Battle of Little Bighorn (2020)

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: Propelled by mystery,

The battle of little bighorn

gave rise to a legend

That persists

across centuries...

[g*nf*re]

...The astonishing death

of a celebrated indian fighter.

Woman: This was akin

to the country being shocked

By the assassination

of president kennedy.

Man: America likes

a tragic loser.

Narrator: The beginning of the

end of freedom on the plains.

Man: The strategy there

was to find indian villages

And to destroy them.

Man: We all had to do

what we had to do to survive.

Narrator: The execution

of an honored leader,

The birth

of an american cliché...

Man: Our mythic imagination is

populated by american indians.

Narrator:

...And a fight for identity

Against the tyranny of progress.

♪

American indians call it

the battle of the greasy grass.

In history books, it's the

battle of the little bighorn.

The image seared into memory

is simply custer's last stand.

[g*nf*re]

Three names, different lenses

for viewing the same few hours,

A pivotal moment in history

that changed the fate of many

And shaped the myth of a nation

in unexpected ways.

Enthralling from the start,

The story becomes

a bona fide fixation.

From initial outrage

to a global spectacle

To cinematic obsession,

The legend has persisted

more than a century.

Even today, we continue

to make sense of what happened.

The brutal battle played out

in June of 1876,

But the stage had been set

decades earlier

On the great plains,

A vast expanse of prairie

east of the rocky mountains.

In 1800, more than

half a million people,

A dozen distinct tribes,

lived on those grasslands,

But their days were numbered.

David penney:

The customary way of thinking

About settlement

of north america

Is this wave of settlers

that move from east to west,

But more accurately

it's kind of like a doughnut,

Because it's easier to go

around the tip

Of tierra del fuego

in south america

Than make your way

across the continent.

So, california, oregon,

The columbia valley

had all been settled.

Native people

who were living in the plains

Were relatively

undisturbed militarily

Until about the middle

of the century.

Narrator:

When destiny finally leads

American settlers westward ho,

It sets up an epic clash

of cultures on the plains,

A grab for resources

That will determine

the fate of many nations.

Penney: The larger frame

of this, of course,

Is the progress of civilization,

You know,

that the american indians

Are a valiant opponent,

But their primitive nature

dooms them to history.

They need to move

out of the way of progress.

Narrator: As the country

picks up the pieces

After the civil w*r,

The western frontier

becomes the next battleground.

Michelle delaney: The military

moves right into the west,

Conquering those lands

that had previously been held

By american indians.

It is a hard time

in american history.

Narrator:

The military clears the way,

As prospectors, businessmen, and

settlers eager to stake claims

Compete with native americans

for land.

The genesis

of the conflict at bighorn

Occurs at the spiritual

birthplace of the lakota sioux

In present-day south dakota.

Emil her many horses:

Part of our origin story

Is that the lakota emerged

from the black hills area

And were taught

how to use the buffalo

For food and shelter,

And that's all considered

kind of sacred land.

Narrator: In 1868,

the treaty of fort laramie

Recognizes the black hills

as lakota territory

In exchange for an end

to hostilities.

It also sets up

a permanent reservation,

Implying eventual containment--

A nuance lost to the lakota

at the time.

The government's goal is

to confine all native americans

To agencies or reservations.

Marvin dawes: They didn't

want them to be scattered,

And the only way

that they could contain

Was to put them

on the reservation,

Put them on the reservation

And keep an eye on them

and watch them.

Narrator: Dozens of native

leaders sign the document.

Dawes: There were two types

of natives, indians.

We have the non-treaty indian

and the treaty indians.

Narrator: Hunkpapa sioux chief

sitting bull

Is among those

who refuse to sign.

But almost immediately

in the black hills,

A complication emerges.

Penney: The rumors about gold

begin to develop

Right after the signing

of the treaty.

The agitation to kind of resolve

that question results

In the government-sponsored

expedition in 1874,

Which is led

by george armstrong custer.

[g*nshots]

Narrator: In the civil w*r,

custer was a union hero,

Though an unlikely one,

Having graduated last

in his class from west point.

Scott sagan:

Custer had a long history

Of successful, brave fights.

He would often have a charge

into confederate units

And came out victorious

even at gettysburg.

Narrator: After the w*r,

a 27-year-old custer

Reinvents himself

as an indian fighter.

♪

Penney: He was

a larger-than-life personality.

He had already declared interest

in political office.

Narrator: Those larger ambitions

are shared by his wife,

Elizabeth, or libbie.

Penney: She was big in society.

