Article: Lincoln and the Execution of the Sioux
Custer's Last Stand/The Battle of Little BigHorn handout/map
Custer's Last Stand video
Conclusions?
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| "Custers Last Stand"This media file is in the public domain in the United States |
HW:
Answer any of the following questions in the comments for today's blog post.
- What 3 ideas did you take away from the video?
- What questions did you have during the documentary? What ideas were interesting to you?
- What surprises you about the encounter between Native Americans and the Seventh Calvary?
After watching today's video I'm interested and surprised by the fact that the remains of the last 28 men haven't been found yet. After all these years one would think that they would be found somewhere. Did the Native Americans do something different with the last bodies, knowing that they were the last living American settlers in the battle? There are so many different possibilities yet no explanations. Days after the battle, when American settlers went to bury the remains of the Seventh Calvary, did they not find or look for the remaining 28 men thinking that they all died at the Last Stand? I also cannot even think about what the returning men witnessed days after the battle. The area must have been such a horribly gruesome sight, I'm left wondering how those men personally changed (mentally and emotionally) after they buried those American settlers who were gruesomely killed.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was crazy how by only the shape and the dent in it, you could tell the type of weapon. I also thought it was cool that these men spend so much time on this. They would sit there for days, like one of them said, to see the bullets and try to track the guns and where they went during the battle. It was surprising that the Native Americans were so harsh. The story we read only told one half, while this documentary explained the rest. Although it was very unnecessary for the settlers to mutilate the bodies, so did the Native Americans.
ReplyDeleteI was amazed by how much of a spin Americans put on the story of the Battle of Little Big Horn. I had always heard of the heroic "Custer's Last stand" as being a Great last-stitch effort from the Americans to put down the bad Indians, but now I know that that is not the case. The documentary showed me that the Battle of Little Big Horn was actually basically a free for all from the Indians because it was poorly planned. It really made me wonder what else the government has put its own spin on and how they have biased the story.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really cool that those men were able to reconstruct the past by mapping out the places where they found bullets and other items, and it was basically like they were at the battle of little big horn.
Did the government put the spin on it? Or do the people? How do we really know who "spun" this story?
DeleteWhat surprised me most about the encounter between the Native Americans and the Seventh Calvary was that the Native Americans had efficient and effective guns to use against the Seventh Calvary. I do not usually think that Native Americans would have guns to use if they were attacked.The Native Americans also seemed to have a superior strategy than the Seventh Calvary due to their tactics of fighting. I was also interested at how unprepared the Seventh Calvary was for this fight. I do not understand the logic behind sending a fatigued troops into an offensive battle. I am amazed that after studying the battlefield so extensively that somebody has not found the remains of the final members of the Seventh Calvary. It makes me wonder if the bodies are even buried at the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteJohn, during the Civil War and this time, fatigued troops are sent into battle. What lessons can be learned from this? What qualities did some of these leaders have that sent them in this "wrong direction"?
DeleteI have always been interested in historic battles, and although I tend to stray towards the bigger, more well-known battles, I still found this video to be very interesting. I especially took an interest in the fact that the Native Americans had fire arms and not just the traditional spears, bows, and arrows. However, I did want to ask, I understand how the Indians could have obtained weapons, either through force or fair purchase, but how did they obtain enough ammunition to fight multiple battles over extended periods of time? The obviously could have bought or traded for some, but how did they gain such large amounts great enough to fight in war?
ReplyDeleteThe woman who reconstructed a whole head and face just from a skull stood out to me. I thought that was fascinating. The forensics behind the war is really interesting and something we don't normally consider. A lot of effort was put into discovering the matching gun and bullet. Each gun had a distinct pattern, I'm wondering why this is. Did the designer of the gun purposely make it so there was a specific pattern? Or is this a coincidence? Another interesting thing was the Native Americans ability to use guns. In the video it said they could trade for a gun, but how did the Natives learn to handle them? I've always been told guns have a kickback some stronger than others. So I wonder if the Natives were startled or even hurt by the use of an unfamiliar weapon. This also goes for the Natives who just picked up a gun on the battlefield. It was cool to see how much the scientists enjoyed their work. I thought it was pretty interesting to see people so passionate about their work. It was a little creepy when the woman said she wanted to meet the man who's head she made, but she's just passionate. I hope I find a career that I enjoy as much as these people did.
ReplyDeleteThe people interviewed for this documentary are certainly passionate. I was wondering what type of background they have to do some of these tasks. They have to have a strong knowledge base in many fields.
