The name of "Custer" has become a byword. Today, when someone is involved in seemingly
hopeless circumstances references to "Custer's Last Stand" might be made. On the surface, and even
after some investigation, the case could be made that Custer was the victim of his own mistakes and
recklessness. This case cannot be confirmed, only opinionized and acknowledged to be a possible
conclusion. The case made here is one which notes that the men under Custer's command on June 25,
1876 failed him, and in failing him certainly doomed him.
The purpose of this essay is not to slander the Indian nations with whom Custer fought against
that day. The Sioux and other tribes were just defending there home. Treaties had been made with
these Indians granting them the Dakota Territory and the region of the Black Hills forever. Treaties that
white men drew up and signed gave them this land. In 1874 Gold was discovered in the region of the
Black Hills, on Indian land. With the discovery of Gold, treaties were thrown aside and forgotten. The
Indian nations whom Custer fought in 1876 were fighting to protect their lives, their families, and their
land. The Government had indeed directed that all Indians move onto reservations by Jan. 31, 1876, or
be deemed hostile. In their remote and scattered winter camps, it was likely that many Indian tribes did
not receive these orders and could not have reached the government agencies with their women and
children if they had. Custer and the United States Government were not in the right on June 25, 1876.
Indeed, the whole Indian policy is a dark page in any history.
If you read any sources on Custer he was either loved or hated. The governing powers in 1876
were no exception to this. General Sheridan admired Custer. President Grant, Benteen, and Reno did
not. President Grant did not like Custer because Custer testified, in a court, to the corruption withi...