She came

from a prominent family.

They're big in politics.

They saw their union as a sort

of bigger social opportunity,

One kind of

playing off the other.

They were a power couple.

Narrator: But their bid

for power will prove perilous.

Soon there would be secrets

and bloodshed.

Officially, the u.S. Expedition

into the black hills

Is scouting a site

for a new fort,

But it's really a hunt for gold,

And custer,

a 19th-century media darling,

Wants to be the one to find it.

More than 1,000 soldiers, plus

geologists, engineers, miners,

A photographer, a band,

the son of u.S. President grant,

And 300 head of cattle for meat

All go rolling

into lakota sacred land.

Penney: And there's dispute

Whether or not

they found gold there.

There's a geologist who claims

they didn't find any gold,

And, uh, the papers, of course,

say that they did.

Narrator: The gold rush is on,

And when promising deposits

are discovered

In the northern black hills,

thousands pour into sioux land.

Whole towns,

like deadwood, south dakota,

Rise up on treaty territory.

Penney: The first wave

of american settlement

And the dispossession

of land from indians

Is often mineral rights

or timber rights.

After the 1874 expedition,

by the summer of 1875,

There are over 4,000 miners

in the black hills.

They're primarily men,

And they're sending

all their money

Back east to their families,

You know, um,

quick money and lots of it.

Narrator: President grant offers

to purchase the black hills

For $6 million,

But the tribes refuse.

They want the land.

Penney: So, you've got

all the ingredients

Of a, of a big conflict there.

Her many horses: Really

what they were fighting for

Was the resources for the

survival of their community,

So say their hunting grounds,

their hunting territories.

♪

Narrator: Those who will not

give up their land,

And therefore

their traditional way of life,

Are designated hostiles.

Sarah sadlier: The term hostile

was used by the u.S. Military

To refer to those

native americans

Who had not come

into the reservation system

And who were rebelling

against the edict

That told them to do so.

Narrator: Sitting bull

rallies so-called hostiles,

And his envoys

slip onto reservations

And urge agency indians

to join the resistance.

It's a fight for land that is

vital to their very existence.

Her many horses: A lot of times,

Lakota people

are considered nomadic,

But they actually were not

nomadic wandering about.

They were actually

following the buffalo,

And that was a really important

aspect of their survival.

Narrator: Buffalo were

the walmart of the plains.

They provided food, clothing,

tools, blankets, rope, glue,

Utensils, weapons, and fuel.

For commercial hunters,

they become a bonanza.

Penney: Large-scale

industrial buffalo hunting

Really begins in earnest

after the civil w*r.

[g*nsh*t]

They're being consumed

In enormous

and unprecedented numbers.

[g*nshots]

Her many horses:

There's a couple images

That every time I see them,

I'm kind of thrown off by them

Because you just can't imagine

that this was done.

An image of a pile

of buffalo skulls, I mean,

And there's someone

standing on top of it.

Narrator: Bones are used to make

fertilizer and china.

Hides are taken for robes

And leather to make belts

for industrial machinery.

Much is wasted.

Upwards of 30 million buffalo

roam the plains in 1850.

Within just a few decades,

They are hunted

to near extinction.

On reservations,

rations replace hunting.

Her many horses:

You did not have that kind

Of traditional ability to hunt

and take care of yourself.

You had to depend

on somebody else.

Narrator: The last free indians

on the plains,

As many as 10,000, banded

together under sitting bull,

Represent a threat

to the reservation system.

Penney: So, in the summer

of 1876,

The army mobilizes against them

To bring them back

into the reservation,

And then an announcement

goes out--

If you're not at the agency,

We're going to consider you

a hostile,

And you will be att*cked.

♪

Narrator:

Custer and his seventh cavalry

Depart from fort abraham lincoln

in north dakota on may 17, 1876.

They are well supplied and armed

with superior weapons.

Sagan: He and a number

of other army units

Went out to try to find

sitting bull, crazy horse,

And the various northern

cheyenne and lakota villages

That had left the reservations

to join the remaining indians

Who were still

roaming the plains.

Penney: The strategy there

was to find indian villages

And to destroy them.

Narrator:

A strategy of total w*r.

Eight years earlier,

in November of 1868,

Custer brought

the same strategy to bear

Near the washita river

in modern-day oklahoma.

Penney: His first conflict

was with a band of cheyenne

Under the leadership of a man

named black kettle,

Camped on the washita river.

Narrator: Encamped

for the winter in 51 lodges,

Black kettle's people felt safe.

He had extracted a promise

of peace from the u.S. Military.

