Review of Little Bighorn Remembered

I'd say this 2003 History Channel documentary was good but not great. It quoted enough Indians that I'd say it was balanced. But I wouldn't call it pro-Indian.

The subtitle promised the "Untold Indian Story of Custer's Last Stand." I supposed it delivered that when it reported Edward S. Curtis's unpublished account of the battle. It also delivered this tidbit:

'Little Bighorn Remembered'--reconsidering Custer's last standCuster had made a promise not to fight the Cheyenne. He broke that promise. And "the cosmic meaning of the Indian victory at Little Bighorn," Viola writes, "is the clearest in the often repeated story of Custer's broken vows." To the Cheyenne, "the inevitable outcome--Custer's personal annihilation and all the consequences--was proof of the working of great spiritual power."But the rest of the documentary was standard history. It was less revealing than what you'd read in Dee Bowen's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Not to mention James Welch's Killing Custer.

In fact, I detected a subtle anti-Indian bias in Little Bighorn Remembered. For instance, it claimed a single event--the Minnesota Massacre--and not a conflux of political, economic, and cultural factors launched the Indian wars. It reported the glorification of Custer and the outrage over massacres by Indians without editorial comment.

Ultimately, it said the Indians were brave but doomed. A couple of problems with that. One, they weren't doomed, since they didn't die out. Two, they were "doomed" as independent nations only because of the racist and genocidal attitude of American society. With a different attitude, the independent nations might've survived and flourished.

If you believe Native defeat was inevitable, see Was Native Defeat Inevitable? There I present several scenarios in which Indians could've survived as independent nations. The answer to the question I posed is no.

Rob's rating for Little Bighorn Remembered:  7.0 of 10.