P
that a large group of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne
“hostiles” are occupying the Rosebud River Valley
in Montana and moves his 1,200 soldiers there to
confront them. While camped along the Rosebud,
the soldiers are instead set upon by approximately
an equal number of warriors led by Crazy Horse.
The attack leads to one of the largest battles
of the Indian wars. After six hours of intense fight-
ing along the three-mile river valley, the Indian
forces end the battle. Crook declares a victory, but
in fact the conflict is more of a draw, with both
sides suffering relatively few casualties. The battle,
however, largely incapacitates Crook’s soldiers for
two months, thus reducing the number of U.S.
troops available to fight hostile Indians.
June 25 to 26
Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors
triumph at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
On orders from General Alfred H. Terry, Lieutenant
Colonel George Armstrong Custer, commanding
the Seventh Cavalry, travels up the Rosebud River
to attack Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne
hostiles camped along the Little Bighorn River in
Montana Territory.
Grossly underestimating the Indians’ fighting
forces, Custer divides his men into three battal-
ions—one led by him, one headed by Major Marcus
Reno, and the third assigned to Captain Frederick
Benteen. Custer sends Benteen to scout the bluffs
to the south, as Reno approaches the camp from the
north and Custer moves toward it from the south.
Reno and his men are met by a large Indian force,
which compels them to retreat to the bluffs. Custer,
meanwhile, leads more than 200 troops forward;
they are met by an army of several thousand Lakota
and Cheyenne warriors. Custer and all of his men
are killed in the ensuing battle.
Although the victory has great symbolic mean-
ing to the Indians, it gives them little advantage in
the overall war the U.S. Army is waging against In-
dians in the northern plains. In fact, the Battle of
Little Bighorn allows the popular press to demonize
the Indians fighting to protect their territory and
encourages the army to pursue its war against them
with increased ferocity.“Indians kept swirling round
and round, and the soldiers
killed only a few. Many soldiers
fell. At last all horses killed
but five.... [F]ive horsemen
and the bunch of men, maybe
forty, started toward the
river.... One man all alone ran
far down toward the river, then
round up over the hill. I thought
he was going to escape, but a
Sioux fired and hit him in the
head. He was the last man.”
—Northern Cheyenne warrior
Two Moons, describing the Battle
of Little BighornJuly 17Yellow Hand is scalped by
William F. Cody.
While serving as an army scout, William F. Cody,
also known by the stage name Buffalo Bill, scalps
the body of Yellow Hand, a Cheyenne chief shot in
a skirmish with soldiers seeking to avenge the deaths
of the cavalrymen led by George Armstrong Custer
at the Battle of Little Bighorn (see entry for JUNE 25
TO 26, 1876). Wearing a garish Mexican vaquero
outfit made of black velvet and trimmed with silver
buttons and lace, Cody defiles the corpse.
Dressed in this costume, he replays the event in
a play titled The Red Right Hand; or the First Scalp
for Custer, which depicts Cody himself killing Yel-
low Hand (renamed Yellow Hair in the play and in
the popular press) in hand-to-hand combat. He also
displays Yellow Hand’s scalp for the audience. The