On June 25, 1876, George Armstrong Custer split his cavalry regiment, ignored his scouts' warnings, and led roughly 200 men into a Native encampment far larger than he understood. Every one of them died within the hour. This episode of Sidequests, marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, takes apart the \"Custer's Last Stand\" myth and tells the real story: a genuine military triumph for Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who defeated a professional army — and the swift, crushing response that followed within two years and ended Plains Native independence for good.
","author_name":"Keith Conrad"}