This Day In History
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
June 25 — in history
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A coalition of Native American tribes, resisting a forced move onto reservations, array themselves against George Armstrong Custer's US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana Territory. A vastly overconfident Custer advance is met and wiped out in a matter of an hour.
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I still remember the Errol Flynn movie where Custer was portrayed as a misunderstood valiant hero who was let down by the higher ups.
They Died With Their Boots On.
If the US Army won it was a great victory. If Indians won it was a massacre.
Times are slowly changing.
When I was of Cub Scout age a long time ago there was a "jamboree" in one of the local parks and a couple hundred Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts camped out overnight in that city park.
The next day, for a reason I can no longer understand, us boys did a re-enactment of Custers Last Stand . part of the group were the soldiers and a larger part were the Indians . The soldiers were in the middle and the Indians ran a circle around them war whooping and shooting play arrows. The kids that were the soldiers had been instructed to fall down dead at regular intervals so their number would go down to zero.
I dont remember if we were supposed to be happy or sad that the soldiers all died or that they were brave , but I do remember feeling like our side had lost.
I assume the Cub Scouts dont do that sort of thing anymore.
Custers wife Elizabeth kind of made a post Last Stand career out of promoting her husbands bravery and heroism. I think she was doing it until the day she died, and she lived a LONG time.
I'm sure that she did. Fantasy sells, reality not so much.
I know she wrote a book or two about him after he was dead, and I imagine they were big sellers at the time.
think the movie that influenced me the most on this subject when i was young, was the one with dustin hoffman, Little big man , it kind of put things into perspective for me even though it was satire and comedy . it made me think hollywood and history usually dont tell the truth , so one has to seek it out from all the sources .
One of everyone's favorite movies.
Jack Crabb and Old Lodge Skins...Classic
2 scenes i always remember in that movie , jacks rival walks up and says , " i have x ponies and a wife , " jack being much shorter , hangs his head and replies i have x wives and one pony ......all the while the wives are giggling in the background...
the other scene was where jack was telling custer what he faced , and custer , being the boneheaded idiot enamored with his own press releases mythos , did as any politician would do and made a gobbledy gook summation of what jack was telling him. only to find out jack was telling the truth.
I think that second scene was likely a little closer to the truth since it is no secret custer had asperations to run for president and was building his political reputation .
And Grandfather Dan George.
And that was before Custer wore his arrow shirt.
Yup, and he played Old Lodge Skins.
Arrow always made some fine dress shirts , now the type custer ended up with ......reminds me of the old song by Ray Stevens , please mr custer , i dont wanna go....
ear worm warning...