DeleteOne of the biggest ideas I took away from the video today was that the Native American warriors were WAY better equipped than anyone thought they were. What the men in the video found, like different bullets and things of that nature, proves that the Native Americans had so much more than what was previously believed. Another idea I took away was that you can apparently identify weapons just by their bullets. Different imprints in the bullets tell that different weapons were used. The last idea I took away was that there are some people who still really care about stuff like this. Obviously, there are many history buffs out there, but the men in the video today were really involved in this one battle. They examined those fields for years and spent so much time looking over different things related to the battle. They were so passionate about this one specific thing and that's pretty neat to see, especially because they can provide a lot of information to other people who care about stuff like this, too.
ReplyDeleteThis documentary surprised me with a lot of information about the battle. I was very impressed to see the Natives have not only used their traditional weapons, but also used up to forty-seven different types of firearms for this battle. It seems to me that the Natives were better prepared for the war than the Seventh Cavalry. I was also very surprise of the effort that those people put into this research. I was shocked that one of the men who had to check over one and half thousand cartridges to identify if any of them had the same firing pin. In addition, the video mentioned the examination of the bones can identify how the troops have lived and died was pretty cool. They showed us those troopers had pretty bad diet and poor oral hygiene, and many of them chewed tobacco.
ReplyDeleteOne big idea I took away from the video was that the Native Americans heavily outnumbered and outgunned the Seventh Calvary. The seventh Calvary only had a few hundred men where as the Native Americans had over fifteen hundred men. The Native Americans also had four times the guns that the Seventh Calvary had. I was also surprised that the seventh Calvary tried to use traditional tactics, such as skirmish lines, to attack Native Americans who used gorilla warfare. You can look back to the American Revolution and see that an inferior army can defeat a more advanced army by using gorilla warfare. Another thing that astonished me was the fact that the Seventh Calvary still attacked the Native Americans after observing their true size.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting was that these archaeologists are still finding human remains and battlefield items buried in the ground today. 125 years later and they are finishing bullets that have not even been shot yet. An interesting thing they found was the ring of a guys marriage still on his finger bone. I thought that was cool along with the bullet they found.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that surprises me about the encounter between the Seventh Cavalry and Native Americans is just how decisive this battle was. I also liked how after over 100 years the historians have still been finding remains of the battle. Another thing that surprises me is that a lot of people(myself included) had the idea that Native Americans were primitive and had swords as their main weapon, but instead they had guns, and lots of them. I also think its interesting that a woman could reconstruct a face and put a face to the name.This video was interesting and brought a battle that is much forgotten in American History to life.
ReplyDeleteWhen watching the documentary I found it surprising that the Native Americans artillery was actually better than the settlers. The Americans were used to fighting English style warfare, so they did not have the proper equipment to fight a close up battle. It as interesting to see the differentce in speed when one man shot out 13 rounds with the Native Americans gun, and the other man who used the settlers gun only got four shots out. Based on this, one can assume that the battle weapons was a large reason why the Native Americans won the Battle of Little Big Horn.
ReplyDeleteIt is also surprising that the woman was able to construct the face of that soldier, and that people have been able to create a virtual map of the battlefield and usefacts to figure out what actually happened. They mentioned a few times when what people said about the battle was actually not completely true when the evidence was analyzed. It is amazing how technology has affected our lives. This documentary taught me that it not only affects our lives today, but it can help us to understand the past as well.
You raise an interesting point. A few of you mentioned that you were surprised artifacts are still in the ground 125 years after the battle. You have to consider some of the following ideas. How many people are really looking for this stuff? Did people have the technology to find and analyze some of these artifacts?
DeleteAfter today’s film I found it very interesting how archaeologists were still finding fossils, bullets, etc. from the Native Americans and the settlers. Even though it made me feel very uncomfortable, at the same time it is fascinating how these people can gather all this information from one single bullet or from one fossil. They spent all this time gathering information and scouring the battlefield. It is just amazing to see how these people cared so much about these remains and finding out where it all came from. I also found it interesting how the Native Americans outnumbered the settlers in weaponry and population. And, even though the settlers knew they were greatly outnumbered they still fought.
ReplyDelete1. There are two sides to every story.
ReplyDelete2. Modern improvements in technology help us discover vital information about historic events.
3. The ongoing conflict between the native Americans and US citizens was not one-sided; both groups of people committed war crimes.
The forensic science used in this video had me thinking in a different way. The amount of knowledge gained from the knew technology and ways of analysis is so crucial to really understanding what happened during this battle. Now we see that not only did Americans commit war crimes (mutilating bodies), the Native Americans did too! I did not know this before I watched this documentary, so now I have a new opinion on the conflict between the US and Native Americans.