They were not to be att*cked.

Penney: But custer,

new in the field,

Found them early one morning.

[g*nf*re]

♪

Narrator: They k*ll

more than 100 cheyenne,

Including black kettle himself.

Her many horses: When they

were fleeing the cavalry,

The village was burned and

all their beautiful artwork,

All their sacred material,

everything was destroyed.

Narrator: To force them

into reservation life,

Custer orders the slaughter of

their entire herd of 650 ponies.

The cavalry captures

more than 50 women and children.

One of them

becomes custer's prize.

Sagan: Custer had taken

the youngest, prettiest one,

Monahsetah, as his.

Narrator: The historical record

Offers few clues

to their association,

But oral traditions suggest that

there may have been a child,

Or even two children,

born from the union.

It's unknown if libbie was aware

of the relationship,

But monahsetah

may have played a role

In a promise custer made

to the cheyenne.

Sagan: After the battle

of washita,

When the indians did surrender,

they had a peace pipe ceremony,

And custer said that I'm not

going to fight you again.

Narrator: Despite that promise,

just eight years later,

Custer is in pursuit

of the so-called hostiles,

Which include cheyenne.

His regiment endures

long periods of frustration

On the plains.

Penney: The territory was very

unfamiliar to the military.

Actually finding indians

to fight was a big problem.

Narrator:

Without tracking expertise,

It's likely they would

never have found them.

Traditional enemies

of the lakota,

Some crow serve

the u.S. Military as scouts.

Penney: The crow, they had been

skirmishing with lakota

Kind of, um, w*r party

to w*r party for decades.

It's, I think, helpful to think

of the plains tribes

As nations, small nations.

They have their own interests.

Sagan: Lakota, they had come

From the minnesota,

wisconsin woods into the plains,

Became very great horsemen,

But had conquered

some of the lands

Of the crow, the arikara,

and others.

Dawes: All these tribes

who were moved out

Or pushed out away

from their aboriginal lands

Eventually had come

into crow land.

There was conflict between

the crow, the sioux,

The cheyenne, the arapaho,

and the blackfeet,

And of course the crows,

you know, fought to protect,

To save their land.

Narrator: It's late June 1876

When custer's scouts

find the abandoned campsite

Of the so-called hostiles.

They track what appears to be

a historically large gathering.

In hot pursuit,

The seventh cavalry covers

70 miles in just three days.

The american indian

combatants at bighorn

Were formidable rivals.

♪

Sagan: Lakota people were

not popular among other tribes

In that region.

They were particularly

fierce and violent.

Narrator: Chief sitting bull

foresaw the attack in a vision.

He saw white men

falling into camp.

Sagan: Falling from the sky

upside down like grasshoppers

Without their hats on,

and they have no ears.

"they have no ears" was

the saying that the lakota used

To say you're not

listening to me.

The white men don't listen.

They promised us this land,

and they're not listening.

Narrator: Today bighorn is

cultural shorthand for disaster,

But custer expected a victory.

Sagan: Custer's luck,

it was called.

And I think

he really believed in it,

And he knew that the brave,

the impetuous, get honors.

Narrator:

He divides his regiment

Into three columns

to trap the sioux,

But instead, his men

are cut off from one another.

[g*nf*re]

He expects

a few hundred warriors.

He meets with thousands.

Penney: He totally

underestimated their size

And overestimated

his own abilities.

[g*nshots]

[screaming]

Narrator:

His cavalry is outnumbered

By a factor of ten to one.

In just two hours,

custer's luck has run out.

[g*nsh*t]

♪

One of his scouts is first to

bring news to the outside world.

Dawes: Curley the crow scout

didn't speak english very good,

So he was using sign language.

Narrator: What curley recounts

will shock the country.

Sagan: George custer

and every trooper under him

Was wiped out that day.

Narrator:

More than 200 soldiers,

Among them, custer's two

brothers and his brother-in-law.

Penney: Telegraph communication

was relatively new.

First news of the battle

gets to bismarck on July 5th,

Where there's

a telegraph office.

The newspaper offices there

Claim they sent

over 40,000 words in telegraph,

Um, working all day long.

They had to wait for the office

In saint paul or fargo

To open up in the morning,

And then the telegraph

people there

Worked a 26-hour shift.

Cécile ganteaume:

Because there were so many

Telegraph offices

and so many newspapers

Throughout

the entire united states,

In small towns, big cities,

Through various territories

that hadn't even become states,

Most americans

learned of the battle

At exactly the same time,

So this was akin

to the country being shocked

By the assassination

of president kennedy.

