The battle popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand," and now also recognized as the last stand of the Plains Indians (who called it the Battle of the Greasy Grass), was fought in southeastern Montana on June 25-26, 1876. Here are some highlight statistics for Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the battle it commemorates.
320,959
Recreational visits in 2010. This tally reflects a slight increase over the previous year, but is far short of the 425,995 recorded in the peak year of 2002. Visitation is strongly seasonal, with two-thirds occurring in June-July-August.
149,000
Objects in the park's museum and archival collections, which have been temporarily relocated to the National Park Service’s Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson, Arizona, for preservation and conservation.
900-2,000?
Estimated number of warriors, including the renowned war chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, among the roughly 7,000 Lakota (Sioux), Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahos (small contingent) encamped along the Little Bighorn River in June 1876. This immense encampment, possibly the largest-ever gathering of Plains Indians, stretched for several miles along the river valley and had a pony herd of some 15,000 animals.
765
The park's acreage, all federal. Actually, the park's two widely separated units -- the Custer Battlefield and the Reno-Benteen Battlefield -- preserve only a small fraction of the sprawling area encompassing the 1876 Indian encampment and the ground on which fighting, movements of the combatants, and other battle-related activities occurred. The great majority of this land is located on the Crow Indian Reservation. The several miles-long stretch of Battlefield Road connecting the park's two units is on an Indian-granted right of way easement.
About 647
Total size of the U.S. Army Seventh Cavalry, including attached personnel, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer as of June 22, 1876. This count included 31 officers, 566 enlisted personnel (+/- a few), a dozen or so mule packers and quartermaster employees, and 35 Indian scouts (six Crows, the rest mostly Arikaras). Custer's command was organized into twelve companies, one of which was assigned to guard the pack train.
268
Soldiers and attached personnel of the Seventh Cavalry killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Seventh Cavalry lost 16 officers, 242 troopers, and 10 scouts. Included among the dead were Custer, all of the personnel in the five-company battalion under his immediate command, and 18 men who fought in the southern part of the battlefield (valley and hilltop engagements in the Reno-Benteen Battlefield).
The body counts made on and near Last Stand Hill are unreliable and conflicting. The first was 197, the second was 214, and neither is considered indisputable.
About 100?
Indians killed in the Little Bighorn fight. Historical accounts are ambiguous and conflicting, with estimates ranging from as few as 36 to more than 130. Since Plains Indians customarily minimized their battle losses, usually scattering when hard pressed, it was unusual to have such a large number of warriors killed in a single battle.
Less than 60 minutes
Duration of the engagement at Last Stand Hill in which Custer and the remainder of his battalion were wiped out. Some Indian witnesses insisted that this final stage of the fighting in Custer's area of the battlefield lasted no more than half an hour.
55
Seventh Cavalry troops wounded at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. These were men in the battalions commanded by Major Reno and Captain Benteen. Engaged in fierce fighting about three miles to the south of Last Stand Hill, an area now lying mostly within the park's Reno-Benteen Battlefield unit, these troops were immobilized in a defensive perimeter and rendered no help to Custer's doomed detachment.
After burial details finished their grim work, wounded soldiers were transported to the Yellowstone River, placed aboard the riverboat Far West, and evacuated some 700 miles to the post hospital at Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River near Mandan, North Dakota. When the Far West arrived in Bismarck during the night of July 5, the news of Custer's defeat was quickly telegraphed to the public at large, stunning a nation engaged in its Centennial celebration.
24
Medals of Honor awarded for bravery above and beyond the call of duty during the Little Bighorn fight. Fifteen were awarded to troopers of the Reno-Benteen force who volunteered to fetch river water for the thirsty defenders of Reno Hill. Four sharpshooters who provided covering fire also received medals. (Ironically, a 16th water carrier, the only trooper wounded during the successful foray, was not awarded a medal even though his leg was amputated.)
20
Years since "Custer" was deleted from the park's official name. Much to the disgust of Plains Indians who fought to save their families and way of life, "Custer's Last Stand" became a cultural icon portraying the 7th Cavalry troopers as heroes and the Indians as bloodthirsty savages. The battlefield property, which was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service in 1940, was redesignated Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1946. It wasn't until December 10, 1991, that the park was finally renamed Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument via legislation that also called for an Indian Memorial to be built near Last Stand Hill.
17 minutes
Duration of the orientation video show at the park's visitor center, which is located in the Custer Battlefield unit not far from Last Stand Hill.
17 stops
Organization of the Park Tour, a self-guided driving tour on the park's Battlefield Road. Understandably, Last Stand Hill is the Park Tour's star attraction.
1 hour
Duration of an Apsaalooke tour (aka native guide tour). Scheduled five times daily from June through Labor Day, these Native American-guided bus tours of the battlefield are offered with the support of Little Bighorn College and the Apsaalooke (Crow Indian) Nation.
