Cheyenne Memories of the Custer Fight

Only six Cheyenne Indians (but thirty-two Sioux) died in the fighting at the Little Bighorn River that wiped out the command of General George Custer. Brave Wolf, the son of the prophet Old Brave Wolf, later recalled the courage of the doomed men in the Seventh Cavalry. He was at the scene on that bloodiest of Sundays in the summer of 1876.

Brave Wolf and twelve other members of his tribe tell what happened in Cheyenne Memories of the Custer Fight, compiled and edited by Richard G. Hardorff. Between 1895 and 1908 naturalist George Bird Grinnell talked with Brave Wolf, American Horse, and other combatants at the Little Bighorn. Researcher Walter Mason Camp sought out Tall Bull, Bull Hump, and Little Wolf, whose voices are added to these pages. Casting light on events is the skilled Cheyenne interpreter Long Forehead, also known as Willis Rowland. Tribal historian John Stands in Timber, who gathered material from Cheyenne elders, describes the movements of Custer and his soldiers. Hamlin Garland’s interview with Two Moons recreates the noise and dust and smoke and frenzied confusion at the Little Bighorn.