[fireworks]

Narrator: The news hits just

as americans are contemplating

A dazzling future, celebrating

the nation's centennial.

Most consider conflict

with indians a thing of the past

And can't believe them capable

Of defeating a sophisticated

military force.

The inconceivable defeat,

Topped off by the insulting loss

of a national hero,

Is too much to bear.

Sagan: Custer, he was fighting

this battle for politics,

For history,

but also for showmanship.

He was that kind of general.

Penney: So, he was very much

in the public eye

And thought of as

this kind of heroic figure.

Narrator: With his death,

He becomes famous

beyond all imagination.

Sagan: I think in part

It's because america

likes a tragic loser.

Narrator: The story becomes

a tabloid obsession.

Ganteaume: The battle

of the little bighorn

Was literally seared into the

american national consciousness.

Throughout the country,

People wanted to know the names

of the officers who were k*lled,

The names of all the soldiers

who were k*lled.

They wanted to know

their biographies,

Their life stories.

Narrator: Within weeks,

Legendary showman

buffalo bill cody

Makes yet more news with

a stunt of public vengeance.

Sagan: After the battle,

Buffalo bill k*lled

a cheyenne warrior,

Took his scalp,

and raised it up above saying,

"this is the first scalp

for custer."

Narrator: The press

vilifies sitting bull,

Calling him

the k*ller of custer.

He replies,

"they say I m*rder*d custer.

It is a lie.

He was a fool

and rode to his death."

Although the battle

of little bighorn

Is on every front page

in america,

Frustratingly

few specifics are known.

Sadlier: There were no survivors

From the u.S. Cavalry

in custer's command,

And so as a result

of this lack of sources,

The u.S. Public

was forever questioning

What indeed happened there.

It was, in fact, almost the

conspiracy theory of the 1870s.

Narrator: Rumors

generate new rumors.

Newspapers claim that

tom custer, custer's brother,

Had his heart

ripped out and eaten.

It's reported

that custer's half-sioux son

Was k*lled at bighorn

And that the bodies of the dead

were horrifically mutilated.

Custer was the hero

of every story.

Penney: There was no man

left alive to tell the tale,

So that immediately creates

a kind of blank slate

On which to, you know,

project your fantasies.

Narrator: The drama of the last

stand proves irresistible.

♪

Penney: Walt whitman

writes a poem

For the new york daily news,

you know, about custer.

One of the stanzas

addressed to custer,

He says, "thou of sunny

flowing hair in battle."

He saw this as akin

to shakespeare.

Better than shakespeare,

Better than homer.

But something that was

uniquely american.

Narrator: Anheuser-busch

uses a painting

Of custer's last stand

to advertise beer.

Copies placed in 150,000 saloons

across the country

Elevate bighorn to the best

advertised epic legend

In history.

Sadlier: Folks would look up,

see these mighty warriors

And custer valiantly

with his sword

On last stand hill

fighting to the death.

[g*nf*re]

Sagan: I grew up with this image

Of the battle

of the little bighorn

Of george custer

with his buckskin jacket on,

His six-sh**t out,

on the last stand hill.

That's not what happened.

Narrator: The depictions were

likely complete fantasy.

Sagan: Custer was k*lled

Well before the final end

of the battle.

The native americans

attacking him had no idea

It was even george custer

who was leading this attack.

Narrator: The testimony

of native american survivors

Of bighorn paint

an entirely different picture.

Sadlier: When they were

brought into reservations,

They were usually interviewed

About what they had witnessed

at the battle.

Narrator: Perhaps the most

impactful testimony

Is that of miniconjou

lakota chief red horse.

Sagan: On the morning

of June 25th,

He was out getting turnips

with some women...

...When he heard horses

coming in the distance

And saw dust clouds and realized

that they were under attack.

[w*r cries]

[g*nsh*t]

Narrator: But in the aftermath,

the military crackdown

Forces red horse

to surrender in 1877.

His account of the battle

Extinguishes all hope

of survivors taken c*ptive.

Sadlier: He answered

those rampant questions

Of the u.S. Public

by responding,

"all were k*lled,

none were left alive,

Even for a few minutes."

Narrator: It's likely

that red horse's translator

Was john "big leggins" bruguier,

a half-french, half-lakota

Adopted brother of sitting bull

And sarah sadlier's

distant ancestor.

Sadlier: I'm of

miniconjou lakota descent.

I recognized his last name

from my family stories,

Went back

through my own genealogy,

And found that he was, in fact,

The brother of my

great-great-great-grandmother.

