Jonathan P. Baird

2026 is a year of commemorations. While it is America’s 250 and Concord New Hampshire’s 300, June 25 is also the 150th anniversary of the battle of Little Big Horn. Little Big Horn has been mostly known because of the deaths of Gen. George Custer and his troops at the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians but there is so much more to the story.

I recently had the opportunity to visit North Dakota, South Dakota and Colorado and hear about this event from a Native American perspective. It is not the perspective I learned in school. Truthfully Native American history is a vast panorama but the stories have been largely erased. From my personal experience, the history is not taught in either school or college.

In the 1860’s and 1870’s, there were over 100 distinct armed engagements and thousands of smaller documented actions between Native Americans and the U.S. government across the American West. These conflicts exploded because of the massive influx of settlers combined with the almost constant breaking of treaties by the government.

A central character in the Little Big Horn story is Tatanka Iyotake or as he was better known, Sitting Bull. A Lakota Sioux, Sitting Bull was born in 1831. He was not engaged in any fight with settlers until his experience in the early 1860’s with Gen. Henry Sibley and his ruthless campaign against Native Americans. Sibley didn’t distinguish between innocents and warriors. His troops killed women and children. That experience contributed to Sitting Bull’s recalcitrance,

After the Civil War, President Ulysses Grant advocated a policy of peace with the Native Americans. He wanted to abide by the terms of the second Fort Laramie treaty which gave the Lakota Sioux much of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. However, prospectors and miners discovered gold and the lure of getting rich drew many white people to the region. Gen. Custer was actually the person who confirmed the presence of gold and a gold rush ensued. He had led a military reconnaissance expedition into the Black Hills in 1874.

Mining interests placed great pressure on President Grant to allow search for gold in a region considered a sacred hunting ground by both the Sioux and the Cheyenne. Grant caved to the pressure. Even though this was entirely contrary to treaty provisions and promises, the federal government issued an order requiring all Indians to move onto reservations by January 31, 1876 or be considered hostile. Grant sent troops to back up this order.

Sitting Bull would not go to the reservation. He had a vision in the summer of 1876 of a great victory over white soldiers. That vision was fulfilled. In June 1876, federal troops began a multi-pronged attack on Indians not on a reservation. In a reckless mission, Gen. Custer did not wait for other forces under Gen. Crook and Gen. Terry. Custer led 200 men in an attack on Sitting Bull’s camp on Montana’s Little Big Horn River.

Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and hundreds of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated Custer and killed him and his troops. The defeat shocked America. Even though Custer had led an attack on a peaceful Sioux village, he became a hero in death and was remembered as the victim of a massacre.

Custer’s defeat provoked a massive federal military response. Sitting Bull had to retreat to Canada. These words of Sitting Bull mark his grave site:

“What treaty have the Lakota made with the white man that we have broken? Not one. What treaty have the white men ever made with us that they have ever kept? Not one. When I was a boy the Lakota owned the world; the sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them? What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Lakota; because I was born where my father lived; because I would die for my people and my country?”

While Sitting Bull was a prominent warrior, he was widely respected in the Native American world both for his fortitude of spirit and his spirituality. He never signed any treaties with the U.S. government. After Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull spent four years in Canada. He was on shaky ground with the government. When he returned to the U.S. he was first treated as a military prisoner but the government then relented. For a time, he joined Bullfalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show and toured the U.S.

Tribal police killed Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890. They had a mission to bring Sitting Bull into the Standing Rock Agency to quell the Ghost Dance, a ceremonial dance believed to bring back an old way of life.

As we consider the 150th anniversary of Little Big Horn, in an era where DEI is condemned by the federal government, there is a gross misunderstanding of the Native American situation. Native American tribes remain sovereign nations. It is a mistake to see Native Americans as simply a racial minority. The battle over DEI doesn’t apply to Native Americans. Under the Constitution, the government’s treaties with Native American tribes remain the supreme law of the land.

The story of Little Big Horn deserves reconsideration. Sitting Bull was the true hero of the story trying to protect and enforce legitimate treaty rights that were being broken. The loss of land meant the end of a way of life that depended on that land. As has been said, Custer died for our sins.