Battle of Little Bighorn (2020) - full transcript

Narrator: Propelled by mystery,

The battle of little bighorn
gave rise to a legend

That persists
across centuries...

[gunfire]

...The astonishing death
of a celebrated indian fighter.

Woman: This was akin
to the country being shocked

By the assassination
of president kennedy.

Man: America likes
a tragic loser.

Narrator: The beginning of the
end of freedom on the plains.

Man: The strategy there
was to find indian villages

And to destroy them.



Man: We all had to do
what we had to do to survive.

Narrator: The execution
of an honored leader,

The birth
of an american cliché...

Man: Our mythic imagination is
populated by american indians.

Narrator:
...And a fight for identity

Against the tyranny of progress.

♪

American indians call it
the battle of the greasy grass.

In history books, it's the
battle of the little bighorn.

The image seared into memory
is simply custer's last stand.

[gunfire]

Three names, different lenses
for viewing the same few hours,

A pivotal moment in history
that changed the fate of many

And shaped the myth of a nation
in unexpected ways.



Enthralling from the start,

The story becomes
a bona fide fixation.

From initial outrage
to a global spectacle

To cinematic obsession,

The legend has persisted
more than a century.

Even today, we continue
to make sense of what happened.

The brutal battle played out
in June of 1876,

But the stage had been set
decades earlier

On the great plains,

A vast expanse of prairie
east of the rocky mountains.

In 1800, more than
half a million people,

A dozen distinct tribes,
lived on those grasslands,

But their days were numbered.

David penney:
The customary way of thinking

About settlement
of north america

Is this wave of settlers
that move from east to west,

But more accurately
it's kind of like a doughnut,

Because it's easier to go
around the tip

Of tierra del fuego
in south america

Than make your way
across the continent.

So, california, oregon,

The columbia valley
had all been settled.

Native people
who were living in the plains

Were relatively
undisturbed militarily

Until about the middle
of the century.

Narrator:
When destiny finally leads

American settlers westward ho,

It sets up an epic clash
of cultures on the plains,

A grab for resources

That will determine
the fate of many nations.

Penney: The larger frame
of this, of course,

Is the progress of civilization,

You know,
that the american indians

Are a valiant opponent,

But their primitive nature
dooms them to history.

They need to move
out of the way of progress.

Narrator: As the country
picks up the pieces

After the civil war,

The western frontier
becomes the next battleground.

Michelle delaney: The military
moves right into the west,

Conquering those lands
that had previously been held

By american indians.

It is a hard time
in american history.

Narrator:
The military clears the way,

As prospectors, businessmen, and
settlers eager to stake claims

Compete with native americans
for land.

The genesis
of the conflict at bighorn

Occurs at the spiritual
birthplace of the lakota sioux

In present-day south dakota.

Emil her many horses:
Part of our origin story

Is that the lakota emerged
from the black hills area

And were taught
how to use the buffalo

For food and shelter,

And that's all considered
kind of sacred land.

Narrator: In 1868,
the treaty of fort laramie

Recognizes the black hills
as lakota territory

In exchange for an end
to hostilities.

It also sets up
a permanent reservation,

Implying eventual containment--

A nuance lost to the lakota
at the time.

The government's goal is
to confine all native americans

To agencies or reservations.

Marvin dawes: They didn't
want them to be scattered,

And the only way
that they could contain

Was to put them
on the reservation,

Put them on the reservation

And keep an eye on them
and watch them.

Narrator: Dozens of native
leaders sign the document.

Dawes: There were two types
of natives, indians.

We have the non-treaty indian
and the treaty indians.

Narrator: Hunkpapa sioux chief
sitting bull

Is among those
who refuse to sign.

But almost immediately
in the black hills,

A complication emerges.

Penney: The rumors about gold
begin to develop

Right after the signing
of the treaty.

The agitation to kind of resolve
that question results

In the government-sponsored
expedition in 1874,

Which is led
by george armstrong custer.

[gunshots]

Narrator: In the civil war,
custer was a union hero,

Though an unlikely one,

Having graduated last
in his class from west point.

Scott sagan:
Custer had a long history

Of successful, brave fights.

He would often have a charge
into confederate units

And came out victorious
even at gettysburg.

Narrator: After the war,
a 27-year-old custer

Reinvents himself
as an indian fighter.

♪

Penney: He was
a larger-than-life personality.

He had already declared interest
in political office.

Narrator: Those larger ambitions
are shared by his wife,

Elizabeth, or libbie.

Penney: She was big in society.

