WEBVTT - 538 - 726 Demerits 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.880 Hello, and welcome my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hartstar, that's 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.840 Karen Kilgaraff, and we're about to take you on an 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.240 emotional journey of the Soul. I love that it just 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.240 came out of the podcast Soul. It's located in your ears, in. 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.239 Your ear drum, the long Dark tea time of the 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:35.000 podcast Soule. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:37.400 Okay, you had something to shell me? 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.239 Okay, Hi, okay, Hi, I got to do this. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.199 Oh well, the thing I was going to show you 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:48.280 is so in episode five thirty three and Exercise and Frustration, 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:53.440 I told a story that featured many many chin strap beards, right, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.640 and it was about Elizabeth Packard, who was the woman 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.000 who was institutionalizab her husband sent her to an insane 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.520 asylum and thenk she got out, fought for everybody's rights. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:08.440 But talking about her husband, it was this man, Theodopolis Packard. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:14.800 And you're truly the most proud of that one. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:15.640 It was pretty great. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.160 It's pretty great in the moment, but we were really 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.160 enjoying his chin strap beard. They also came up in 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.000 the Henderson Lewelling story where the Quaker sex cult story, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.559 though I recently told they've just been around. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.600 Us recently, you've been sprinkling some neck beard into these 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:31.720 stories here and there. 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:33.760 And the listeners have responded. 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:35.479 Did we get chin strap hate mail? 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.600 Yes, but no, it was essentially just people in the 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:44.720 comments section talking about it, so basically. Jenny Scraham on 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.280 Instagram says, it looks like John c Riley is dressed 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.200 up and doing a bit, which is very true, dressed up, 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:52.080 but just in the. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:53.000 Bottom half of the beer. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.320 Aaron Jalisa on Instagram says the chin strap beard was 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.440 as bad as I imagine. Thank you? What in the 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.360 hell's be says? How is this episode not called Beard's abound? 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:09.720 Great question? Baseball Girl two forty seven says I needed 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.360 to see that chin strap beard to really get that story. Yeah, 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.720 it's terrifying. It's like, is that worse or a mullet worse? 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.359 It's like an old timey mullet party in the front. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.720 I think this is worse though, because this makes no 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:22.880 goddamn sense that. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:23.840 Chin is bear. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.320 Yeah, but they can eat soup, and I bet there 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.760 was a lot of soup going around then, and Stew's 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.799 and Stew's and porridges, which is so hard to do when. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:32.200 You have a beard. 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.480 I've heard my husband says, I. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.400 Just love that people got into that as well. Yeah, 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.320 so then it gave me this idea. Okay, when you 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.320 gave me the assignment of watching the drama. 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:44.519 Right, Oh no, are you're gonna make me grow a 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:45.000 neck beard? 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.600 Yes? And you have to do it in one week. 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.560 I want to give you the assignment of you watch 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.880 a movie called Witness, which has so many neckbirds in 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.600 it you wouldn't believe it. Okay, and then we're going 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:58.720 to talk about that movie. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:02:59.480 Which one is that? 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:04.720 Hairs Ford Kelly McGillis Lucas Haas. Harrison Ford goes undercover 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.560 in an Amish settlement. 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:07.239 I don't know this. 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:08.519 What do they call themselves? 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:08.960 What? 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:09.760 Here's it from? 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:11.400 It's from like eighty nine. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.240 Okay, So Lucas Haas is a little boy. 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:14.720 He's the best child actor. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:16.040 I had the biggest crush on him. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.280 He is so good legend. Yeah, he's so good in 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.399 this movie, Like it's so real. Okay, I think you're 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.000 going to really. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:25.880 Should I text Vince and see if I've already seen 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.000 it and just totally forgot. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.520 But I feel like you if I said, Harrison Ford 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.120 goes undercover with the Amish you would have gone, oh, yeah, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.640 I've seen that. I haven't seen it also, and that's 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.280 very much tied to So Witness is your assignment just 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:40.960 in honor of the chinz drop Beard got it. But 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.720 then also after that we might do a Harrison Ford 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.480 assignment of I must have you watch. 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.680 The Fugitive, Right, My assignment for you is you've tanted 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.120 to fake beard and try and eat some stew with 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:51.440 it on. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:56.040 No, I'm like, wait, that's not a here's the thing. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:57.920 All you have to do is watch a movie. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.400 Okay, witness and I wrote nineteen eighty nine? Why did 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:01.400 I don't need this? Was I? 