Henry Oscar One Bull, Custer’s War

[0:00] [music]

Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:05] We’re standing in a storage room in the Minneapolis Institute of Art — MIA — looking at a painting that was made in 1900 of the Battle of Greasy Grass, one of the most famous battles in American history, commonly known as Custer’s Last Stand. This took place at the Little Bighorn, which is a river.

[0:24] Custer had come out of the Civil War, and many of the officers that he served with had also served in the Civil War, but they turned their attention against the Native Americans.

Dr. Jill Ahlberg Yohe: [0:34] It is incredibly important that we have this document by One Bull that depicts this event in a way that is not normally presented in our textbooks, in a way that is Lakota-centric, this other side of history.

Dr. Zucker: [0:50] The Black Hills, which had been controlled by the Lakota, were an area where gold was found, and the United States decided they needed to take the land away from the Indians.

Dr. Yohe: [1:00] One Bull depicts this through a figurative painting, part of Lakota and Plains art.

Dr. Zucker: [1:08] This is a part of an ancient tradition of drawing, documenting past events. My eye first goes to the section of the muslin where we see five circles with a series of tipis that radiate from that center.

Dr. Yohe: [1:21] One Bull is setting up the depiction of the camps of the major groups. The encampment to the left is of the Cheyenne Indians, who were at that time great allies with the Lakota people.

[1:33] Then there’s four other campsites of Lakota people, including the Oglala, Chief Crazy Horse’s encampment with Red Cloud, Chief Spotted Eagle’s encampment, The Minikowoju of Chief One Horn and Chief Makes Room’s encampment, and lastly, the very important Hunkpapa tipi, and that is the band of Chief Sitting Bull.

[1:55] Chief Sitting Bull did not fight at the Battle of Little Big Horn, but when individuals wanted counsel, they came to Sitting Bull.

Dr. Zucker: [2:03] The artist of this work was his nephew.

Dr. Yohe: [2:05] Sitting Bull adopted One Bull, and with that comes a great sense of honor, and he depicts himself holding Sitting Bull’s shield. These shields have incredible spiritual power.

[2:19] In this rendering, you can see One Bull at several different moments of time, the first when he is approaching Reno, the second is when he saves Good Bear, one of the fellow warriors, who is just dripping in blood, as well as his horse injured with blood gushing from his right leg.

Dr. Zucker: [2:40] And then there’s Native Americans moving forward, US soldiers retreating. You can tell that they’re retreating because they’re facing backwards.

[2:49] Within this group, you see One Bull again, still holding the shield of Sitting Bull, with his club hitting one of the US soldiers whose pistol is firing at the very same moment. This may be across the river as Reno’s troops are trying to retreat up a steep hill.

Dr. Yohe: [3:03] One could say that he’s actually counting coup. Counting coup for Lakota people is striking an enemy. You don’t necessarily have to even kill that enemy, but if you’re the first to strike that enemy, you have won.

[3:16] One Bull depicts the many, many faceless military men who had died, and the American flag and coup sticks representing all of the achievements of the Lakota and Cheyenne people in this particular event.

Dr. Zucker: [3:30] Every single representation of Native American warriors is an individualized representation, so that these people can be identified. Their individual achievements can be identified.

Dr. Yohe: [3:41] One Bull is trained to only depict that which he has been witness to. When these types of works of art are being made, it would be discussed during council. There would be individuals that would have to agree to the depiction of what happened.

Dr. Zucker: [3:59] On the extreme right, we can see one of the initial events. The US Army came across an Indian boy named Deeds with his horse, and they killed him.

[4:07] The first serious engagement took place under the command of a man named Reno. Reno had been sent by Custer with a detachment to engage the encampment while he circled around and tried to cut off the possibility of escape.

[4:19] In the lower-left corner, we see figures depicted in a very different way. There’s no color. It’s just black and white. We see silhouettes of figures both in profile and full face.

Dr. Yohe: [4:30] One Bull is depicting the encampment of women, children, elders, injured, who were at the battle.

Dr. Zucker: [4:37] They were important because Custer was trying to get at them to use them as human shields. On the extreme upper left, we see a circle of US soldiers that are clearly under attack. The US flag has been turned upside down, a signal of distress.

Dr. Yohe: [4:52] It’s clear that these aren’t Custer’s troops because everybody died, and Custer fell.

Dr. Zucker: [4:59] In 1876, the year of the American centennial, 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a year of great national celebration, the US had one of its great military defeats at the hands of the Lakota as well as the Cheyenne.

[5:15] Custer was heroized despite the fact that he was the aggressor. This battle was seen as a heroic sacrifice in the larger picture of Manifest Destiny, of the United States making claim to the entire continental United States.

Dr. Yohe: [5:30] The idea of such a celebrated figure, General Custer, being decimated by Lakota and Cheyenne people made it so that they could never have a victory like this again.

Dr. Zucker: [5:43] That’s because the US government then poured all of its resources into claiming this land.

Dr. Yohe: [5:49] The Battle of Little Bighorn is one of the greatest successes of Lakota and Cheyenne people.

[5:55] [music]

This painting at Mia

Statements by Henry Oscar One Bull, University of Oklahoma Library

Learn more about Plains Indians ledger drawings

Learn more about the Little Bighorn Battlefield, which is now a national monument

Read about the life of Sitting Bull

Read more about the treatment of Native Americans as part of expansion into the West

Learn about the role of Manifest Destiny in the westward expansion of the United States

More Smarthistory images...

Key points

• This ledger-style artwork documents the defeat of the American army by Lakota and Cheyenne forces at Little Bighorn (known as the Battle of Greasy Grass among the Plains Indians). This land had been granted to the Lakota in the Sioux Treaty of 1868, however when gold was discovered, General Custer’s expedition broke the treaty to reclaim the area for the United States.
• The artist, One Bull (nephew of Sitting Bull), depicts the Lakota narrative of the battle and captures history from a perspective traditionally omitted in history books. The Plains Indians are carefully rendered and identifiable. It shows a series of episodes from the battle, including the initial killing of an Indian boy named Deeds, the encampment of women, children, and the elderly, the soldiers’ initial attack on the village, their retreat, and additional engagements.
• The battle happened during the 1876 Centennial celebrations of American independence. The American media heroicized Custer, a Civil War hero, despite the fact that he had broken a treaty and was the aggressor against the Lakota and Cheyenne. Following this battle and bolstered by the notion of Manifest Destiny, the United States redoubled its efforts to eradicate Native Americans from this land (those not already living on a reservation).

More to think about

Compare One Bull’s drawing of The Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn) to Edgar Samuel Paxson’s 1899 painting Custer’s Last Stand. How does Paxson’s painting reflect the prevailing point of view of the battle in the United States at the time? How does One Bull’s contrasting representation make you question what you know about this battle, and other conflicts you may have learned about?