Narrator: What makes red horse's

account truly exceptional

Are the drawings he created

to illustrate the battle.

Today his 42 drawings are a part

Of the smithsonian's national

anthropological archives.

Sadlier:

The colors are amazing.

They're so well-preserved.

Narrator: Anthropologist

candace greene

Is a ledger art expert.

Candace greene: Well, the thing

that, that strikes all of us

Immediately is the size

of the red horse work.

He worked on very large paper,

So at what we would call

an epic scale,

Whereas most artists were

working in a book of this size.

Sagan: They're called

ledger drawings

Because many of them were

actually done on ledger books.

Those were the books

that the traders

And the people

on the reservation had.

Narrator: The oversized paper

Was supplied

by a doctor compiling a guide

To plains indian sign language

in the 1880s.

His dictionary was destined

for the smithsonian.

The drawings were made

to double-check the accuracy

Of red horse's sign language

account of the battle.

Red horse's detailed scenes

of the entire battle

Are highly unusual.

Conventional ledger drawings

Only depict one person's

battle experience.

Greene: Each man would draw

his own events

Rather than one man

combining other people's events.

Narrator: But red horse's works

Are traditional

in one significant way.

Sarah's research has revealed

That the drawings

are scrupulously accurate.

Sadlier: If you look

at b*ttlefield reports,

They do accurately

depict the types of injuries

That men sustained

on that b*ttlefield.

Through these,

we can actually identify

Who some of these

individual soldiers were.

Greene: Wow, that's amazing.

The enormous detail and accuracy

Within what sort of seems

like a scene of chaos.

Sagan: Now, what red horse does

is show the horror of battle.

He wasn't ashamed of it.

He didn't do this

for the white market.

He did it for a doctor friend

Who wanted to have an accurate

representation of the battle.

You see scalping,

you see dismemberment,

And you see

dead native americans

As well as dead white men.

Narrator:

The newspaper headlines

Were right on one point--

Bodies of the fallen

were gruesomely mutilated.

Sadlier: Some of the native

women went after the battle

To cut the muscles

and perform other mutilations

To the bodies

of u.S. Cavalry men

Who had perished

on the battlefields.

Narrator: What sounds

pretty grisly on the face of it

Was actually grounded

in cultural tradition.

Sadlier: Women reportedly

had done that

So that these warriors

could not come back

And hurt their people

in the afterlife.

Narrator: After the battle,

custer's body was left whole.

Cheyenne women recognized him

And remembered

his broken promise

After the m*ssacre at washita.

Sagan: The women had took awls

And stuck it in his ears

and pierced his eardrums,

And that was their way

of saying,

"you better learn

to listen better next time."

Narrator: However, there is no

evidence to support the claim

That a child

of monahsetah and custer

Died at bighorn.

And sarah has not found

any evidence of custer himself

Depicted in the drawings.

Penney: No one seems to know

who k*lled custer.

It just sort of happened

in the thick of the moment.

Narrator: The drawings

also refute another myth.

While there is

plenty of carnage,

There is no sign

of tom custer's heart,

Reportedly ripped from his body.

Lakota w*r chief

rain-in-the-face

Was once arrested by tom custer.

After the battle, he does indeed

claim to have eaten his heart.

But later in life,

Rain-in-the-face

admits it wasn't true.

This image depicts warriors

Leaving the battle

in celebration.

Some lead captured horses,

valuable b*ttlefield trophies.

It also contains

what sarah believes to be

A self-portrait of red horse.

Greene: Ah, the artist himself.

Sadlier: The artist himself.

He's looking out at us,

the viewer,

And with sort of

a side eye here.

But he's also

one of the most detailed.

Narrator: But red horse's

detailed eyewitness account

Can't compete

with a tsunami of press

Cementing custer

as a bona fide hero.

Custer's widow, libbie,

surfaces from grief

To push that narrative

to new heights.

Sagan: Libbie becomes

a professional widow

And supports herself

the rest of her career

Beefing up his story,

making him to be a hero.

Sadlier: Her many lectures

focused on the sacrifice

That her husband gave

for the nation.

Narrator: But her versions of

events are more fancy than fact.

Penney: Of course, the facts

Are never as compelling as

The stories we want to believe.

Sadlier: Libbie custer largely

invented many of her stories

About her life with her husband

And his involvement

in the cavalry.

Critics at the time

did not want to criticize her

Because of her status

as his widow

And so thought,

"we'll wait until she perishes,"

But she lived into her nineties.

