ScholarWell

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.

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.

Long before Europeans arrived, Native peoples built cities, giant earthworks and cliff towns across North America. Then many were left behind. Here are 7 lost Native American cities and the mysteries they still hold.

Custer’s body was found with two bullet wounds, either of which could have killed him. Lakota, Cheyenne and Crow accounts tell very different stories of how he died, and nearly 150 years later no one knows for sure who killed him.

Feathered headdresses on everyone, tipis everywhere, wagon trains under constant attack and a love story between Pocahontas and John Smith. Here are 10 things Hollywood got wrong about Native Americans, and what really happened.

On December 21, 1866, Captain William Fetterman led 80 men over a ridge in Wyoming, chasing a handful of warriors. Within about 40 minutes, every one of them was dead. This is how bad the Fetterman Fight really was.

Eight days before the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse turned back one U.S. Army column. On June 25, 1876, the warriors’ own accounts say he led the charge that broke Custer’s line. This is the battle from his side.

He turned down extra soldiers and Gatling guns, ignored his scouts, split his regiment and attacked a day early. These are the 10 decisions that led George Armstrong Custer to disaster at the Little Bighorn.

He was court-martialed twice, never touched alcohol after one night in 1861, and didn’t have his famous long hair at the Little Bighorn. Here are 10 surprising facts about George Armstrong Custer.

In 1869, George Armstrong Custer smoked a sacred pipe with the Cheyenne and promised peace. According to Cheyenne tradition, he was warned what would happen if he broke it. Seven years later, he rode into the Little Bighorn.

Eighty-five years before Custer, a confederacy of Native nations led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket destroyed an American army on the Wabash River. Roughly a quarter of the entire U.S. Army was lost in a single morning.

From the forests of Ohio to the hills of Montana, Native nations handed the U.S. Army some of the worst defeats in its history. These are seven battles that history books rarely tell from their side.

He defeated Crook at the Rosebud and helped destroy Custer at the Little Bighorn. But nearly 150 years after his death, no one knows what Crazy Horse looked like, who really killed him, or where he is buried.

If Custer had won, the Lakota and Cheyenne would almost certainly still have lost their land. What would have changed is the story America tells about itself.

There was no heroic circle and no defiant last volley. On June 25, 1876, Custer’s command didn’t fall together. It fell apart, company by company, along a half-mile ridge above the Little Bighorn.