She came
from a prominent family.

They're big in politics.

They saw their union as a sort
of bigger social opportunity,

One kind of
playing off the other.

They were a power couple.

Narrator: But their bid
for power will prove perilous.

Soon there would be secrets
and bloodshed.

Officially, the u.S. Expedition
into the black hills

Is scouting a site
for a new fort,

But it's really a hunt for gold,

And custer,
a 19th-century media darling,

Wants to be the one to find it.

More than 1,000 soldiers, plus
geologists, engineers, miners,

A photographer, a band,
the son of u.S. President grant,

And 300 head of cattle for meat

All go rolling
into lakota sacred land.

Penney: And there's dispute

Whether or not
they found gold there.

There's a geologist who claims
they didn't find any gold,

And, uh, the papers, of course,
say that they did.

Narrator: The gold rush is on,

And when promising deposits
are discovered

In the northern black hills,
thousands pour into sioux land.

Whole towns,
like deadwood, south dakota,

Rise up on treaty territory.

Penney: The first wave
of american settlement

And the dispossession
of land from indians

Is often mineral rights
or timber rights.

After the 1874 expedition,
by the summer of 1875,

There are over 4,000 miners
in the black hills.

They're primarily men,

And they're sending
all their money

Back east to their families,

You know, um,
quick money and lots of it.

Narrator: President grant offers
to purchase the black hills

For $6 million,

But the tribes refuse.

They want the land.

Penney: So, you've got
all the ingredients

Of a, of a big conflict there.

Her many horses: Really
what they were fighting for

Was the resources for the
survival of their community,

So say their hunting grounds,
their hunting territories.

♪

Narrator: Those who will not
give up their land,

And therefore
their traditional way of life,

Are designated hostiles.

Sarah sadlier: The term hostile
was used by the u.S. Military

To refer to those
native americans

Who had not come
into the reservation system

And who were rebelling
against the edict

That told them to do so.

Narrator: Sitting bull
rallies so-called hostiles,

And his envoys
slip onto reservations

And urge agency indians
to join the resistance.

It's a fight for land that is
vital to their very existence.

Her many horses: A lot of times,

Lakota people
are considered nomadic,

But they actually were not
nomadic wandering about.

They were actually
following the buffalo,

And that was a really important
aspect of their survival.

Narrator: Buffalo were
the walmart of the plains.

They provided food, clothing,
tools, blankets, rope, glue,

Utensils, weapons, and fuel.

For commercial hunters,
they become a bonanza.

Penney: Large-scale
industrial buffalo hunting

Really begins in earnest
after the civil war.

[gunshot]

They're being consumed

In enormous
and unprecedented numbers.

[gunshots]

Her many horses:
There's a couple images

That every time I see them,
I'm kind of thrown off by them

Because you just can't imagine
that this was done.

An image of a pile
of buffalo skulls, I mean,

And there's someone
standing on top of it.

Narrator: Bones are used to make
fertilizer and china.

Hides are taken for robes

And leather to make belts
for industrial machinery.

Much is wasted.

Upwards of 30 million buffalo
roam the plains in 1850.

Within just a few decades,

They are hunted
to near extinction.

On reservations,
rations replace hunting.

Her many horses:
You did not have that kind

Of traditional ability to hunt
and take care of yourself.

You had to depend
on somebody else.

Narrator: The last free indians
on the plains,

As many as 10,000, banded
together under sitting bull,

Represent a threat
to the reservation system.

Penney: So, in the summer
of 1876,

The army mobilizes against them

To bring them back
into the reservation,

And then an announcement
goes out--

If you're not at the agency,

We're going to consider you
a hostile,

And you will be attacked.

♪

Narrator:
Custer and his seventh cavalry

Depart from fort abraham lincoln
in north dakota on may 17, 1876.

They are well supplied and armed
with superior weapons.

Sagan: He and a number
of other army units

Went out to try to find
sitting bull, crazy horse,

And the various northern
cheyenne and lakota villages

That had left the reservations
to join the remaining indians

Who were still
roaming the plains.

Penney: The strategy there
was to find indian villages

And to destroy them.

Narrator:
A strategy of total war.

Eight years earlier,
in November of 1868,

Custer brought
the same strategy to bear

Near the washita river
in modern-day oklahoma.

Penney: His first conflict
was with a band of cheyenne

Under the leadership of a man
named black kettle,

Camped on the washita river.

Narrator: Encamped
for the winter in 51 lodges,

Black kettle's people felt safe.

