers of the American army who died during the fighting. In 1886, the site was named "Custer Battlefield Reserve National Cemetery", before the name was shortened to "Custer National Cemetery", and in 1946 to "Custer Battlefield National Monument". Custer and the battle of Little Bighorn, often better known to Americans as "Custer's Last Stand", are truly anchored in the American national story. For the record, Custer is the American historical figure about whom the most books have been published to date, after President Lincoln. In 1976, the American Indian Movement protested against the commemoration of the site's centenary, arguing that it was a place to venerate Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn to the detriment of the Native American massacre. Despite these protests, it was not until 1991 that the site was officially renamed the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. In 2003, a monument was erected in homage to the Amerindian warriors who also died during the battle. The inauguration took place in the presence of the descendants of Sitting Bull and Custer, who were partly behind the project. This long road to recognition for the Native Americans mirrors the history of the tribes and the fate reserved for them by American society. It wasn't until 1924 that Native Americans were granted American citizenship if they so wished, and it wasn't until the 1950s that Arizona became the first state to give them the right to vote.