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:01.720 Right? 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.720 No, it's eighty five eighty five. 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.440 I'm changing it so I don't watch the wrong one. Yeah, 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.440 I don't watch the one from eighty eighty nine. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.160 Witnesses so dirty, dude, that is like a made for Cinemax. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.039 But I had a lot of fun watching the drama 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:17.720 and then being like, I'm going to make up an 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.720 opinion about this and we're going to discuss it on 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:20.200 the fan call. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.360 I'll do it. Hell yeah, Okay, great, it's going to happen. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:22.880 It's a deal. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.320 I love assigning each other. It'scite to watch assignment signing 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:27.040 each other as signments. 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.640 I was provided some information just to convince you more. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.680 Witness has ninety two percent on Rotten Tomatoes. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.760 Oh that I'll watch it because you know how I 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.600 live by the RT rating. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.640 You will only that's all I ever talked about, is 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:41.479 this RT approved? 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.400 Georgia's constantly say what did Artie say about this? 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.920 Because I got to check into my RT. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.000 Speaking of rotten, we have a podcast network that's right 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.560 called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights. Please listen 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.599 to these other podcasts for us, Thank you. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:03.000 We have roughly sixteen incredible can picked by us chosen 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.720 that's right, and then performed by some of the greats 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:07.280 in the biz. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:07.640 That's right. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.760 A series of hit podcasts Yeah, can't be denied. For example, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.520 our most recent hit Disgraceland with Jake Brennan. That's here 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.240 on the network. This week, Jake tells the classic true 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.160 crime story behind Sonic Youth's album Goo. It has one 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.919 of the coolest album covers of all time and the 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.280 shocking murders that inspired the artwork. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:27.480 That is a rad story. 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:28.159 Yeah. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.080 And then over on Ghosted, Roz celebrates Pride Month by 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.080 featuring Queer creators all June long, including this week's guest, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.000 the one and only Tammy Brown. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:39.440 Doing it epic. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:41.760 Also not to be gross, but this is a reminder 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.360 to join the fan Cult. You get access to all 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.280 episodes of this podcast, my favorite murder ad free. You 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.360 get merch store discounts on our merch you get exclusive 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.559 video and audio content, and so much more. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.239 So stop complaining and go to fancult dot supercast dot com. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:05:59.360 Why am I yelling at them? 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:06.039 It's fun. We get to we still get to yay, yay, 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.480 You're you're off. You're on a three day weekend. 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:11.599 Okay, So it's going to do a solo. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.920 It's my solo story. I saw a TikTok. 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.360 I need a T shirt that said I saw TikTok 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.839 I do because it's all I say and kind of 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.719 all I do. But it's great because, as we all know, 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.719 we're getting into an era where experts are finally speaking 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.760 and getting up on camera and getting on mic and 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.479 being like, hey, you don't have to be I don't know, 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.880 Sidney Sweeney to get here and perform and speak publicly. 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:37.800 It's not that big of a deal. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:39.080 You're going to talk about peptides. 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:41.920 Oh, I will because I'm the expert at peptide. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.640 Okay, the copper peptides are what you want these share 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.480 just found out about that. But it's basically like there's 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:49.840 more and more people come forward to talk about stuff. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.240 So I find that on TikTok, I'm finding so many 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.680 more people who are the source of the information. The 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:01.920 researchers themselves, the authors themselves, the educative journalist exactly, all 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.680 those people that are now the ones telling the story, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.120 which I love. So I don't know if this person 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.280 is any of those things, but they're the reason that 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.160 I learned about this story I'm about to tell you, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.559 and they inspired me to want to tell the story 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:16.920 as well. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:17.280 Love it. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.120 So it's a TikTok from a woman named Mary Kate Teski. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:21.800 Okay. 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.960 So that's her name on TikTok if you want to 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.200 go follow her. This is how I first found out 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:27.120 about this story. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:27.520 Okay. