Wooden Leg was an eighteen-year-old Northern Cheyenne warrior at the Little Bighorn. In 1931, his story was published as one of the first book-length Native accounts of Custer’s last battle. It includes claims that still divide historians.
On June 25, 1876, Lakota and Cheyenne warriors won the greatest Native victory of the Plains Wars. Within a year, most of them had surrendered, been driven to Canada, or lost their land. This is what happened to the victors of the Little Bighorn.
Five years after the Little Bighorn, the Minneconjou Lakota chief Red Horse told what he saw, in sign language, and then drew it in 42 pictures. His account of soldiers begging for mercy and a mysterious “bravest man” is one of the most haunting records of Custer’s last battle.
In 1912, Jim Thorpe won two Olympic gold medals and was called the greatest athlete in the world. Six months later, the medals were taken from him. It took 110 years for the record to be set right.
After the Little Bighorn, America’s most famous poet wrote that Rain-in-the-Face took revenge on Custer. For the rest of his life, the Hunkpapa warrior was known as Custer’s killer. But when he finally told his own story, he called it a lie.
His horse gave out on the way to the Little Bighorn, and he fell behind. Years later, Private Peter Thompson claimed he had seen Custer near the river, alive, in the final hour. Historians have argued about his story ever since.
He was the last white survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Seventy years later, Sergeant Charles Windolph described two days trapped on a hilltop, men begging for water, and the silence from Custer that never broke.
After Crazy Horse was killed at Camp Robinson in 1877, his grieving parents carried his body away. Where they finally buried him has never been revealed, and nearly 150 years later, the secret is still kept.
He was called “the last man to see Custer alive” and “the only survivor” of Custer’s Last Stand. But the young Crow scout Curly told very different stories over the years, and one of them was never true.
He stood nearly 6 feet 9 inches tall, led his people through the last days of the Great Sioux War, and stayed at Crazy Horse’s side as he died. This is the story of Touch the Clouds.
They led war parties, rode into battle beside their husbands, saved their brothers and carried messages through enemy lines. These 10 Native American warrior women fought as hard as any man, and most history books never mentioned them.
In the 1700s, the British Empire was becoming the most powerful in the world. But in the forests of North America, Native nations handed it some of its worst defeats, from Braddock’s disaster to a fort captured during a game of lacrosse.
George Armstrong Custer was buried in a shallow grave on the battlefield, dug up a year later, and given a hero’s funeral at West Point. But some of the soldiers who recovered his remains were not sure they had the right man.
On June 25, 1876, George Armstrong Custer rode into the Little Bighorn with two of his brothers, his teenage nephew and his brother-in-law. None of them came back. This is the story of the family that died together.
The news of Custer’s death reached the East just as America was celebrating its 100th birthday. Newspapers called it a massacre, a poet wrote a tribute, and President Grant blamed Custer himself. Here is what America said about Custer’s Last Stand.
The United States signed hundreds of treaties with Native nations, promising land, payments and peace “as long as the grass grows.” Here are 10 broken treaties that shaped America, and the promises that were never kept.
Their affair on the set of Cleopatra was condemned by the Vatican. They married, divorced, married again and divorced again. But the last chapter of Hollywood’s most famous love story was a letter that arrived too late.
Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Chief Joseph all surrendered in the end. These 10 Native leaders never did. Some died fighting, some were taken only by trickery, and some simply vanished into the mountains and swamps.
“I will fight no more forever.” “I am a man.” “I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free.” Here are 10 powerful words from Native American leaders, the moments behind them, and which famous quotes they probably never said.
The Spanish Empire conquered the Aztecs and the Inca, but it did not win every fight. From Mexico and Florida to Chile, Nebraska and Texas, here are 10 battles where Native nations defeated the Spanish Empire.