He had extracted a promise
of peace from the u.S. Military.

They were not to be attacked.

Penney: But custer,
new in the field,

Found them early one morning.

[gunfire]

♪

Narrator: They kill
more than 100 cheyenne,

Including black kettle himself.

Her many horses: When they
were fleeing the cavalry,

The village was burned and
all their beautiful artwork,

All their sacred material,
everything was destroyed.

Narrator: To force them
into reservation life,

Custer orders the slaughter of
their entire herd of 650 ponies.

The cavalry captures
more than 50 women and children.

One of them
becomes custer's prize.

Sagan: Custer had taken
the youngest, prettiest one,

Monahsetah, as his.

Narrator: The historical record

Offers few clues
to their association,

But oral traditions suggest that
there may have been a child,

Or even two children,
born from the union.

It's unknown if libbie was aware
of the relationship,

But monahsetah
may have played a role

In a promise custer made
to the cheyenne.

Sagan: After the battle
of washita,

When the indians did surrender,
they had a peace pipe ceremony,

And custer said that I'm not
going to fight you again.

Narrator: Despite that promise,
just eight years later,

Custer is in pursuit
of the so-called hostiles,

Which include cheyenne.

His regiment endures
long periods of frustration

On the plains.

Penney: The territory was very
unfamiliar to the military.

Actually finding indians
to fight was a big problem.

Narrator:
Without tracking expertise,

It's likely they would
never have found them.

Traditional enemies
of the lakota,

Some crow serve
the u.S. Military as scouts.

Penney: The crow, they had been
skirmishing with lakota

Kind of, um, war party
to war party for decades.

It's, I think, helpful to think
of the plains tribes

As nations, small nations.

They have their own interests.

Sagan: Lakota, they had come

From the minnesota,
wisconsin woods into the plains,

Became very great horsemen,

But had conquered
some of the lands

Of the crow, the arikara,
and others.

Dawes: All these tribes
who were moved out

Or pushed out away
from their aboriginal lands

Eventually had come
into crow land.

There was conflict between
the crow, the sioux,

The cheyenne, the arapaho,
and the blackfeet,

And of course the crows,
you know, fought to protect,

To save their land.

Narrator: It's late June 1876

When custer's scouts
find the abandoned campsite

Of the so-called hostiles.

They track what appears to be
a historically large gathering.

In hot pursuit,

The seventh cavalry covers
70 miles in just three days.

The american indian
combatants at bighorn

Were formidable rivals.

♪

Sagan: Lakota people were
not popular among other tribes

In that region.

They were particularly
fierce and violent.

Narrator: Chief sitting bull
foresaw the attack in a vision.

He saw white men
falling into camp.

Sagan: Falling from the sky
upside down like grasshoppers

Without their hats on,
and they have no ears.

"they have no ears" was
the saying that the lakota used

To say you're not
listening to me.

The white men don't listen.

They promised us this land,
and they're not listening.

Narrator: Today bighorn is
cultural shorthand for disaster,

But custer expected a victory.

Sagan: Custer's luck,
it was called.

And I think
he really believed in it,

And he knew that the brave,
the impetuous, get honors.

Narrator:
He divides his regiment

Into three columns
to trap the sioux,

But instead, his men
are cut off from one another.

[gunfire]

He expects
a few hundred warriors.

He meets with thousands.

Penney: He totally
underestimated their size

And overestimated
his own abilities.

[gunshots]

[screaming]

Narrator:
His cavalry is outnumbered

By a factor of ten to one.

In just two hours,
custer's luck has run out.

[gunshot]

♪

One of his scouts is first to
bring news to the outside world.

Dawes: Curley the crow scout
didn't speak english very good,

So he was using sign language.

Narrator: What curley recounts
will shock the country.

Sagan: George custer
and every trooper under him

Was wiped out that day.

Narrator:
More than 200 soldiers,

Among them, custer's two
brothers and his brother-in-law.

Penney: Telegraph communication
was relatively new.

First news of the battle
gets to bismarck on July 5th,

Where there's
a telegraph office.

The newspaper offices there

Claim they sent
over 40,000 words in telegraph,

Um, working all day long.

They had to wait for the office

In saint paul or fargo

To open up in the morning,

And then the telegraph
people there

Worked a 26-hour shift.

Cécile ganteaume:
Because there were so many

Telegraph offices
and so many newspapers

Throughout
the entire united states,

In small towns, big cities,

Through various territories
that hadn't even become states,

Most americans
learned of the battle

At exactly the same time,

So this was akin
to the country being shocked

By the assassination
of president kennedy.