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:29.960 So, if you are listening to this the day this 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.040 episode comes out, which is June twenty fifth, twenty twenty six, Hi, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.760 your first day of listener, I want you to know 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.960 today's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of one of the 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.880 most infamous battles in American history. The Battle of Little Bighorn, 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.440 also known as Custer's Last Stand Okay, On this day 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.840 in eighteen seventy six, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.320 his men were wiped out by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.040 Arapahoe warriors who are under the command of legendary Native 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.560 leaders like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bowl. Of course, the 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.600 history lesson we got about this battle presents Custer as 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.560 some kind of noble martyr to our expanding nation and 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:14.240 completely ignores the Native American experience and perspective and version 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.920 of the story. But that changed around two thousand and 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.000 five when Montana's tribal colleges began to spearhead a push 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.320 to preserve the state's native histories and storytelling. And so 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.360 they gather a group of Northern Cheyenne storytellers in Billings, Montana, 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.960 so that they can share their oral history of the 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.600 Battle of Little Bighorn, which the Cheyenne and other Plains 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.160 tribes actually called the Battle of the Greasy Grass. So 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.360 from many people outside the Cheyenne community they will be 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.240 hearing for the first time that day the truth about 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.760 what happened, and what those storytellers in Billings describe ends 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.720 up capturing headlines across the country because for the first 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:00.400 time we hear about the Cheyenne warrior responsible for customs death. 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.640 So today, in honor of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.320 I'm going to tell you the story of that warrior. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.720 Her name is Buffalo Calf Road Woman. 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:12.480 That's right. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.079 Our sources for today's story are articles from the Independent 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.600 Record and the Billings Gazette archives and the work of 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.760 writers Rosemary and Joseph Aganito, and the rest of the 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:28.560 sources are in our show notes. Okay, so everything in 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:30.600 this is going to be very condensed and very like 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.800 our version of things. Yeah, this is the Karen Georgia 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.880 Wikipedia version of things called my favorite Murder, no Offense, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:39.800 Maaron mclash and my brilliant researcher. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.000 But to tell stories like this, it's like I. 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.560 Will assume people know as little as I do about 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:49.240 American history, about Native American history, about all these things 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.560 that are really important that I just feel fully uneducated about. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.040 So by the eighteen hundreds, in America, the Cheyenne are 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.199 a powerful nation spread across the Great Plains with a 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.920 population in the thousands. They are a vibrant, horse centric 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:09.040 culture with a highly organized military system. And while Cheyenne 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.840 warrior culture is largely associated with men, gender norms are 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.320 not cut and dried with this tribe. Author's Rosemary and 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.240 Joseph and Gando write about the Cheyenne quote. We have 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.200 numerous accounts of women taking up weapons and risking their 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.320 lives when attacked. Women were adept at using a variety 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.720 of weapons, including the gun end quote. So by the 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.360 eighteen forties, what's going on in the United States is 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.360 that we are aggressively expanding under the banner of manifest destiny, 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.520 which is basically the belief that white Americans are ordained 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:45.480 by God to spread across the North American continent and 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.480 to take whatever they want. Essentially, so, while the Cheyenne 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.480 have long had to defend themselves against rival tribes, the 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.600 defense is now needed to fight the encroachment of white 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.240 settlers and the army. So as tensions ramp up, some 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.319 Chyan leaders seek peace with the United States. At this point, 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:08.960 the Chyenne nation is broadly divided into Northern and Southern Cheyenne, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.240 so Buffalo Calf Road woman is born into the Northern 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.080 Cheyenne tribe in what is now Montana. Her birth year 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.640 is believed to be eighteen forty four. But unfortunately we 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.960 have almost no personal details about Buffalo Calf Road Woman 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:29.199 or her life because Cheyenne oral history is heavily disrupted 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.920 by forced assimilation onto reservations and into places like Native 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.959 American boarding schools, which that story also needs to be told, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.880 And I have been trying to work out a story 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.160 about that. Marin and I have for literally years to 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:50.079 get it told correctly concisely. It's so expansive, it's so horrific, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.440 and it's colonization. It's basically, how do you tell the 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.960 story of colonization in this country? So what we do 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.480 know about the life of Buffalo Calf Road Woman is 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.559 that her childhood is shaped by an ever escalating tension 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.959 with these white pioneers in the US military. In eighteen 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.880 fifty one, when she's about seven years old, the Treaty 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.360 of Fort Laramie is signed in Wyoming, so it formally 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.320 recognizes a large stretch of the Great Plains as belonging 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.720 to