Comments
Vincent DelPizzo--- If you're going to throw in a phrase like "I imagine you are a Hitler admirer", please do as I did in this post. Mention the name of who you are addressing. Some of the comments in this thread go back seven years. The most recent comments were seven months ago. Your comment, despite the power of the first accusation, has about as much precision as throwing a water balloon into the ocean.
From the time of Cain and abel,men have tried to destroy each other...and the land. I'm glad native Americans are still around to remind humans of the human condition
After reading the above comments.Id have to say there is truth in most of those words.Along with afew slanted,as the facts remain.For those who were mistreated were not just the indians.But also all the animals who gave there lives for man.Be it redman or white.With indians who ran buffalo off cliffs.And could not control how many died or how much meat went to waste as a result.To our slaughter of the rest of them.Just to starve the indian out of fight.To all the women and children who were in fact killed.And had nothing to do with anything but life. Which were killed on both sides both both guilty partys. As for whos land america belongs to.Happens to be to those who claim it and live there first.Followed by those who took it.The way things sadly have always been.And will continue to be.This holds truth for animals as well.When they happen to count the same as us.Life is life and death is death.Just as truth and lies are like black to white.There is no gray area, now the bottom line for what took place at the little bighorn. Its all who died with Custer are those which I feel any sorrow for.Having to go with a man who was so full of himself.To not go into anything so blind sighted. Careless as you never know what your to get into untill it happens.Less in this exact case.When a scout had told custer about the approximate size of what hed seen.Which Custer refused to draw back when they did have the chance.OR to take a good look well knowing moving forward would mean.A real certain death for all.Which has become confusing! As I had heard and read.There were no surviors! IF that were true then I couldnt have just read about removing the wounded and transporting them half way across this country.When they survied, how does this make any good sense from the indian side.Leaving behind both there own and whites?? They just fought against.Makes no good sense at all.After reading how the squaws had done things to custers body after death.Tells me they had gone out and looked around.So who is lying and who is not!All I do know is for that number on the indians side.To not have enough people to quickly check for wounded and dead.Just doesnt at all make anything for good sense.Anymore than but a handful couldve survived with any real wounds.In that time and for what medical was back then. Doubtful at best but thats my guess.
It doesn't excuse genocide and forcing a nation of people out of their home. Just because they also "did it" doesn't mean we have to. Sometimes it's better to act nicer to people who act wrongfully to other people. We were the bad guys in this story. Don't try to twist it.
I have long felt that what the Europeans did after coming to this land, and I am a descendant of those Europeans, was pretty disgraceful, all in all. I do not know if it is entirely true but I have heard that every treaty the U.S. government made with the native peoples who were here before the Europeans came was broken by the government. Someone, it doesn't sound too far fetched. Along with enslaving people from Africa and elsewhere being one of what I see as the "original sins" of the nation, the genocide of the indigenous peoples was another sad chapter. And that presently we have demonized people whose faith is Islam, well, I am about as proud of that as when I think of the fact that Japanese Americans were interned during World War two after being relieved of all their propery by the government of this nation. I know some people would find what I have said offensive. I find it offensive to fail to acknowledge these issues. It's a mixed bag, the history of this country. Some good, some bad. But surely not all pretty, not by a long shot.
The Aboriginal Americans got rolled by the Tide of History. History will continue to do so. So no sense in wringing one's hands over it. In fact, another Tide is sweeping across Europe as I type.
Lots of back-and-forth here, and I am glad that is the case. The unfortunate eras in history should be remembered, and taught in schools, so that we can avoid allowing anything similar to build up in our society.
No, we won't have anything like "Custer's Last Stand", or, one would hope, the Nazis' "Final Solution", but the emotional states that allowed those events to happen are alive and well today. Racism is just as strong, with Nationalism on the rise in many places. So, what's to be done?
In my humble opinion, it begins with the individual recognizing that he/she cannot survive without others. A simple thought that you need that person in a factory to make your phone, and that person to fix your car, and that person to cook your meal, and that person to keep the power running, and that person to tend to your broken body, and that person to entertain you, etc., ad infinitum.
I am not an island, and therefore, I treat others as I want to be treated. Easy to say, difficult to do, but worth it!
Had the Europeans stopped to consider just how much they could learn from the Native peoples, there would have been a lot less blood shed. Europeans were as inevitable as the tide, but because of the belief that the European knows best, the Natives were cast aside - first metaphorically, then literally.
Let's do what we can to work together on things, and recognize that others will have ideas and answers we would never consider.
Let me gently inform you that blaming a whole race and characterizing them in general - the white race in this case - is racist and therefore you are a racist.