[fireworks]

Narrator: The news hits just
as americans are contemplating

A dazzling future, celebrating
the nation's centennial.

Most consider conflict
with indians a thing of the past

And can't believe them capable

Of defeating a sophisticated
military force.

The inconceivable defeat,

Topped off by the insulting loss
of a national hero,

Is too much to bear.

Sagan: Custer, he was fighting
this battle for politics,

For history,
but also for showmanship.

He was that kind of general.

Penney: So, he was very much
in the public eye

And thought of as
this kind of heroic figure.

Narrator: With his death,

He becomes famous
beyond all imagination.

Sagan: I think in part

It's because america
likes a tragic loser.

Narrator: The story becomes
a tabloid obsession.

Ganteaume: The battle
of the little bighorn

Was literally seared into the
american national consciousness.

Throughout the country,

People wanted to know the names
of the officers who were killed,

The names of all the soldiers
who were killed.

They wanted to know
their biographies,

Their life stories.

Narrator: Within weeks,

Legendary showman
buffalo bill cody

Makes yet more news with
a stunt of public vengeance.

Sagan: After the battle,

Buffalo bill killed
a cheyenne warrior,

Took his scalp,
and raised it up above saying,

"this is the first scalp
for custer."

Narrator: The press
vilifies sitting bull,

Calling him
the killer of custer.

He replies,
"they say I murdered custer.

It is a lie.

He was a fool
and rode to his death."

Although the battle
of little bighorn

Is on every front page
in america,

Frustratingly
few specifics are known.

Sadlier: There were no survivors

From the u.S. Cavalry
in custer's command,

And so as a result
of this lack of sources,

The u.S. Public
was forever questioning

What indeed happened there.

It was, in fact, almost the
conspiracy theory of the 1870s.

Narrator: Rumors
generate new rumors.

Newspapers claim that
tom custer, custer's brother,

Had his heart
ripped out and eaten.

It's reported
that custer's half-sioux son

Was killed at bighorn

And that the bodies of the dead
were horrifically mutilated.

Custer was the hero
of every story.

Penney: There was no man
left alive to tell the tale,

So that immediately creates
a kind of blank slate

On which to, you know,
project your fantasies.

Narrator: The drama of the last
stand proves irresistible.

♪

Penney: Walt whitman
writes a poem

For the new york daily news,
you know, about custer.

One of the stanzas
addressed to custer,

He says, "thou of sunny
flowing hair in battle."

He saw this as akin
to shakespeare.

Better than shakespeare,

Better than homer.

But something that was
uniquely american.

Narrator: Anheuser-busch
uses a painting

Of custer's last stand
to advertise beer.

Copies placed in 150,000 saloons
across the country

Elevate bighorn to the best
advertised epic legend

In history.

Sadlier: Folks would look up,
see these mighty warriors

And custer valiantly
with his sword

On last stand hill
fighting to the death.

[gunfire]

Sagan: I grew up with this image

Of the battle
of the little bighorn

Of george custer
with his buckskin jacket on,

His six-shooter out,
on the last stand hill.

That's not what happened.

Narrator: The depictions were
likely complete fantasy.

Sagan: Custer was killed

Well before the final end
of the battle.

The native americans
attacking him had no idea

It was even george custer
who was leading this attack.

Narrator: The testimony
of native american survivors

Of bighorn paint
an entirely different picture.

Sadlier: When they were
brought into reservations,

They were usually interviewed

About what they had witnessed
at the battle.

Narrator: Perhaps the most
impactful testimony

Is that of miniconjou
lakota chief red horse.

Sagan: On the morning
of June 25th,

He was out getting turnips
with some women...

...When he heard horses
coming in the distance

And saw dust clouds and realized
that they were under attack.

[war cries]

[gunshot]

Narrator: But in the aftermath,
the military crackdown

Forces red horse
to surrender in 1877.

His account of the battle

Extinguishes all hope
of survivors taken captive.

Sadlier: He answered
those rampant questions

Of the u.S. Public
by responding,

"all were killed,
none were left alive,

Even for a few minutes."

Narrator: It's likely
that red horse's translator

Was john "big leggins" bruguier,
a half-french, half-lakota

Adopted brother of sitting bull

And sarah sadlier's
distant ancestor.

Sadlier: I'm of
miniconjou lakota descent.

I recognized his last name
from my family stories,

Went back
through my own genealogy,

And found that he was, in fact,

The brother of my
great-great-great-grandmother.

