Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

The Great Sioux War of 1876—1877 is memorable to most Americans because of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s last stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But to the Lakotas (Western Sioux) and Northern Cheyennes who won that battle but lost the war, the experience of those fifteen months was truly a "last stand" — a cultural catastrophe that led to the reservation experience they had fought so long and hard to avoid.

In writings about the history and import of the Great Sioux War, th...