Link: https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/history/article_c10ad9c1-74bd-4f06-9561-1507952d6e9a.html
Jun 21, 2026
Ahead of the 150th anniversary for the Battle of Little Bighorn (also referred to as the Battle of Greasy Grass), Racing Magpie hosted a Lakota historian to speak to community members about Indigenous historical accounts from the time of the battle.
"At the very end of the battle on the Last Stand Hill, some of the women there, including Mary Crawler (also known as Moving Rogue Woman) and Kate Bighead said she seen the soldiers all laying there, and the men of our nation were circling the Last Stand Hill," Donovan Sprague told an audience on Monday, June 15, in Rapid City. "She had seen (Chief) Gall, Rain in the Face, (Chief) Hump and Crazy Horse and a group of Hunkpapa (Lakota) had the 7th cavalry flag."
Sprague, from Dupree on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, belongs to both the Hump and Crazy Horse family.
He has a bachelor's degree in social science and American Indian studies from Black Hills State University. He also has a master’s degree in political science from the University of South Dakota and has taught at numerous institutions, including Oglala Lakota College, the University of Iowa and Sheridan College in Wyoming.
Sprague said he spoke at the 125th anniversary of the battle, which was held at the battle site in Montana in 2001.
This year is the sesquicentennial anniversary of the battle in which notable U.S. military leader Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer was killed. The battle was a major conflict of the American Indian Wars.
Sprague gave context about the lead-up to the infamous June 25-26, 1876, battle.
Before the Battle
On Nov. 27, 1868, Custer, along with the 7th Cavalry unit, attacked Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River in Oklahoma. This marked a notable victory in the Indian Wars for the U.S. government and established Custer’s reputation as a leader in conflicts against Indigenous people.
Earlier the same year, the U.S. and tribal leaders entered into the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, recognizing the Sioux Nation's right to the Black Hills. Shortly after the signing, the government seized the land when gold was discovered in the region. This prompted the U.S. to confine nearby tribal nations on reservations and in response some tribes banded together to fight a common enemy.
On June 17, 1876, the Battle of the Rosebud (also known as Where the Girl Saved Her Brother) took place, pitting the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne against U.S. soldiers allied with the Crow and Shoshone in Big Horn County, Montana.
Sprague said the Cheyenne described the story, saying, "A man looked like he was going to face certain death on the battlefield, and over the hill came this woman in her finest regalia, and the soldiers were firing, and she rode down through the middle and rescued him."
He said that woman's name was Buffalo Calf Road Woman.
This tactical defeat would lead to a withdrawal of over 1,300 men led by Brig. Gen. George Crook as they made their way to Wyoming, which set up Custer with less men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
"They went back, they were supposed to meet Custer and all of them in a three-prong attack at the Battle of the Little Bighorn eight days later. So that didn't happen because Crook went back, and so they say, maybe they would have won if Crook would have came up there with 1,300 more people," Sprague said.
The Battle
On June 25, 1876, tribal groups of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho were settled near the Little Bighorn River in Montana, making up an estimated 1,200 soldiers. Custer had less then 500 men with him.
Custer’s Crow and Arikara scouts advised incorrectly on how many people were in the area.
Based on this information, Custer sought to attack the encampment with Col. Marcus Albert Reno attacking from the south. After Reno approached the area, he realizing they were outnumbered and laid down a defensive line 4 miles away from the camp.
Custer, at the same time, went around the area to attack from the north.
After the conflict had begun, soldiers, including Lakota leader Crazy Horse, turned their attention north, intercepting Custer's approach.
Sprague said Reno was said to have abandoned Custer for not aiding when gunfire in the area was heard. Reno and his men retreated.
The exact number of casualties is unknown.
Aftermath and Present Day
This battle was a historic victory for the tribal nations as they killed Custer. Per the National Parks Service, however, the battle was “a momentary victory for the Lakota and Cheyenne." The death of Custer and his troops became a rallying point for the United States to increase their efforts to force Native people onto reservation lands. With more troops in the field, Lakota hunting grounds were invaded by Army expeditionary forces determined to conquer the Northern Plains Indians. Most of the declared "hostiles" surrendered within one year of the fight, and the Black Hills were taken by the US government without compensation to the Lakota.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Sioux were entitled to $102 million (roughly over $1 billion in today’s dollars) for the wrongful seizure, but the nations have yet to accept compensation as they seek land ownership back.
Sprague, 150 years after the historic battle, brought a bow with him to Rapid City.
"I met the descendants of the Custer family ... they brought this in, it's a bow from out here, and they didn't know whose it was, but it's Lakota. They said this belongs with you out there. They said maybe you could share it with some people," Sprague said on the Custer family’s relations with Indigenous people.
He also said the only surviving horse of the conflict, named Comanche, ridden by Cap. Myles Keogh, was shot multiple times and was nursed back to health at Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota.
"There was a proclamation where this horse would never be ridden again, and it was wined and dined and had caviar, and it finally lived to 29 years old, and it's stuffed down at the University of Kansas. They said there was a tradition at the school museum that when your test is coming up and you go by Comanche, you take a little pinch of his hair as good luck for that test," Sprague said.
A week of activities commemorating the battle is planned at the Battle of Little Bighorn site in Montana next week.
"Our victory day is on the 25th, but a lot of people are celebrating this whole month and I think it's because you can't do everything in one day," Sprague said about celebratory events based on the Battle of Little Bighorn.