custer and the LBH

TD-Tommy776 · Jul 22, 2012

brndirt1 said:

Did you know Tommy that the only mutilation of Custer himself was piercing of his ear drums with knitting needle like sticks? That was to emphasize that he was "deaf to warnings on earth, and now deaf forever". The Amerindian warriors all seemed to have respected him for his bravery, and courage in battle, but found him lacking in "hearing and listening to what he was told".
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I had read about the needles to the ears, but the circumstances were a bit different. From the aforementioned Smithsonian article:

As late as the 1920s, elderly Cheyennes said that two southern Cheyenne women had come upon the body of Custer. He had been shot in the head and in the side. They recognized Custer from the Battle of the Washita in 1868, and had seen him up close the following spring when he had come to make peace with Stone Forehead and smoked with the chiefs in the lodge of the Arrow Keeper. There Custer had promised never again to fight the Cheyennes, and Stone Forehead, to hold him to his promise, had emptied the ashes from the pipe onto Custer’s boots while the general, all unknowing, sat directly beneath the Sacred Arrows that pledged him to tell the truth.

It was said that these two women were relatives of Mo-nah-se-tah, a Cheyenne girl whose father Custer’s men had killed at the Washita. Many believed that Mo-nah-se-tah had been Custer’s lover for a time. No matter how brief, this would have been considered a marriage according to Indian custom. On the hill at the Little Bighorn, it was told, the two southern Cheyenne women stopped some Sioux men who were going to cut up Custer’s body. “He is a relative of ours,” they said. The Sioux men went away.

Every Cheyenne woman routinely carried a sewing awl in a leather sheath decorated with beads or porcupine quills. The awl was used daily, for sewing clothing or lodge covers, and perhaps most frequently for keeping moccasins in repair. Now the southern Cheyenne women took their awls and pushed them deep into the ears of the man they believed to be Custer. He had not listened to Stone Forehead, they said. He had broken his promise not to fight the Cheyenne anymore. Now, they said, his hearing would be improved.

Read more: How the Battle of Little Bighorn Was Won | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

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I love the last line. It seems sarcasm is a cross-cultural phenomenon.

Volga Boatman · Jul 22, 2012

One wonders whether custers legendary flowing locks of blonde hair would have been souveniered from his corpse if they were not shaved for the campaign.

Custers scalp would have been worth a bloody fortune!

brndirt1 · Jul 23, 2012

Volga Boatman said:

One wonders whether custers legendary flowing locks of blonde hair would have been souveniered from his corpse if they were not shaved for the campaign.

Custers scalp would have been worth a bloody fortune!
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He was left mostly un-molested, unscalped, and only with his ear drums pierced (see above). Thanks "TD-Tommy" for that bit about the Cheyenne from the Smithsonian. I hadn't read that before, only what was at the visitor's center about his "deafness" and the sewing awls inserted into the ears.

Biak · Jul 23, 2012

I'm not 100% sure but I believe Custer had cut his hair by this time and didn't have the "flowing mane" he is so famously known for. Seems to me I read it in one of the books I've read on Custer. "Boots and Saddles" by his wife; "Custer and Black Kettle by Ambrose or one of the others.

brndirt1 · Jul 23, 2012

Here is a photo of him taken in early 1876, in civilian dress just before he took control of the 7th at Fort Lincoln. I doubt his "golden locks" got much longer by the time of his demise.

Biak · Jul 23, 2012

Another point to ponder is there is some confusion as to the identity of Custer after the battle. Custer was not in uniform but wearing his usual 'buckskins', something he commonly wore instead. We'll probably never know the 'whole truth' due to all the different stories recalled by various participants, some who's participation is questionable and many who were repeating what they had heard.

brndirt1 · Jul 23, 2012

I have been following "Custer" for years, sort of on again, off again. He is an interesting man to say the least, and his ego must always be factored into his actions at the Little Big Horn. He was trying to make a "come-back" of sorts in the Army, after a few set-backs career-wise. One of them just before his participation was requested by Sheridan, to over turn his suspension by President Grant.

Custer had been very outspoken about corruption and bribery in the Indian Agencies which were keeping the correct food stuffs and other goods out of the hands of the reservation Indians. He was especially critical of President Grant's brother Orville, who had been appointed to the post by the President. I think that photo of him in civilian clothes was taken while he was testifying at Congress in the investigation of the Indian Agents.

I just found out another thing that is simply mind-numbing. The US Congress had suspended funding for the Army, or had not voted funding for 1876, so to add insult to injury, those who died at the battle hadn't been paid for the entire year.

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custer and the LBH

TD-Tommy776 Man of Constant Sorrow

Volga Boatman Dishonorably Discharged

brndirt1 Saddle Tramp

Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

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Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

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