Narrator: Accurate or not,

libbie secures a spot for custer

In the canon

of american heroes.

But it's another

larger-than-life character

That spins b*ttlefield tragedy

Into a 19th-century

reality show.

Just a few years after bighorn,

American scout, buffalo hunter,

and showman buffalo bill cody

Founds his wild west show,

An extravagant touring pageant

of all things western.

[cheering]

He had been eyeing

the opportunity

Since the battle occurred,

And he took the first scalp

for custer.

Sagan: He would actually go out

and do things in real life

In order to give himself

better material

For a performance afterwards.

[cheering]

Buffalo bill:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Buffalo bill's wild west.

Delaney: Racing horses,

roping, riding, sh**ting,

You know, all of these things

were part of the show.

Narrator: The performance

of custer's last stand

Is a highlight.

[cheering]

Before cinema or television,

The wild west

brings history alive.

Delaney: Montana

is pretty remote,

And most people will never

step foot on that land,

But then you're sitting

in an arena

And you're attending a show.

And here it is

in front of you.

And the g*ns and the noise

and the dust,

And it's all there.

Narrator: Curiously,

the biggest draw

Is the real-life

native americans

Performing in the show.

Penney: When american indians

are seen as a threat,

They're depicted

as savages, of course,

And they're something

that's fearful.

Once they've become

domesticated,

They become

an item of nostalgia.

Narrator: For the indians,

The show represents a chance

to escape reservation life.

Records show that cody

paid his performers well.

The wild west starts out

with 36 pawnee performers

But shifts focus to sioux

from the pine ridge reservation,

Eventually employing

100 at a time.

Penney: The wild west shows

offered native people

Suffering under these pressures

of assimilation an outlet,

An ability to travel,

an ability to perform.

Narrator: Hiring performers

from reservations

Takes intense negotiation

with the government.

Delaney: You have to remember,

Indian wars continued

In the first almost decade

Of the wild west.

The performances were happening

While the u.S. Government

and the army

Were still engaging in battle

in indian territory.

Almost inconceivable

that this was happening

At the same time

as the performances.

Buffalo bill:

Introducing the great leader

Of the sioux people.

Narrator:

Even more inconceivable,

One of them was sitting bull.

Buffalo bill:

Chief sitting bull!

Narrator: After the battle,

he'd crossed the border

To escape retribution.

Ganteaume: Sitting bull and his

followers had fled into canada.

This became

an international incident

Because the united states wanted

the return of sitting bull.

They wanted him

and his followers to surrender.

Narrator: Eventually,

without game to hunt,

He was forced to bring

his starving people south

And surrender to a reservation.

But once there,

he refuses to farm,

Instead trading on his fame

to sell autographs

And charge visitors

to take his picture.

Dawes: I think sitting bull

said it very well when he said,

"we all had to do

what we had to do to survive."

Narrator: In 1885, he accepts

a job with the wild west.

Delaney: To have him performing

and meeting the public,

That was a big deal.

Narrator: He negotiates

an impressive rate of $50 a week

And cannily maintains the right

to continue to sell autographs.

The first publicity photos

Show him standing awkwardly

with cody,

A man whose very name

Celebrates the eradication

of the buffalo.

Sadlier: His presence in

the show lent it some validity

In terms of representations

Of the battle

of the little bighorn

And also familiarized

the u.S. Public with the fight.

[booing]

Penney: People catcall him.

They boo him.

And he takes it

rather stoically,

And that doesn't seem

to bother him very much.

Narrator: Sitting bull

strikes up a friendship

With another

wild west performer...

[cheering]

Annie oakley.

[g*nsh*t]

He calls her "little sure shot"

And symbolically adopts her.

She later says

he made a great pet of her.

On tour, the wild west depicts

indian battles, bison hunts,

Stage robberies, and of course,

the heroics of custer

In 50 cities a year

throughout the u.S. And europe,

Even playing for

queen victoria's golden jubilee.

But the indian agent

at standing rock

Refuses to let sitting bull

continue to perform,

And he returns

to the reservation in 1886,

After one season.

Penney: He purposely moves

far away from the agency itself.

He builds a cabin for himself

by the grand river,

And people gather around him,

And they're kind of out of sight

Of the agent,

And so he's very suspicious.

Narrator: A new native american

spiritual movement

Adds to the suspicion.

Penney: Nations on the plains

become very interested

In what we refer today

as the ghost dance.

