On June 25, 1876, along the banks of the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeated the Seventh Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer. Among the thousands of Native Americans in the great encampment that day was He Dog, an Oglala Lakota warrior. His account of the battle offers a firsthand view of a clash that would become one of the most remembered episodes of the American West. Before 1876, He Dog lived on a reservation along the Platte River.
His band, the Oglala, spent winters on the Tongue River. On March 17, 1876, a small group of Lakota, including He Dog, fought alongside Cheyenne warriors led by Little Wolf against General George Crook. The village at the time sat on Sundance Creek, not far from the Little Bighorn, near a pine-covered bluff in the area around Lame Deer. During the skirmish, He Dog lost seven horses.
That evening the camp moved to Lodge Grass Creek, and scouts were sent out, managing to recover some of the animals. A Sans Arc Lakota, brother of Turning Bear, was shot through the bowels during the fight with Crook. The warriors intended to confront Crook again, but seeing no Crow scouts around and fearing an attack on their village, they turned back. The main reason they did not pursue Crook was distance.
Their villages were spread over a large area, and they worried that Crow and Shoshone warriors might strike their homes while they were gone. They saw that Crook had a considerable number of Indian scouts with him. Still, they considered the fight a victory because Crook turned back. Three days after the encounter with Crook, the camp moved to the Little Bighorn.
The Lakota did not want more fighting. With their wives and children present, they needed to hunt buffalo. They hoped to be left in peace. There has always been debate among the Lakota about whether it was the second or third day after moving camp that a party of seven Lakota scouts spotted Custer’s dust.
These scouts did not return to the village. Instead, they circled around the soldiers and headed southeast toward the agencies. One of those scouts was Fast Horn, the man seen from the Crow’s Nest. He reached the village only a short time before Major Marcus Reno appeared.
Among the seven scouts were Black Bear and Dirt Kettle. They saw Custer’s dust and realized he was coming so fast that they doubted they could beat him back to the village. After taking a look at the soldiers, they continued toward the agencies. Not all Lakota bands were present at the Little Bighorn that day.
The Oglala were camped farther north, near the river northwest of the Hunkpapa. They did not anticipate a fight because Crook had already moved away. The Brulé were not in the village either, but were positioned near the Oglala. A fair number of Brulé were present, with more than twenty lodges.
Wakuya Kinyan, also known as Flying Chaser, led the Brulé, though he was not a prominent chief. The Hunkpapa had the largest presence, followed by the Miniconjou. Together, the Hunkpapa and Blackfeet had around six to seven hundred lodges. The Sans Arc contributed about thirty to forty lodges, with their chief Inkpaduta present.
Only two warriors from the Two Kettle band were there. In total, it is estimated the village contained roughly eighteen hundred lodges. He Dog saw no white men among the Lakota, though there was a Canadian half-breed in his camp who spoke fluent English as well as Lakota. When Reno approached, the Hunkpapa advanced ahead, mostly on foot, while He Dog was delayed in mounting his horse.
The Hunkpapa reached the edge of the timber and held the soldiers back. He Dog positioned himself on a hill west of Reno’s skirmish line, where the Indians were preparing to charge the soldiers in the timber. Not all the Lakota had arrived yet, but warriors from all tribes were gathering, those with horses and those who could make it. Just as the charge was launched, the soldiers quickly withdrew from the timber in two groups, riding as fast as they could toward the river.
Indian scouts were chased from the timber to the river, and some were killed in the process. He Dog noticed Benteen arriving, so the pursuit of Reno stopped. He Dog returned to the Hunkpapa camp. From there, the warriors saw more soldiers approaching from the large hill to the east.
The soldiers continued down the river, crossed Medicine Tail Creek, and ascended a small rise. This rise was the first one above the flatland south of the mouth of Medicine Tail, where Custer’s body was later found. The distance from Custer’s body to the river bank matched He Dog’s measurement of about six hundred feet. Custer’s troops were scattered along a line parallel to the river, stretching from Custer to Butte.