Narrator: What makes red horse's
account truly exceptional

Are the drawings he created
to illustrate the battle.

Today his 42 drawings are a part

Of the smithsonian's national
anthropological archives.

Sadlier:
The colors are amazing.

They're so well-preserved.

Narrator: Anthropologist
candace greene

Is a ledger art expert.

Candace greene: Well, the thing
that, that strikes all of us

Immediately is the size
of the red horse work.

He worked on very large paper,

So at what we would call
an epic scale,

Whereas most artists were
working in a book of this size.

Sagan: They're called
ledger drawings

Because many of them were
actually done on ledger books.

Those were the books
that the traders

And the people
on the reservation had.

Narrator: The oversized paper

Was supplied
by a doctor compiling a guide

To plains indian sign language
in the 1880s.

His dictionary was destined
for the smithsonian.

The drawings were made
to double-check the accuracy

Of red horse's sign language
account of the battle.

Red horse's detailed scenes
of the entire battle

Are highly unusual.

Conventional ledger drawings

Only depict one person's
battle experience.

Greene: Each man would draw
his own events

Rather than one man
combining other people's events.

Narrator: But red horse's works

Are traditional
in one significant way.

Sarah's research has revealed

That the drawings
are scrupulously accurate.

Sadlier: If you look
at battlefield reports,

They do accurately
depict the types of injuries

That men sustained
on that battlefield.

Through these,
we can actually identify

Who some of these
individual soldiers were.

Greene: Wow, that's amazing.

The enormous detail and accuracy

Within what sort of seems
like a scene of chaos.

Sagan: Now, what red horse does
is show the horror of battle.

He wasn't ashamed of it.

He didn't do this
for the white market.

He did it for a doctor friend

Who wanted to have an accurate
representation of the battle.

You see scalping,
you see dismemberment,

And you see
dead native americans

As well as dead white men.

Narrator:
The newspaper headlines

Were right on one point--

Bodies of the fallen
were gruesomely mutilated.

Sadlier: Some of the native
women went after the battle

To cut the muscles
and perform other mutilations

To the bodies
of u.S. Cavalry men

Who had perished
on the battlefields.

Narrator: What sounds
pretty grisly on the face of it

Was actually grounded
in cultural tradition.

Sadlier: Women reportedly
had done that

So that these warriors
could not come back

And hurt their people
in the afterlife.

Narrator: After the battle,
custer's body was left whole.

Cheyenne women recognized him

And remembered
his broken promise

After the massacre at washita.

Sagan: The women had took awls

And stuck it in his ears
and pierced his eardrums,

And that was their way
of saying,

"you better learn
to listen better next time."

Narrator: However, there is no
evidence to support the claim

That a child
of monahsetah and custer

Died at bighorn.

And sarah has not found
any evidence of custer himself

Depicted in the drawings.

Penney: No one seems to know
who killed custer.

It just sort of happened
in the thick of the moment.

Narrator: The drawings
also refute another myth.

While there is
plenty of carnage,

There is no sign
of tom custer's heart,

Reportedly ripped from his body.

Lakota war chief
rain-in-the-face

Was once arrested by tom custer.

After the battle, he does indeed
claim to have eaten his heart.

But later in life,

Rain-in-the-face
admits it wasn't true.

This image depicts warriors

Leaving the battle
in celebration.

Some lead captured horses,
valuable battlefield trophies.

It also contains
what sarah believes to be

A self-portrait of red horse.

Greene: Ah, the artist himself.

Sadlier: The artist himself.

He's looking out at us,
the viewer,

And with sort of
a side eye here.

But he's also
one of the most detailed.

Narrator: But red horse's
detailed eyewitness account

Can't compete
with a tsunami of press

Cementing custer
as a bona fide hero.

Custer's widow, libbie,
surfaces from grief

To push that narrative
to new heights.

Sagan: Libbie becomes
a professional widow

And supports herself
the rest of her career

Beefing up his story,
making him to be a hero.

Sadlier: Her many lectures
focused on the sacrifice

That her husband gave
for the nation.

Narrator: But her versions of
events are more fancy than fact.

Penney: Of course, the facts

Are never as compelling as

The stories we want to believe.

Sadlier: Libbie custer largely
invented many of her stories

About her life with her husband

And his involvement
in the cavalry.

Critics at the time
did not want to criticize her

Because of her status
as his widow

And so thought,
"we'll wait until she perishes,"

But she lived into her nineties.

Narrator: Accurate or not,
libbie secures a spot for custer

In the canon
of american heroes.