Her many horses:

The whole ghost dance movement

Was really one

of these last efforts

To maintain the old way of life,

because part of the belief

Was that the buffalo

was going to return,

Even dead relatives were

going to return,

And the old way of life

was going to return

If they did this.

Penney: It really is

a kind of ray of hope

For the native nations

of the west.

Narrator: Ghost dancers believe

Their regalia can protect them

from b*ll*ts.

Penney: Sitting bull's camp,

his cabin,

Become a little refuge

for ghost dancers.

He's characterized as

an antagonist to the government,

And the ghost dance as

a dangerous kind of development.

♪

Narrator: In December of 1890,

rumor that sitting bull

Is preparing

to leave the reservation

Prompts the hasty order

to arrest him.

♪

Man: Come on, get up.

You're under arrest.

You're under arrest.

Narrator: But it all goes wrong.

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

[people screaming]

Sitting bull, age 60,

Is k*lled near daybreak

on December 15, 1890.

And in the melee that follows,

14 lose their lives,

Including sitting bull's

teenage son.

♪

More than 200

of his followers scatter.

38 join a band

of miniconjou ghost dancers.

But the ghost dance doesn't

protect them from b*ll*ts.

Just two weeks later,

300 men, women, and children

Are slaughtered by u.S. Troops

While camped in the snow

near wounded knee creek.

Dawes: From then on, there was

no more plains indian wars.

Narrator: But tragedy

continues to be spun

Into entertainment gold.

Sitting bull's death

is reenacted

At the 1893 world's columbian

exposition in chicago,

When his actual cabin is moved

to the site and put on display.

With the wild west on break

from a european tour,

Buffalo bill cody

returns to the states

And manages to get

23 lakota ghost dancers,

Incarcerated

at fort sheridan in illinois,

Released into his care.

Advertised as pows,

their notoriety draws crowds

When the tour resumes

in germany in 1891.

Sagan: The mixing of real

history and stage and drama

Is exemplified

by buffalo bill cody

To help americans understand

one version of the west,

But it was his version only.

Narrator: For one thing,

outside of the arena,

Feathered headdresses

were relatively rare.

Ganteaume: It was an honor

that was earned.

Narrator: But the wild west

unceasingly promotes

What will become

the iconic image of the west--

A plains indian

in eagle feather w*r bonnet.

Today it's an image

used to sell everything

From baking powder

to whiskey.

Ganteaume: It is

a very unique phenomenon.

No other country in the world

is constantly recreating images

Of one segment of its society.

Penney: Before the plains wars,

Before the battle

of little bighorn,

That wasn't the common image.

Narrator: The legends

of daniel boone

Are all about ohio indians

like the m1ngo and shawnee,

A different stereotype,

but another bygone era.

Ganteaume: This imagery

is always of indians

Frozen in the past.

It actually works as a barrier

That keeps americans

from understanding

Who american indians really are.

Penney: Our mythic imagination

is populated by indians

Who we recognize

from these kind of big events

Like the battle

of little bighorn.

Narrator: Despite being

celebrated in entertainment,

The west itself

is becoming a memory.

Buffalo are nearly extinct,

railroads connect the coasts,

And fences

crisscross the plains.

Penney: The 1890s is a point

when the united states

Kind of declares

its frontier history closed.

All the empty wild spaces

have been occupied.

Narrator: Although the indians

won the battle,

Little bighorn

was the decisive moment

When it became inevitable

they would lose the w*r.

On reservations,

Life is designed to, quote,

"k*ll the indian, save the man."

[children laughing]

Entire generations of children,

Starting as young

as four years old,

Are sent away to school.

Her many horses:

There were attempts to have

Boarding schools

on reservations,

And then they found out

that that was not working

Because the children could

go home to their families,

So they came up with this

great idea of shipping them off

With the threat

of if they didn't do it,

Then rations would not

be given to them.

Narrator:

Their hair is cut short,

And they are forbidden

to speak indian languages.

Her many horses:

They were not trained to be

Teachers or doctors or lawyers.

They were taught to be nurses,

maids, uh, maintenance men.

That's what they were

teaching them at these places.

Penney: There is this firm

and naive, kind of tragic belief

That this was really

the right way to go,

That, that the progress

of civilization

Demanded that everyone

climb on board,

And that if you didn't,

You would be left behind,

And you had no future

As a result.

So, an alternative future

for american indians

Was just a failure

of imagination.

Narrator:

And a paradox of imagination--

They are to become

as un-indian as possible

At the same time

that the days of the wild west

Are actively celebrated.

Ganteaume:

Americans thought of it

As a defining chapter

in u.S. History,

A chapter that defined

the american character.