Elena, excellent job coming to big picture conclusions. While your three points look short, they really capture the essence of the documentary and provide a great overview of all of history.
DeleteThe processes they used in this documentary to determine the events of the battle are very interesting. It is amazing to think that by looking for empty shell casing we can determine every location where a shot was fired. Not only that, but we can determine what gun shot the bullet and where that person went after firing. They can also use facts about the bones and their knowledge of the men at the battle to determine some of their identities after all these years. However, this seems like a lot of tedious work. The workers have to scan the battle field repeatedly to find all of these little metal shells, they have to check the firing pin impression from each bullet with all of the other ones, and they have to check everyone with the bones that they find to see if they fit. I think that all of this work is worth it. People did not believe the Native Americans when they recalled the events of the battle and wanted to believe that it was a proud and heroic last stand. It is said that history is written by the victors, so it is hard to get an unbiased report of past events. It is nice to see that history is being reported accurately after over a hundred years.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching today's video, I found it very interesting that with only an empty shell of a bullet, you can find out a lot of information on what took place. I also found the facial reconstruction very interesting. On the show Bones, I've seen facial reconstructions done, but this one was much more interesting because it was a real person's face rather than some fictional character. The other main thing I took away from the video is the biased story telling. Nobody wanted to believe what the Native Americans were telling was accurate because they are Native Americans. I also found it very interesting that this is the only battle site where the bodies are buried where they were killed. I was surprised that the Native Americans also treated the bodies of the dead Americans poorly, like the Americans did to them in the excerpt we read yesterday. I understand why they would want to do it, but I feel like mutilating a body is a very extreme thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily in the fact that I found the forensics aspect of the video very interesting. I am very interested in that field of work and thought the facial reconstruction and analyzing of bones fragments was very cool. It is just so amazing that they can identify what someone looked like by examining the skeletal bones. I thought it was interesting when they found the remains of a man's face and by just looking at the teeth, and check bones, they could identify exactly who he was. They knew he was the interpreter because he was half Native American, half white.
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised by the amount of effective weaponry the Native Americans possessed. I did not think that the Native Americans battled with such a large amount of artillery. The video mentioned that they had a lot of clubs and arrows, so I figured that those were the only weapons they were fighting with.
Olivia, the last part of the video was so interesting. I can't believe they can examine a cheek bone and decipher the heritage and background of its owner. It makes sense, but it is still very interesting. I thought this documentary did a great job really bringing these people back to life. This helped me establish an emotional connection with these people.
DeleteWhat surprises me about the conflict between the Seventh Calvary and the Native Americans was the fact that the Native Americans actually won! From what I understood from the documentary, it seemed as if the Native Americans were far more prepared for the conflict than the Seventh Calvary was in a few ways. One way was that the Native Americans had a wide variety of guns opposed to the Seventh Calvary's one gun type. Also, the Native Americans out-numbered the Seventh Calvary. In addition, the Native Americans had reinforcements and their force was composed of many tribes that united against the Seventh Calvary.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time in history we have seen the Native Americans fail at their uprisings due to their lack of technology and knowledge. As we can see in this documentary, Native Americans began to use guns along with their native fighting style to ultimately overpower the Seventh Calvary. I am not surprised at all that this conflict officially angers the United States into wanting to track down the Native Americans responsible for the victory and do nothing but kill them all.
I agree with Emily and Olivia that the forensics aspect of the video was interesting. I thought it was interesting how she reconstructed the face from that skull. I also found it interesting that they found bullets and could identify the weapons and who used them, which helped them identify the course of the battles. I think it takes a lot of patience, effort and motivation to do that.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that the Native Americans too had modern weapons. I had previously thought that they fought traditionally and that the settlers' big advantage was the modern weapons. I did not know that as time went on, many Native Americans has guns too.
What I found interesting about the film was how moved the archeologist was when they found the bullet. I would agree that discovering something that is years old could be extremely fascinating to see and hold. Just when I was at the musuem and saw a painting that was centuries old I was incredibly moved and it makes you think. Another thing I found interesting was the forensic artist. How could she recreate a face she has never seen before from scratch? Overall I thought the whole documentary gave another outlook to both the native Americans and settlers and how they fought.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how much the archaeologist was able to find with the bones of the people. It doesn't seem like a reliable method to identify the bodys but it seemed to work really well for them. Another thing I noticed about the video was the repetition of the question "How did the whites lose to the Native Americans?". This question was asked SO many times and that told me that it was not likely that this was to happen. It came as such a surprise to all of the archaeologist that they really drove the point home by continuing to ask it.
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