But it's another
larger-than-life character

That spins battlefield tragedy

Into a 19th-century
reality show.

Just a few years after bighorn,

American scout, buffalo hunter,
and showman buffalo bill cody

Founds his wild west show,

An extravagant touring pageant
of all things western.

[cheering]

He had been eyeing
the opportunity

Since the battle occurred,

And he took the first scalp
for custer.

Sagan: He would actually go out
and do things in real life

In order to give himself
better material

For a performance afterwards.

[cheering]

Buffalo bill:
Ladies and gentlemen,

Buffalo bill's wild west.

Delaney: Racing horses,
roping, riding, shooting,

You know, all of these things
were part of the show.

Narrator: The performance
of custer's last stand

Is a highlight.

[cheering]

Before cinema or television,

The wild west
brings history alive.

Delaney: Montana
is pretty remote,

And most people will never
step foot on that land,

But then you're sitting
in an arena

And you're attending a show.

And here it is
in front of you.

And the guns and the noise
and the dust,

And it's all there.

Narrator: Curiously,
the biggest draw

Is the real-life
native americans

Performing in the show.

Penney: When american indians
are seen as a threat,

They're depicted
as savages, of course,

And they're something
that's fearful.

Once they've become
domesticated,

They become
an item of nostalgia.

Narrator: For the indians,

The show represents a chance
to escape reservation life.

Records show that cody
paid his performers well.

The wild west starts out
with 36 pawnee performers

But shifts focus to sioux
from the pine ridge reservation,

Eventually employing
100 at a time.

Penney: The wild west shows
offered native people

Suffering under these pressures
of assimilation an outlet,

An ability to travel,
an ability to perform.

Narrator: Hiring performers
from reservations

Takes intense negotiation
with the government.

Delaney: You have to remember,

Indian wars continued

In the first almost decade

Of the wild west.

The performances were happening

While the u.S. Government
and the army

Were still engaging in battle
in indian territory.

Almost inconceivable
that this was happening

At the same time
as the performances.

Buffalo bill:
Introducing the great leader

Of the sioux people.

Narrator:
Even more inconceivable,

One of them was sitting bull.

Buffalo bill:
Chief sitting bull!

Narrator: After the battle,
he'd crossed the border

To escape retribution.

Ganteaume: Sitting bull and his
followers had fled into canada.

This became
an international incident

Because the united states wanted
the return of sitting bull.

They wanted him
and his followers to surrender.

Narrator: Eventually,
without game to hunt,

He was forced to bring
his starving people south

And surrender to a reservation.

But once there,
he refuses to farm,

Instead trading on his fame
to sell autographs

And charge visitors
to take his picture.

Dawes: I think sitting bull
said it very well when he said,

"we all had to do
what we had to do to survive."

Narrator: In 1885, he accepts
a job with the wild west.

Delaney: To have him performing
and meeting the public,

That was a big deal.

Narrator: He negotiates
an impressive rate of $50 a week

And cannily maintains the right
to continue to sell autographs.

The first publicity photos

Show him standing awkwardly
with cody,

A man whose very name

Celebrates the eradication
of the buffalo.

Sadlier: His presence in
the show lent it some validity

In terms of representations

Of the battle
of the little bighorn

And also familiarized
the u.S. Public with the fight.

[booing]

Penney: People catcall him.
They boo him.

And he takes it
rather stoically,

And that doesn't seem
to bother him very much.

Narrator: Sitting bull
strikes up a friendship

With another
wild west performer...

[cheering]

Annie oakley.

[gunshot]

He calls her "little sure shot"

And symbolically adopts her.

She later says
he made a great pet of her.

On tour, the wild west depicts
indian battles, bison hunts,

Stage robberies, and of course,
the heroics of custer

In 50 cities a year
throughout the u.S. And europe,

Even playing for
queen victoria's golden jubilee.

But the indian agent
at standing rock

Refuses to let sitting bull
continue to perform,

And he returns
to the reservation in 1886,

After one season.

Penney: He purposely moves
far away from the agency itself.

He builds a cabin for himself
by the grand river,

And people gather around him,

And they're kind of out of sight

Of the agent,

And so he's very suspicious.

Narrator: A new native american
spiritual movement

Adds to the suspicion.

Penney: Nations on the plains
become very interested

In what we refer today
as the ghost dance.

Her many horses:
The whole ghost dance movement

Was really one
of these last efforts

To maintain the old way of life,
because part of the belief

Was that the buffalo
was going to return,

Even dead relatives were
going to return,

And the old way of life
was going to return

If they did this.

