Solomon Eze

In 1868, a young Cheyenne woman named Monahseetah was taken captive after Custer’s attack on the Washita. Cheyenne oral history, an angry officer and Custer’s own book all point to something more. Did Custer have a child with a woman he held captive? Historians still argue, and the one voice that is missing is hers.

For decades, the ground where Custer fell carried his name, and only the soldiers who died there were marked. In 1991, Congress changed that. Here is how the Custer Battlefield became the Little Bighorn Battlefield, who pushed for it, who hesitated, and what changed on the field itself.

In 1907, an old Lakota man named Iron Hawk sat in a tent in Chadron, Nebraska, and described the Battle of the Little Bighorn in sign language. He had been about 14 years old in 1876. His account of the fight with Reno, the attack on Custer, and the men who fell is one of the most vivid Native recollections we have. Here is what he said, and what historians say about it.

Disney made her a romantic heroine. The records tell a different story: a young Powhatan woman, kidnapped in 1613, baptized in captivity, married to an English planter, shown off in London as proof the colony was working, and dead at about 21 before she could go home. Here is what is documented, what is legend, and what historians still argue about.

The giant stone heads of the Olmec are among the most famous sculptures in the Americas. Some people say their broad noses and full lips prove the Olmec came from Africa. Archaeologists disagree. Here is what the heads are, who carved them, and why faces on stone cannot settle a question about ancestry.

Before the first shot at the Little Bighorn, an 18-year-old Arikara scout named Red Star looked across the hills and saw smoke rising from the great village. He carried the news to Custer’s camp. Years later he described a warning in the sand, an argument over when to attack, and rumors that Custer’s whole command was dead. Here is his story, and what he did and did not see.

The United States ratified about 370 treaties with Native nations. Many were broken or ignored. But a few were kept, some from the start and some only after courts forced the government to honor them. Here are the treaties that still stand, and what happened to them.

In 1866 the U.S. Army built three forts on a road through Lakota hunting grounds. Two years later, it marched out and left them to burn. This is the story of Red Cloud’s War, how it was fought, and why the Army agreed to leave.

For many Native nations, an eagle feather is the highest honor a person can receive. It was never something you could simply put on. Here is who earned eagle feathers, how they were given, why the law still protects them today, and what the feather means.

Custer’s Last Stand is the most famous defeat in the history of the U.S. Army. St. Clair’s Defeat, 85 years earlier, killed far more soldiers, yet most Americans have never heard of it. Here are the numbers side by side, and the reasons one is remembered and the other forgotten.

Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were both Oglala Lakota, and both helped win the greatest Native victory over the U.S. Army before the Little Bighorn. But they chose different roads, and in 1877 those roads collided. Here is the story of the rivalry, told carefully, with what is known and what is not.

A popular post claims the Apache were Black because old photographs show them with dark skin. The facts are different. Here is where the Apache came from, why skin tone proves nothing about ancestry, and why many photos shared online cannot be trusted.

In 1791, a Native alliance destroyed an American army in about three hours. Most of the soldiers died, nearly nine in ten officers were killed or wounded, and the United States lost a quarter of its whole army in one morning. Here is how bad it really was, by the numbers.

Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Custer are among the most famous names in American history. But each one made decisions that shaped the fate of Native nations, and those decisions are rarely in the textbooks. Here is what the record shows, and where it is disputed.

Crazy Horse is said to have avoided cameras all his life. Yet one small tintype has been called his only photograph. Here is the story of how it is said to have been taken, who owns it, and why many Lakota historians say the man in it is not Crazy Horse.

In Monroe, Michigan, a bronze Custer on horseback has stood since 1910. Since 2020, thousands of people have asked for it to be removed or changed. Here are the strongest arguments on both sides, and a middle path some are asking for.

Three weeks before Custer’s Last Stand, the Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull danced a Sun Dance and fainted. When he woke, he told his people he had seen soldiers falling upside down into their camp. This is the story of the vision that gave the Lakota hope.

More than a thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors fought at the Little Bighorn, but a handful of leaders became famous. Here are eight chiefs of the battle: who they were, what they did that day, and what happened to them afterward.

Ten years after his death, a famous writer said Minneconjou warrior White Bull had killed Custer. White Bull left his own story behind, written and drawn in a ledger book. This is what he really said, and why historians doubt the claim.

A young Italian trumpeter rode away from Custer with a hurried pencil note. He never saw Custer again, and he lived to be blamed for what came next. This is the story of the last soldier known to see Custer alive.