As Custer approached Ford B, it appeared he was heading toward the lower part of the camp. In He Dog’s view, the five men killed on the hill by the cut bank opposite the village were likely at the front of the column and encountered Indians moving up the river. The Indians had already left the camp to the west to prepare. There was no significant fighting while Custer was near the river.
A few shots were fired, and fifteen or twenty Lakota were on the east side of the river, with some soldiers returning fire, but the exchange was limited. He Dog did not hear Custer fire any volleys. White Cow Bull, one of the few warriors at the ford when Custer attempted to cross, claimed he shot an officer, most likely Custer, while he was in the middle of the river, knocking him from his horse into the water. White Cow Bull confirmed that the location where Custer’s body was found was correct and that he was the man who shot the officer.
Before the battle started, the warriors drove Custer up a slope to a ridge, past Keogh’s position, and across to the other side. The soldiers remained mounted throughout, continuing to move along as a group. There was no fighting by individual companies. The Indians spread out along Custer Ridge while Custer himself advanced down the hollow by Keogh.
By that point, the Indians had surrounded them. At first, the gray horses were grouped together, but they became mixed with others as they moved up the hill. The fight began at Finley and continued across the battlefield at Keogh. Crazy Horse led a charge that broke through, splitting Custer’s forces into two groups.
The horses stampeded toward the river, fleeing from the soldiers. There was no charge from Custer’s men on the ridge during the battle. His forces were positioned at the end of the ridge. They did not run out of ammunition; the warriors found ammunition on the dead soldiers.
As the men fled from Custer’s Last Stand toward the river, the dismounted soldiers took refuge in the gully, while the mounted ones attempted to escape southward toward Finley. The mounted soldiers from Company H tried to flee, and as they made their way toward the gully, Custer rode out of the fight from H. This matched the accounts of twenty-eight dead soldiers found in the gully. The battle with Custer lasted no more than an hour, at least by He Dog’s estimation.
The warriors did not know they were fighting Custer’s men and had no idea which soldiers they were. The Cheyenne showed great bravery, taking a prominent role. The more bloodthirsty among the warriors grew tired of scalping before reaching Custer’s group. He Dog never heard of Bloody Knife being killed in the villages.
He knew a Santee who often accompanied the soldiers. Mitch Bouyer, possibly also known as Bloody Knife, was killed, and his body was recognized by the Lakota. After killing all of Custer’s soldiers, the warriors turned their attention to the remaining troops, cornering them on the high bluffs and shooting at them as they rushed toward the water. If General Terry had not arrived with reinforcements, He Dog believed they would have worn the soldiers out in a few days.
The Lakota had plenty of ammunition left after June 26, and they had ways to acquire more. The ammunition taken from Custer’s men was used against the other soldiers. Many of the soldiers had Winchesters, but the warriors were armed with a variety of weapons. The number of Indians killed at the Little Bighorn was between thirty and forty.
A much larger number were wounded, and some of them later died from their injuries. After the battle, the various tribes moved upriver, heading toward the Bighorn Mountains. They remained united until they reached Slim Buttes, where they split up, with Sitting Bull setting out for Canada. He Dog participated in the Slim Buttes fight.
After the camp broke up, the Oglala, Sans Arc, Miniconjou, and Cheyenne stayed near the area, but the Hunkpapa moved on. The tribe that was massacred there were the Miniconjou, who had been out hunting deer. No chief was killed in that incident. The man who was wounded in the bowels and died there was not a chief but a Sans Arc, a relative of He Dog.
He Dog’s account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is more than a recounting of military conflict. It is a testimony to the strength, unity, and resilience of the Lakota people in the face of adversity. While history often remembers the battle as a victory for the Native warriors, He Dog’s words reveal the complex realities that followed. The aftermath of June 25, 1876, saw the Lakota move on paths shaped by the battle, the losses, and the shifting tides of history.
In his tale, we hear not just of warriors, but of a people’s enduring spirit, their fight for freedom, and their place in a changing world.