Penney: It really is
a kind of ray of hope

For the native nations
of the west.

Narrator: Ghost dancers believe

Their regalia can protect them
from bullets.

Penney: Sitting bull's camp,
his cabin,

Become a little refuge
for ghost dancers.

He's characterized as
an antagonist to the government,

And the ghost dance as
a dangerous kind of development.

♪

Narrator: In December of 1890,
rumor that sitting bull

Is preparing
to leave the reservation

Prompts the hasty order
to arrest him.

♪

Man: Come on, get up.
You're under arrest.

You're under arrest.

Narrator: But it all goes wrong.

[gunshot]

[gunshot]

[people screaming]

Sitting bull, age 60,

Is killed near daybreak
on December 15, 1890.

And in the melee that follows,
14 lose their lives,

Including sitting bull's
teenage son.

♪

More than 200
of his followers scatter.

38 join a band
of miniconjou ghost dancers.

But the ghost dance doesn't
protect them from bullets.

Just two weeks later,
300 men, women, and children

Are slaughtered by u.S. Troops

While camped in the snow
near wounded knee creek.

Dawes: From then on, there was
no more plains indian wars.

Narrator: But tragedy
continues to be spun

Into entertainment gold.

Sitting bull's death
is reenacted

At the 1893 world's columbian
exposition in chicago,

When his actual cabin is moved
to the site and put on display.

With the wild west on break
from a european tour,

Buffalo bill cody
returns to the states

And manages to get
23 lakota ghost dancers,

Incarcerated
at fort sheridan in illinois,

Released into his care.

Advertised as pows,
their notoriety draws crowds

When the tour resumes
in germany in 1891.

Sagan: The mixing of real
history and stage and drama

Is exemplified
by buffalo bill cody

To help americans understand
one version of the west,

But it was his version only.

Narrator: For one thing,
outside of the arena,

Feathered headdresses
were relatively rare.

Ganteaume: It was an honor
that was earned.

Narrator: But the wild west
unceasingly promotes

What will become
the iconic image of the west--

A plains indian
in eagle feather war bonnet.

Today it's an image
used to sell everything

From baking powder
to whiskey.

Ganteaume: It is
a very unique phenomenon.

No other country in the world
is constantly recreating images

Of one segment of its society.

Penney: Before the plains wars,

Before the battle
of little bighorn,

That wasn't the common image.

Narrator: The legends
of daniel boone

Are all about ohio indians
like the mingo and shawnee,

A different stereotype,
but another bygone era.

Ganteaume: This imagery
is always of indians

Frozen in the past.

It actually works as a barrier

That keeps americans
from understanding

Who american indians really are.

Penney: Our mythic imagination
is populated by indians

Who we recognize
from these kind of big events

Like the battle
of little bighorn.

Narrator: Despite being
celebrated in entertainment,

The west itself
is becoming a memory.

Buffalo are nearly extinct,
railroads connect the coasts,

And fences
crisscross the plains.

Penney: The 1890s is a point
when the united states

Kind of declares
its frontier history closed.

All the empty wild spaces
have been occupied.

Narrator: Although the indians
won the battle,

Little bighorn
was the decisive moment

When it became inevitable
they would lose the war.

On reservations,

Life is designed to, quote,
"kill the indian, save the man."

[children laughing]

Entire generations of children,

Starting as young
as four years old,

Are sent away to school.

Her many horses:
There were attempts to have

Boarding schools
on reservations,

And then they found out
that that was not working

Because the children could
go home to their families,

So they came up with this
great idea of shipping them off

With the threat
of if they didn't do it,

Then rations would not
be given to them.

Narrator:
Their hair is cut short,

And they are forbidden
to speak indian languages.

Her many horses:
They were not trained to be

Teachers or doctors or lawyers.

They were taught to be nurses,
maids, uh, maintenance men.

That's what they were
teaching them at these places.

Penney: There is this firm
and naive, kind of tragic belief

That this was really
the right way to go,

That, that the progress
of civilization

Demanded that everyone
climb on board,

And that if you didn't,

You would be left behind,

And you had no future

As a result.

So, an alternative future
for american indians

Was just a failure
of imagination.

Narrator:
And a paradox of imagination--

They are to become
as un-indian as possible

At the same time
that the days of the wild west

Are actively celebrated.

Ganteaume:
Americans thought of it

As a defining chapter
in u.S. History,

A chapter that defined
the american character.

