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June 25, 1876: An Interpretation of an Historical Event
by Bruce Lesh
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Essential Question:
How should events from the Indian Wars be commemorated
by the federal government?
Background
The Battle of Little Bighorn was one in a series of conflicts
that occurred during the American attempt to remove native
tribes from the West. Between 1850 and 1890, the United
States military subdued numerous tribes through a concerted
effort to destroy the buffalo and disrupt hunting patterns.
The battle along the Big Horn River emerged from transgressions
of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The treaty, resulting
from Red Cloud’s defeat of the United States Army
in 1866-67, promised that the United States would abandon
forts along the Bozeman Trail and granted the Sioux access
to the sacred Black Hills and all territory to the west.
Incursions by homesteaders, miners, and travelers, as
well an American government-sponsored exploration for
gold in the Black Hills quickly raised tensions between
the Sioux and the American military. General George Armstrong
Custer, famous for his efforts in the American Civil War,
led a military force into the Black Hills to seek gold.
In 1876, Custer was ordered to assist in rounding up the
Sioux Indians and placing them on the reservation. Attacking
at dawn on the morning of June 25, 1876, the year of America’s
100th anniversary, Custer was defeated by Sitting Bull,
Crazy Horse, and the collection of tribes encamped along
the Greasy Grass, near Hardin, Montana. Although a deflating
defeat for the Seventh Cavalry and General Custer, it
turned out to be a temporary setback when subsequently
the Sioux were defeated and forced onto the reservations.
Even Sitting Bull, after four years in Canada, capitulated
in 1881 and moved onto the reservations. By 1890, native
resistance had ended.
Although the fight at the Little Bighorn River and the
eventual surrender of Sitting Bull and the Lakota Sioux
occurred in the nineteenth century, the late twentieth
century saw a new incarnation of the battle, which continued
to resonate throughout American popular culture. Images
of Custer and his famous “last stand” appeared
in movies, on lunch boxes, and as a tool to advertise
cigarettes and beer. In the 1980s, the question of how
to commemorate the events that occurred on June 25, 1876
was raised. Should the park that had been created on the
site of the battlefield – called Custer Battlefield
National Monument -- commemorate the valiant defeat of
the enigmatic General George Armstrong Custer, or a victory
by the Sioux and other native tribes that were attacked?
After both a contentious debate and a thorough reinterpretation
of what happened resulting from a brushfire that exposed
many heretofore undiscovered archchological artifacts,
the federal government, in 1993, changed the name of the
park from Custer Battlefield National Monument to Little
Big Horn National Battlefield Monument. The debate over
how to commemorate the events spoke to the power of myths
and icons in American history, the culture wars of the
1990s, and the continual reinterpretation of the past
that defines a rigorous study of history.
This lesson explores both battles: the one in 1876 and
the one in the 1990s. Students are asked to determine
the causes of the troubles between the Sioux and the American
government and how the events of June 25th have been interpreted,
and then to debate how those events should be commemorated
by the federal government.
Objectives
- compare and contrast images of an historical event;
- determine the causes of, and motivations for, the
Battle of the Little Bighorn; and
- develop an interpretation of how to commemorate
the events of June 25, 1876.
Materials
Resource
Sheet 1
Resource
Sheet 2
Resource
Sheet 3
American Perspective Images (pdf)
Native American Perspective Images (pdf)
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