seven different tribes that include the Cheyenne. But just 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.600 a few years after that signing, in eighteen fifty eight, 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.120 gold is discovered in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.559 so white miners flood the area in what's now remembered 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.560 as the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. So, even though this 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.360 is supposed to be a protected land, the United States 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.439 does nothing to stop them. Then, in eighteen sixty one, 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.800 the betrayal multiplies when the US signs a new treaty 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.960 that shrinks Cheyenne territory down to a thirteenth roughly a 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.520 thirteenth of its previous size, so that it can open 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:55.720 more land to white settlement and mining operations. Many Cheyenne 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.960 simply refuse to comply, continuing to hunt and live on 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.840 land that is now suddenly declared off limits to them, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.199 even though they have lived there for literally thousands of years. 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.000 Buffalo Calf Road woman is around fifteen years old when 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.079 all of this starts taking place. She's coming of age 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.720 as this violence begins to intensify across the plains, and, 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.000 as writer Catherine S. Gardner puts it, quote, she never 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.280 experienced the Chyenne life of her elders. From birth until 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.280 her death, her tribe and culture were continuously under threat 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:31.760 of extermination, and it's kind of fascinating because she has 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.760 and it'll come up a little bit later, but she 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:38.800 has a brother, and imagining the life of a young 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.520 woman who absolutely had to know how to fight, absolutely 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.840 had to be good at it, and in their culture, 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.120 which is a militaristic culture, that was a big thing 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.160 for the Chyenne. I just can't imagine that she didn't 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.160 absolutely go get right into the training and the fray 0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:02.199 and everything else. She's a teenager watching her people being massacre. So, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.040 in start contrast to Buffalo calf Road Woman's story and 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.480 the fact that we barely know anything about it, we 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.000 know a lot about the early life of George Armstrong Custer. 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.160 He was born in Ohio in eighteen thirty nine, just 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.920 a few years before Buffalo calf Road Woman was born. 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.600 Custer is largely raised in Michigan. He develops an early 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.080 knack for getting into trouble. He does very badly in school. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.920 He graduates last in his class at West Point in 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:28.960 eighteen sixty one. 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:29.520 Last. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:30.480 It's kind of impressive. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.560 It's fucking nut so that he's one of the most 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:39.840 famous like military entities at this time and he was 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.920 the worst student in his class in eighteen sixty one, 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:48.040 he had an unbelievable seven hundred and twenty six demerits Jesus, 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.080 which I guess is like, you're in trouble. It happened 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.800 that many times. But the Civil War starts the same 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.800 year that he graduates, so the US Army is desperate 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.920 to fill ranks, and Custer quickly becomes an officer. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:00.680 Wow. 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.440 But his blatant disobedience is what helps him arguably rise 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:05.400 so quickly. 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:05.760 Through the ranks. 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.080 He shoots up the chain of command while in his 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.040 early twenties and becomes the subject of glowing Union newspaper coverage, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.760 earning him the nickname the Boy General, and some of 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.880 that reputation is earned. Custer is known for charging straight 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.200 into battle and relentlessly pushing his men while they're under fire, 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.680 with he himself often writing in the front of the 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.840 cavalry instead of the back. He is seemingly unfazed by 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.440 the threat of death. Any of that sound familiar to 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.320 a certain personality type that. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:37.480 You've heard of over the years. 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:44.400 Narcissists, sociopath socupath Right, Yep, he's just like no rules 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.280 apply to me. Yeah, I do what I want. Yeah, 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:51.000 And Oh, it's something horribly dangerous. Let's all go over there, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.480 let's do it. But he's also very smart, and he's 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.000 keenly aware of the power of self mythology, so his 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.760 public image is very calculated. Time Magazine points out quote 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.280 Custer ghost wrote newspaper dispatches in which he pretended to 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.160 be a correspondent and inflated his own roles in battles 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:10.640 and military exploits. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:11.760 Wow. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.320 Yeah, it's like he left comments in his own section. Yeah, like, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:16.560 I love this. 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.000 He's so brave, what a great leader. He's also very flashy. 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.880 He perfumes his flowing blonde hair with cinnamon oil, and 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.840 he wears a custom blue velveteen jacket and a wide 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.640 brimmed hat and a bright red tie into battle. None 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.160 of those are standard issue. That was Whim's the call 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:36.760 his costume. Custer clearly wants to stand out. