Never Again Would They Wield Such Power (Part 11 of 11)

The Sioux and Cheyenne would never again be as strong as they had been that day in June 1876, nor as free.  They would be hunted down and returned to their reservations. It would take time, but they would eventually tell their side of the story, and it didn’t always match the legend that had been perpetrated by the white community.  Of course, the Indians didn’t have historians, didn’t have anyone who could identify where exactly each of those recounting their experience was located on the field of battle, so it was left to others to try to decipher when and where their stories might fit within the overall picture.

The archeological survey completed in the 1990’s provided additional evidence, particularly that of the discarded bullet casings discovered.  That there appeared to be an orderly skirmish line on Calhoun Hill, for example, first facing south and then facing west is based on the number and location of bullet casings found.  Of course, because that is just one source of evidence, it has to be considered with whatever other evidence was uncovered, that being the Indians’ eyewitness accounts and the locations of the grave markers.

A military inquiry into the disaster was requested by Major Reno.  He had been much maligned for withdrawing from the field when not ordered to do so.  Popular belief at the time was that, had he pressed his attack, Custer would have been able to attack the village farther north and the Seventh would have prevailed.  Had Reno persisted as ordered, it is likely that his entire battalion would have been annihilated as well. Reno was exonerated. 

Will we ever know what happened on that lonely ridge?  No.  There will always be those who believe in the valiant “last stand,” those who believe in the “buffalo hunt”, those who believe in a version somewhere between the two.  What we do know is that it marked the beginning of the end of a way of life for the Sioux and Cheyenne.  Never again would they wield such power, never again would they enjoy the freedom of their nomadic lifestyle.  The progress on display in far off Philadelphia that summer represented an overpowering and irrepressible force that neither they nor the wasichu could ever hope to stop.