Excellent book ,nonfiction Killing Custer.

[Red James Cash]

Heres a pretty excellent book , Killing Custer by James Welch. From the point of view of the native american tribes that fought at the battle of little bighorn.Yup custer was a dumba$$

 

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[spartacus53]

Thanks, I'll look into that book. I am big on nonfiction books.

 

[Dano Sverige]

My books are still unpacked in the basement,but another good book on Custer is "son of the morning star". I forget who wrote it now sorry.

"The book was written by Evan S. Connell, who prior to that time had written mostly fiction. Connell's book, which includes much of the history of the American West and the Indian Wars, was well received by critics and also popular, making the best-seller lists."

Gotta love Google.

 

[P.B. and Dylan]

I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. I love history, especially when the story is from a different perspective then the standard one.

 

[allen]

sounds like a good book to look for.

 

[Red James Cash]

My books are still unpacked in the basement,but another good book on Custer is "son of the morning star". I forget who wrote it now sorry.

"The book was written by Evan S. Connell, who prior to that time had written mostly fiction. Connell's book, which includes much of the history of the American West and the Indian Wars, was well received by critics and also popular, making the best-seller lists."

Thats alright Dano ,no need to be sorry .I read son of morning star a number of time,thats another excellent one.A few years ago i was lucky enough to come across a copy of a book called - Archaeological insights into the custer battle - An assessment of the 1884 field season. What happened was in 1983 there was a major grass fire on the battlefield grounds and it completely burnt to the soil all the years of built up vegetation.From doing ballistics on the bullets and firing pin and extractor marks on the casings they were actually able to plot where the guns made their way around during the battle.they even found a finger bone with a wedding ring still around it. there were even bullet casings found that started at custers position and then ended up being found at the native americans position.meaning the soldier who owned the gun was killed and his rifle taken and used against the rest of the soldiers.fascinating stuff.

 

[RGINN]

Excellent books; I have them all. I've never been to the Little Bighorn, but I've been to the Wa$hita battle field many times. Which is where the 'Son of the Morning Star' title came from. Another good reference book 'My Lie on the Plains'. Sorry, 'My Life on the Plains', written by Custer, if you want to get his viewpoint. For an example on how Custer colored this account, read up on scout Ben Clark, and then notice that Custer does not mention him EVEN ONCE in the narrative about the attack on Black Kettle's village outside present day Cheyenne, OK. Just one incident. This fight could have very easily become Custer's demise, but he lucked out. Look up Walter Camp for more info on that episode.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

My books are still unpacked in the basement,but another good book on Custer is "son of the morning star". I forget who wrote it now sorry.

"The book was written by Evan S. Connell, who prior to that time had written mostly fiction. Connell's book, which includes much of the history of the American West and the Indian Wars, was well received by critics and also popular, making the best-seller lists."

Thats alright Dano ,no need to be sorry .I read son of morning star a number of time,thats another excellent one.A few years ago i was lucky enough to come across a copy of a book called - Archaeological insights into the custer battle - An assessment of the 1884 field season. What happened was in 1983 there was a major grass fire on the battlefield grounds and it completely burnt to the soil all the years of built up vegetation.From doing ballistics on the bullets and firing pin and extractor marks on the casings they were actually able to plot where the guns made their way around during the battle.they even found a finger bone with a wedding ring still around it. there were even bullet casings found that started at custers position and then ended up being found at the native americans position.meaning the soldier who owned the gun was killed and his rifle taken and used against the rest of the soldiers.fascinating stuff.

Been to Custer battlefield 5 or 6 times, it is still an emotional feeling for me. I have sat on last stand hill and watched the sun set several times and tried to imagine what the warriors and soldiers felt like. The Native Americans were defending their families, and way of life, the soldiers knew they were surrounded and trapped and were going to die, in later years there were multiple reports from various Indian fighters who were there about soldiers committing suicide by shooting each other which was a common practice when facing capture....No one wanted to be captured and tortured. Reports were Custer was hardly touched but the majority of the other soldier's bodies were found heavly mutilated, Tom Custer was

Aside from scalping and the shooting of bullets and arrows into the bodies by the warriors themselves, most ritual mutilation was done by women who had lost family relatives in recent combat... The worst possible torture was to be handed over to the women...

Tom Custer was mutulated to such an extent that he was identified only through a tatoo of the Goddess of Liberty and an initialed American flag on his arm, even his heart had been cut out....

Here is a good link to some good info, wood engravings and pictures of the times.....

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/custer9.html

 

[RGINN]

The popular story was that Rain in the Face had vowed to cut out Tom Custer's heart and eat it. I wonder about the story of no mutilation to George Custer's body though. This could have been reported out of respect for his widow, Libby, who was pretty influential. I don't know that she ever actually viewed his remains. There is a story of two Cheyenne women sticking awls into his ears so he could hear better in the next world. (Reference to Custer's meeting with the Cheyennes on Sweetwater creek) Then again, there were so many dead soldiers the Indians didn't have time to get to all of them. An old saying that Lyman WeaselBear, Northern Cheyenne, told me in Oklahoma about that fight: the Cheyennes did the fighting, the Sioux got the glory, and the Crow got the land.