It defined the pioneer spirit,

it defined rugged individualism,

And so, ironically, the image

of the plains indian warrior

Evoked this idealized past

for americans.

Narrator:

One portrait photographer

Captures images

of the wild west show indians

Very unlike those

on cans of baking powder.

Delaney: Gertrude kasebier

opens a studio in 1898

In new york city

on fifth avenue.

She quickly becomes

One of the foremost

portraitists,

Photographers in america.

Narrator: A contemporary

of alfred stieglitz,

Kasebier is the annie leibovitz

of the turn of the century.

Delaney:

And she's in her studio one day,

And she looks out the window,

and, lo and behold,

Buffalo bill's wild west

Is parading towards

madison square garden.

♪

Penney: Buffalo bill performs

The battle of little bighorn,

custer's last stand,

In madison square garden.

Electricity was new.

They had electric lights.

They had a huge stage set.

Narrator: With luminaries

like mark twain in the audience,

The show is described

by the new york times

As a spectacle

with thrillers in abundance.

[whooping]

Kasebier invites the performers

to sit for her camera.

She has a lifelong interest

in plains indians,

Kindled by her childhood

Traveling the prairie

in a covered wagon

And playing with children

from local tribes.

Delaney: They show up

with full regalia,

With headdresses and various

head adornments and blankets.

Narrator: But kasebier

refers to her portraits

As human documents.

They dispense

with beads and feathers,

And she captures informal images

Of the people

behind the performance.

Delaney: She tried to create

a very different setting

Than one of

commercial portraiture.

She was getting to know them,

And she was involved

in a very personal project

And images

that she would never sell.

Narrator: Kasebier's photos

celebrate an unspoken truth--

That while native americans

have been feared

And stripped of their culture,

they are also admired.

Penney:

American indians are something

That are distinctly american.

And in the united states

of the 1890s,

The early 20th century, that is

desperately trying to establish

A culture separate from europe,

They're thinking

about what is ours,

What is unique to us?

The american indians

become something

That's distinctly,

uniquely american.

Narrator: The lakota sioux

continue to fight

For their piece of america.

The tribe spends

more than 60 years

Battling in court

for the black hills.

In 1980, their case is heard

By the supreme court

of the united states.

Arthur lazarus:

Under the 1868 treaty,

The united states promised

to keep whites

Out of the great sioux

reservation,

And it had a military

obligation to do so.

Penney: They actually prevailed

in modern court.

The court agreed with them

And offered them

a big settlement.

But once again, the lakota

didn't want the money,

They wanted the land.

Narrator: To date,

the sioux persist

In refusing the settlement,

Which has grown

to over a billion dollars.

Penney: No amount of money will

bring back a sense of justice

When you feel that you've

been wronged in that way.

Narrator:

On the sacred lost land,

The homestake gold mine

Produced 49 million

troy ounces in 125 years,

Ten percent of the gold

in the u.S.

[g*nsh*t]

Bighorn has been stirring

emotions for almost 150 years.

Penney: Imperialist conquest

is kind of an ugly thing,

On the face of it,

So how do we make

an epic story about that?

Narrator: From a safe distance,

The story

of how the west was won

Burnishes the american spirit.

Sagan: The romanticized view

that helps perpetuate

This vision of custer

As a brilliant, brave,

tragic figure

Diminishes the role

of the native americans

Who fought

very bravely that day.

Penney: Well, that's the trope

of tragedy.

We're not threatened

by it anymore.

It's not going to hurt us,

But isn't it great

to think about?

Narrator: The stereotype

of the 19th-century indian

Can overshadow

the actuality of modern life.

Her many horses:

We're still here.

We don't dress the same

as we did back then

Except on special occasions.

Narrator: And contemporary

ledger drawings

Show distinctly 21st-century

american indians.

Her many horses:

With over 500, you know,

Federally recognized

native communities,

We're quite a diverse group.

Narrator: Today, the battle

of the little bighorn

Is still fought on crow land

near the actual battle site.

Performed for a modern audience

by modern indians,

It means more than remembering

a moment of glory.

Dawes: The young men,

they like to ride horses,

You know, paint, ride bareback.

It gives them that, uh,

you know, the indian-ness.

When they're on that horse, yes,

You know,

they have that feeling.

Narrator: Whether celebrating

the victors at the greasy grass

Or dissecting the myth

of custer's last stand,

Perhaps the real power

of bighorn

Lies in the feelings

it still fuels on all sides.

A pivotal moment in history,

An important reminder

of all that we are.