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:37.520 It works. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.800 He's famous before the war is through. So meanwhile, the 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.360 situation on the plains between the Chyenne and the United 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.200 States remains volatile. In November of eighteen sixty four, these 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.640 tensions boil over in a horrific way when an Army 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.600 colonel named John Shivington approaches a Cheyenne and a rapa 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.760 Hoe camp at Sand Creek in eastern Colorado. There's about 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.120 seven hundred people at this camp and it's led by 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.919 Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, who's repeatedly sought peace with 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.119 the United States. So this is one of the many 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:14.040 tribal leaders of the Native people who constantly were like, yeah, 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.639 we let's agree that, you know, let's do this. Let's 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.399 divide up this land. There's plenty of it. We've been 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:25.800 here a long time, and every single time it'd be like, sure, sure, here's. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:26.720 Some pox filled blankets. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:27.200 Massacre. 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.560 Yeah, to the point where at this camp there's a 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:34.680 white flag and an American flag flying. But Colorado's then 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.760 Governor John Evans does not seem to care. He wants 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.120 to chyend removed from this area. So Shivington and some 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.600 seven hundred volunteer soldiers attack the camp and they kill 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.000 around one hundred and fifty people, and most of them 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.000 are women and children. The survivors are traumatized by memories 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.880 of their loved ones being mutilated in front of them. 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.880 News of the massacre spreads quickly across the plains, provoking fear, despair, 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.040 and the end of whatever hope was left that the 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.879 US could be trusted by the Cheyenne and the Native people, 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.480 and even some white Americans are outraged at the time, 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.439 and Shivington ends up resigning in disgrace. Still, neither he 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.679 nor any of his men are criminally prosecuted for the 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.399 massacre at Sand Creek. Now it's eighteen sixty five, the 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.760 Confederacy has been defeated. The Civil War comes to an end, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.400 so a now twenty five year old Custer is sent 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.920 to the frontier. He swaps his blue velveteen for buckskins, 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.959 which again are not standard issue. So he's got his 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.520 new costume, his new personality, and his next assignment is 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:44.960 to help force the planes tribes onto US designated reservations. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.719 These are very difficult campaigns for the United States. They 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:53.280 are usually very much outmatched by the Native warriors. Meanwhile, 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.560 in eighteen sixty seven, Custard ditches his post to visit 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.400 his wife in Kansas, which results in a court martial, 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.600 his suspension from rank, and the loss of his paycheck 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.440 for a year. Despite his insubordination, though the US Army 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:08.600 is convinced that they need someone as aggress of his 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.600 Custer to fight against these resisting planes tribes, so less 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.280 than a year after being court martialed, he's reinstated, and 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.800 the newspapers refer to it as quote Custer's luck. The 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.879 system is beyond rigged. So the next year, in eighteen 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.639 sixty eight, the now twenty nine year old Custer is 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.040 brought to Black Kettle's village, now sitting on the Washida 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.280 River in modern Oklahoma. Four years after the Sand Creek massacre. 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.399 Black Kettle is still trying to broke her peace with 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.640 the United States, but the US military increasingly classifies any 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:47.400 Native communities living outside the reservations to be quote hostile adversaries. 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.480 So Custer's men carry out another brutal attack. They killed 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.880 dozens of Native people, including Black Kettle himself. They killed 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.440 the chief, hundreds of horses are slaughtered, and lodges are 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.480 burned to the ground. The news of these attacks again 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:06.840 spread rapidly across the plains, and again even among white settlers. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.040 The brutality and violence of this attack instantly makes Custer 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.359 a controversial leader, but it also cements him as one 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.720 of the United states most well known so called quote 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.360 unquote Indian fighters. Around the same time, in eighteen sixty eight, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.800 a second Treaty of Fort Laramie is signed. The treaties 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:27.960 have the same name because they're signed at Fort Laramie 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.639 at both times. But this treaty establishes the Great Sioux 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.280 Reservation and recognizes the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.240 as belonging to the Lakota. But the same situation plays 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.920 out here like it did before. In eighteen seventy four, 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:44.920 gold is discovered in the Black Hills, white miners come 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.000 flooding in. The US Army, for its part, sends Custer 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:52.119 to investigate the reports of gold. He confirms them, and 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.760 then that leads the US government to try to purchase 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.199 the Black Hills back from the Lakota. Can imagine the 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.439 Lakota say no, which begins to fuel tensions with the US, 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.720