American Experience: Last Stand at Little Big Horn (2005)

The Battle of Little Big Horn, known as ''Custer's Last Stand,'' has been one of the most frequently depicted moments in American history—and one of the least understood, still shrouded in myth.

The battle has inspired over 1,000 different paintings and works of art, calendar displays, comic books and cereal boxes. The golden-haired general and his doomed 7th Cavalry have been wiped out by Indians in more than 40 films. Yet the battle that left no white survivors also left two very different accounts of Little Big Horn: one white; one Native. Using journals, oral accounts and Indian ledger drawings as well as archival and feature films, a Native American novelist, James Welch (Winter in the Blood, The Indian Lawyer) and a white filmmaker, Paul Stekler (Eyes on the Prize) combine talents to examine this watershed moment from two views: from that of the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow who lived on the Great Plains for generations; and from that of the white settlers who pushed west across the continent. Pulitzer Prize-winning Native American writer Scott Momaday narrates.

On one DVD5 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: 4 x 3 full frame.

Custer had no chance

Custer had no chance. His portion of the 7th Calvery had 210 men and charged into the middle of the village that had 2000 warriors at mid-afternoon. His initial attacking force under Major Reno had been replused and retreated from the bottom end of the village, freeing up those Indians to attack Custer from another angle when he was already engaged.
The Sioux and Cheyenne had a lot of Henry and Winchester repeating rifles and most of them were firing from gullies making very small targets of themselves. While the troopers were exposed on ridges with single shot trap door Springfields. It's estimated that the Sioux and Cheyenne lost fewer than 50 warriors, while Custer lost 210 and Reno lost another 50 or so.

If Custer had waited a couple of days until the other forces came up the 27th, then maybe they could have joined forces and avoided a massacre. But it was not in Custer's make-up to wait and share the glory with another force that he was not in command of.

Custer should get credit though for holding off the Confedrate calvary that failed to hit the backside of the Union line opposite from Pickets force at Gettysburg. November 19, 2007

Last Stand - excellent work/great balance

It's refreshing to see a balanced review of histories most famous event. A very well done production dealing with an understandably guarded people. If you've watched the film read the book "Killing Custer". It gives amazing additional insights into the history of the native american people as well as insider views on the making of the film, success and challenges along the way. August 10, 2007

An informative look at the reality vs the myth of Custer's Last Stand

As this episode of The American Experience - not to mention history - shows, there really was no Last Stand at Little Big Horn. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer basically led his cavalry detachment into the midst of an overwhelming force of Native American warriors and got himself and all of his men killed before he even had time to make anything like a stand at all - it's hard to stand when most of your men are running away in panic. Admittedly, I have great dislike for George Custer; the man was an arrogant, vainglorious, shyster and an exceedingly poor military leader (with a history of abandoning soldiers he was supposed to support - although this video doesn't bring this issue up), and I don't like having a man like that counted among the much more deserving ranks of American heroes. Of course, he's no longer viewed in such heroic terms today, as the history of Custer's Last Stand is finally displacing the myth of that dark day in American history. This is not to say the slaughter wasn't of incredible importance because it most certainly was; partly in the name of vengeance for Custer's death, American forces quickly moved to capture or kill those Indians of the American Northwest who refused to take up residence on a reservation.

This video, introduced by David McCullough, is a pretty decent look at the reality of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It does draw heavily from Native American sources, but that is mainly because Native Americans were essentially the only survivors of the battle. What is most amazing about the true history is the swiftness of the battle. Even with modern weaponry such as Gatling guns and artillery, a force of 208 men never had a prayer against thousands of brave Indian warriors fighting for the land they called their own. Military discipline was the first casualty, and a number of the men were basically shot in the back as they tried to run away in a panic. It didn't have to be this way. He never seemed to understand just how large a force he was facing, and his lust for glory led him into the fight when he should have waited for reinforcements as planned. One army column had already been forced into a retreat, and Custer's called-for reinforcements went no further once they came upon these men - but Custer didn't wait to learn any of this, leaving these other detachments of the U.S. 7th Cavalry to wonder where the heck Custer was even as his body lay rotting where it fell on the battlefield.

Along with the story of the battle itself, this video attempts to show how history unfolded in such a way as to lead to such a battle - while it's a cursory glance at the history of American-Indian relations, it is certainly helpful in understanding this event in its full context. The documentary also goes on to explain just how the Custer myth came into being (and the myth-making began as soon as news of the massacre was reported) - from basically fictional news reports of Custer's Last Stand to Custer's wife's three bestsellers about her husband to countless reenactments by Buffalo Bill's Wild West show all over the country and on to numerous film accounts of the battle. The only small criticism I have of this presentation involves the identification of the Indian tribes involved in the battle - at first, it talks about Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, then goes on to concentrate on the Lakota while also quickly mentioning the Arapahoe. As I'm not an expert on such matters, I sometimes found it a mite confusing to figure out the distinctions between these different tribes. Other than that, however, this is an excellent, reality-based video. July 5, 2006

good to have the facts

The most shocking thing about this documentary is that the events took place in the 1870s yet, this shows the children of Natives and whites discussing what their key figure fathers told them about what happened. Folk must have some longevity genes in them. There was one Native interviewee here who had great things to say, but I could barely understand him. I don't know if it was due to his age, his accent, or maybe he didn't have dentures.

There is one thing that stands out about this topic: Custard was so busy promoting himself that he wasn't a good leader. He just messed up. There's a perception that Europeans and their ancestors conquered non-Europeans with ease. But this battle, Shaka Zulu's battle in South Africa, the Ethiopians' defeat of Mussolini's army in the Horn, show this is not true. To be honest, the French defeat in Algeria and the American defeat in Vietnam are two more recent signs of this.

This documentary was just okay, but it was refreshing to learn anything more about the war in the Black Hills. May 22, 2005

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