Just Finished Reading The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick

In 2010, sailing and American history enthusiast Nathaniel Philbrick came out with The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a very well-researched examination of the ill-fated (at least for George Custer) Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876 in which the U.S. Army's 7th Calvary suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and other native American tribes under the leadership of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and others.  I just finished reading it and, as is the case with other history books, this one draws upon many different eyewitness accounts of the event...and from both sides of the conflict...

Philbrick describes the changing social filters through which both Custer and the Indians have been viewed over the years, especially on film...earlier it was the latter who were depicted as savages with Custer and his cavalry representing martyred heroes.  But I remember the tide turning in the late sixties and early seventies in favor of the Native Americans...epitomized by the movie Little Big Man, which showed Custer as bloodthirsty and maniacally narcissistic while the Indians were noble...almost angelic...by contrast.  For the author, though, the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes...no one side had complete claim to the moral high road...

Although the "white" incursion on Indian plains lands had been going on for decades, the 1874 discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, heretofore recognized as Sioux land, prompted then-President Ulysses Grant to dispatch the Army there to subdue the independent-minded Indian nations in the area and establish some control over the suddenly-valued land.  Enter George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry, along with other integral characters by the names of Terry, Reno, Benteen, and several others...and the setting for confrontation settled on the Little Bighorn River area of southern Montana...

Nathaniel Philbrick's research into the different personalities, strategies, misinformation, and accounts of the players in this conflict is amazing: you get the story piecemeal from so many different sources, and the author has put it all together like a jigsaw puzzle.  When there is some uncertainty as to what transpired in certain events...such as the "last stand" of Custer itself, Philbrick clearly labels his narrative as necessarily being one of speculation...albeit with some compelling supporting facts.  If you are a history buff and want to get a better sense of what was going on back in the late nineteenth century during the plains Indians wars, this book is a great resource.  It is very readable and the character development is outstanding.  High recommendations!