It defined the pioneer spirit,
it defined rugged individualism,

And so, ironically, the image
of the plains indian warrior

Evoked this idealized past
for americans.

Narrator:
One portrait photographer

Captures images
of the wild west show indians

Very unlike those
on cans of baking powder.

Delaney: Gertrude kasebier
opens a studio in 1898

In new york city
on fifth avenue.

She quickly becomes

One of the foremost
portraitists,

Photographers in america.

Narrator: A contemporary
of alfred stieglitz,

Kasebier is the annie leibovitz
of the turn of the century.

Delaney:
And she's in her studio one day,

And she looks out the window,
and, lo and behold,

Buffalo bill's wild west

Is parading towards
madison square garden.

♪

Penney: Buffalo bill performs

The battle of little bighorn,
custer's last stand,

In madison square garden.

Electricity was new.
They had electric lights.

They had a huge stage set.

Narrator: With luminaries
like mark twain in the audience,

The show is described
by the new york times

As a spectacle
with thrillers in abundance.

[whooping]

Kasebier invites the performers
to sit for her camera.

She has a lifelong interest
in plains indians,

Kindled by her childhood

Traveling the prairie
in a covered wagon

And playing with children
from local tribes.

Delaney: They show up
with full regalia,

With headdresses and various
head adornments and blankets.

Narrator: But kasebier
refers to her portraits

As human documents.

They dispense
with beads and feathers,

And she captures informal images

Of the people
behind the performance.

Delaney: She tried to create
a very different setting

Than one of
commercial portraiture.

She was getting to know them,

And she was involved
in a very personal project

And images
that she would never sell.

Narrator: Kasebier's photos
celebrate an unspoken truth--

That while native americans
have been feared

And stripped of their culture,
they are also admired.

Penney:
American indians are something

That are distinctly american.

And in the united states
of the 1890s,

The early 20th century, that is
desperately trying to establish

A culture separate from europe,

They're thinking
about what is ours,

What is unique to us?

The american indians
become something

That's distinctly,
uniquely american.

Narrator: The lakota sioux
continue to fight

For their piece of america.

The tribe spends
more than 60 years

Battling in court
for the black hills.

In 1980, their case is heard

By the supreme court
of the united states.

Arthur lazarus:
Under the 1868 treaty,

The united states promised
to keep whites

Out of the great sioux
reservation,

And it had a military
obligation to do so.

Penney: They actually prevailed
in modern court.

The court agreed with them

And offered them
a big settlement.

But once again, the lakota
didn't want the money,

They wanted the land.

Narrator: To date,
the sioux persist

In refusing the settlement,

Which has grown
to over a billion dollars.

Penney: No amount of money will
bring back a sense of justice

When you feel that you've
been wronged in that way.

Narrator:
On the sacred lost land,

The homestake gold mine

Produced 49 million
troy ounces in 125 years,

Ten percent of the gold
in the u.S.

[gunshot]

Bighorn has been stirring
emotions for almost 150 years.

Penney: Imperialist conquest
is kind of an ugly thing,

On the face of it,

So how do we make
an epic story about that?

Narrator: From a safe distance,

The story
of how the west was won

Burnishes the american spirit.

Sagan: The romanticized view
that helps perpetuate

This vision of custer

As a brilliant, brave,
tragic figure

Diminishes the role
of the native americans

Who fought
very bravely that day.

Penney: Well, that's the trope
of tragedy.

We're not threatened
by it anymore.

It's not going to hurt us,

But isn't it great
to think about?

Narrator: The stereotype
of the 19th-century indian

Can overshadow
the actuality of modern life.

Her many horses:
We're still here.

We don't dress the same
as we did back then

Except on special occasions.

Narrator: And contemporary
ledger drawings

Show distinctly 21st-century
american indians.

Her many horses:
With over 500, you know,

Federally recognized
native communities,

We're quite a diverse group.

Narrator: Today, the battle
of the little bighorn

Is still fought on crow land
near the actual battle site.

Performed for a modern audience
by modern indians,

It means more than remembering
a moment of glory.

Dawes: The young men,
they like to ride horses,

You know, paint, ride bareback.

It gives them that, uh,
you know, the indian-ness.

When they're on that horse, yes,

You know,
they have that feeling.

Narrator: Whether celebrating
the victors at the greasy grass

Or dissecting the myth
of custer's last stand,

Perhaps the real power
of bighorn

Lies in the feelings
it still fuels on all sides.

A pivotal moment in history,

An important reminder
of all that we are.