 Frontier fighters bearing intrepid sons of courage whose high sense of duty made them lay down their lives that the West might not perish In 1868 General William Tecumseh Sherman procured cheap red cloud signature to a treaty The Indians were to withdraw to a large reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota So vast was the place where the red men were to have their home that it was bounded by the Yellowstone on the north The Missouri on the east the north Platon the south and the big horn mountains in the west Said the great chief red cloud in council. It is well. We signed treaty with pale faces They make bigger medicine than red men Reservation good for Indian much buffalo dear Antelope elk big horn sheep Risley bear rivers are filled with fish and trees with singing birds There we will live in peace Let pale faces use the plow and like women so and reap Braves and hunters we will be to the end and the great spirit Will look after his children. It is well my brothers Out spoke with a tongue of peace Sitting bull crazy horse rain in the face gall and black moon all the younger chiefs in their own council stocked at such a plan Said sitting bowl the white man has always been a liar today He gives the Indian a reservation tomorrow. He takes it away from him red cloud is old The blood in his veins is turned to water He would huddle close to the campfire with the women and children. He would be a slave and content But not so with the young man The brave is a brave the hunters a hunter and he who would take the white man's scalp must wait and watch The first Indians to enter the reservation were infuriated when they read the following military regulations posted and signed by General Sheridan all Indians when on their proper reservations are under exclusive control and jurisdiction of their agents Outside the well-defined limits of the reservation. They are under the original and exclusive jurisdiction of the military Authority and as a rule it will be considered hostile It is as I said now the white man shall snap his fingers and the Indian must run and do his bidding We are not free. That is also as I said But I also say this that the great spirit made me and he did not make me an agency man The treaty with red cloud said that all Indians must be on the reservation by January 1st 1876 but several thousand of them were too clever to slip their heads into what they were certain was a noose Then came the discovery of gold in the black hills and thousands of adventurers renegades gold hungry wanderers began Overrunning the black hills and overflowed into the Indian reservations And now the Indian was certain that the white man was a liar The contract was broken Treaties were not for the protection of the red man sitting bull in his restless braves Retaliated by stealing horses burning houses and threatening the lives of all who opposed them The authorities in Washington hoping to quiet the Indians Invited red cloud and the peace talking chiefs to the White House to meet the great white chief president Grant While this was going on general crook a famous Indian fighter arrived in the Dakotas in March A general Reynolds It's my opinion that if we stage a surprise attack on the Indians now We will dishearten them and in the twintern of an eye. We'll have a general surrender The Indians are never on the war path in the winter, sir All we'll find in camp will be women and children the brave will be out hunting I know Indians colonel and that's the plan. I shall give orders to follow out Yes, take six troops of cavalry and by force marchers You will be at the camp by dawn if the Braves resist kill them But every TP in that village must be burned to the ground and their stores demolish. Yes, sir But if you'll excuse me, I feel this is the wrong thing to do Colonel the secret of Indian fighting Is match fire with fire if my orders are followed out to the letter This is the last we'll ever hear of an Indian uprising in the Dakotas or Montana General crooks orders were followed out to the letter but the Indians instead of being subdued became more infuriated and Within a week open rebellion had broken out under the leadership of sitting bowl Every tribe went on the war path and suddenly the tribes were no longer disorganized or scattered But welded under the masterful leadership of sitting bull all talk of peace ended in Washington and orders were given by general Sheridan to create the Yellowstone expedition a thousand men under general crook were to advance from Fort Laramie General Terry with a similar force was to march westward and general given with 500 men was to come down from the northwest General Custer with a mounted cavalry of 600 strong was ordered to investigate a rumor that there was a massing of Indians Somewhere up the Rosebud in Montana Custer ordered his scouts to ride ahead and reconnoitur Captain ventine, I think we should make short work of this at the scouts bring back the kind of report I'm hoping for general custom I think our force of 600 is far too small to attempt the pitch battle with a suit and team This will be the lightest kind of a skirmish mark my words. What do you say me Jareeno general? I'm inclined to trust your judgment entirely any man who's won the claim that you have an Indian fighter And not so much afraid of my soldiers these Indians as they are of my long yellow hair Because I've never been even grazed by one of their bullets. They think my yellow hair must be a charm Here come the scouts we'll soon know what the plan of attack will be General Custer I have the honor to report that the enemy has set up their TPs of the West Bank for the big one I could see only one Indian village just as I thought that's all Now to make short work of this here is the plan we'll trap the Indians by strategy My troops will be divided into three divisions I get troops general of course you bend team will strike for the upper end of the Indian campment I'll take five companies and drive straight at the village major Reno will operate midway between the two forces That's the plan of attack the backbone of the rebellion will be broken and the Indians will find peace and contentment on their reservation Your orders should be carried out general Custer to the left of general in line of duty One always obeys the orders of a superior officer, but what if just by chance sir You should meet a force ten times larger than you think if such a force should be met captain My men and I will do our duty as soldiers and gentlemen of the seven cavalry In This way did general George A. Custer fatally divide his troops and unwittingly took up the march to his doom Sitting bull and his warriors no longer fled from the pale faces, but sought them out And it was here in the southeastern section of Montana that he massed thousands of braves Between the little big horn and the big horn there were swarms of well-armed Magnificently disciplined sue Cheyenne's and their allies decked in feathers streaked with paint and thirsting for the blood of their longtime enemy And down the valley only a few miles away rode a thin line of men clad in buckskin and blue Captain Benteen through miscalculation went wide of the village Reno was repulsed against the south end and cost her Ignorant of the sudden whirl of events dashed full into the powerful ranks of the red van Tell the customer look houses of redskins. We're in a trap. We'll soon get out of it if we are They're surrounding us north east southwest There they come for this those red devils retreat Be long now until we get some help from Benteen and Reno. Yes, it's got to come Okay, how many men have we lost my brother Tom my brother-in-law Captain Calhoun my nephew, what he reads Are they all right general? They're all dead. God rest their souls. We must fight on till help comes We must fight on fight on men fight on Missing here for reinforcements. Don't give a name How do you need some holding up your pretty faster the heroes of the ammunition stamp into the shop Fighting began each man at 50 rounds a piece on them. You must help me Devils are picking our men off of long range Well, we have to find some remodels pick them during the scouts early for Men die more each minute fairly not leave until fight more often and you make you up a sue warrior Curly love his wife chief general. I live if my men live early. I die if I'm inside That's the way of a soldier carbines and be generous Man Living out of 112 fight on men And I'm looking for him The men are all down but eight now sir Have mercy on the souls of all of us fight There's a man of your left. I am giving them the last bullet in my car fine General George A. Custer fighting to his last bullet and his last breath He did not fight Indians because he hated them But in a day when there were frontiers to be guarded and frontiers to be won for civilization and posterity He did his duty as he saw it and on the scrolls of time General George Custer and those ill-fated 112 officers and men will be honored by every man woman and child for centuries to come as heroes all Frontier fighters