The battle fought this week (June 25) in 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana, pitted Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and 210 members of the Seventh Cavalry against a far larger force of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians commanded by the great Lakota chief, Sitting Bull.  When the Battle of Little Bighorn was over Custer and all of his men were dead, yet from their death sprang to life one of the great myths in American history, a myth we still celebrate.  That myth of “Custer’s Last Stand” depicts Custer as a courageous victim, attacked by bloodthirsty savages intent upon his destruction.

So let’s destroy the myth.

First, Custer and the U.S. Army were the aggressors.  In 1868 the U.S. government signed a treaty with the aforementioned Indians granting them permanent possession of lands that included South Dakota and Montana.  Yet when gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills in 1872, white prospectors flocked to the area, ignoring the treaty.  Although then-President Ulysses S. Grant subsequently tried to buy the territory from the Indians, Sitting Bull refused to sell, so Grant ordered all Indians to leave the land or be considered at war with the United States.   Thus in June of 1876 an army commanded by General Alfred Terry was sent to South Dakota and Montana to drive the Indians off their land.  Custer was a part of that army.

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This week (June 19) in 1803, Meriwether Lewis wrote a letter to William Clark inviting him to become immortal.  Actually, the letter asked Clark if he would be interested in joining Lewis on an expedition he was leading at the request of President Thomas Jefferson — an expedition that would take a party of a dozen or so men across the American continent to explore the western part of it, including the territories of the vast Louisiana Purchase, which Jefferson had persuaded Congress to approve a few months earlier.

In his letter Lewis shared with Clark his aim to travel the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, then to the mouth of the Missouri River, then over to the Columbia River and eventually to the “Western” (Pacific) Ocean.  Further, Lewis wrote Clark, the purpose of the trip was to gain knowledge of the plant and animal life along their route, as well as to map out the geography, make friends with, and learn from, the indigenous Indian tribes, and send back detailed reports to President Jefferson.

And finally, in what was an unprecedented gesture — but one that proved to be extremely wise — Lewis offered Clark co-command of the expedition.  Clark accepted without hesitation and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as history called it, was on.

Interestingly, Lewis had come to admire Clark’s abilities while serving under him in the army.  Lewis considered Clark a born leader, a tough outdoorsman, a first-rate surveyor and mapmaker, and an experienced waterman — all areas where Lewis was less adept.

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