Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hartstar, that's
Speaker 1: Karen Kilgaraff, and we're about to take you on an
Speaker 1: emotional journey of the Soul. I love that it just
Speaker 1: came out of the podcast Soul. It's located in your ears, in.
Speaker 2: Your ear drum, the long Dark tea time of the
Speaker 2: podcast Soule.
Speaker 3: Okay, you had something to shell me?
Speaker 4: Okay, Hi, okay, Hi, I got to do this.
Speaker 1: Oh well, the thing I was going to show you
Speaker 1: is so in episode five thirty three and Exercise and Frustration,
Speaker 1: I told a story that featured many many chin strap beards, right,
Speaker 1: and it was about Elizabeth Packard, who was the woman
Speaker 1: who was institutionalizab her husband sent her to an insane
Speaker 1: asylum and thenk she got out, fought for everybody's rights.
Speaker 1: But talking about her husband, it was this man, Theodopolis Packard.
Speaker 1: And you're truly the most proud of that one.
Speaker 4: It was pretty great.
Speaker 1: It's pretty great in the moment, but we were really
Speaker 1: enjoying his chin strap beard. They also came up in
Speaker 1: the Henderson Lewelling story where the Quaker sex cult story,
Speaker 1: though I recently told they've just been around.
Speaker 2: Us recently, you've been sprinkling some neck beard into these
Speaker 2: stories here and there.
Speaker 4: And the listeners have responded.
Speaker 3: Did we get chin strap hate mail?
Speaker 1: Yes, but no, it was essentially just people in the
Speaker 1: comments section talking about it, so basically. Jenny Scraham on
Speaker 1: Instagram says, it looks like John c Riley is dressed
Speaker 1: up and doing a bit, which is very true, dressed up,
Speaker 1: but just in the.
Speaker 4: Bottom half of the beer.
Speaker 1: Aaron Jalisa on Instagram says the chin strap beard was
Speaker 1: as bad as I imagine. Thank you? What in the
Speaker 1: hell's be says? How is this episode not called Beard's abound?
Speaker 1: Great question? Baseball Girl two forty seven says I needed
Speaker 1: to see that chin strap beard to really get that story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's terrifying. It's like, is that worse or a mullet worse?
Speaker 1: It's like an old timey mullet party in the front.
Speaker 1: I think this is worse though, because this makes no
Speaker 1: goddamn sense that.
Speaker 4: Chin is bear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they can eat soup, and I bet there
Speaker 2: was a lot of soup going around then, and Stew's
Speaker 2: and Stew's and porridges, which is so hard to do when.
Speaker 3: You have a beard.
Speaker 4: I've heard my husband says, I.
Speaker 1: Just love that people got into that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so then it gave me this idea. Okay, when you
Speaker 1: gave me the assignment of watching the drama.
Speaker 3: Right, Oh no, are you're gonna make me grow a
Speaker 3: neck beard?
Speaker 4: Yes? And you have to do it in one week.
Speaker 1: I want to give you the assignment of you watch
Speaker 1: a movie called Witness, which has so many neckbirds in
Speaker 1: it you wouldn't believe it. Okay, and then we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that movie.
Speaker 3: Which one is that?
Speaker 1: Hairs Ford Kelly McGillis Lucas Haas. Harrison Ford goes undercover
Speaker 1: in an Amish settlement.
Speaker 4: I don't know this.
Speaker 3: What do they call themselves?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 3: Here's it from?
Speaker 4: It's from like eighty nine.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Lucas Haas is a little boy.
Speaker 4: He's the best child actor.
Speaker 3: I had the biggest crush on him.
Speaker 1: He is so good legend. Yeah, he's so good in
Speaker 1: this movie, Like it's so real. Okay, I think you're
Speaker 1: going to really.
Speaker 2: Should I text Vince and see if I've already seen
Speaker 2: it and just totally forgot.
Speaker 1: But I feel like you if I said, Harrison Ford
Speaker 1: goes undercover with the Amish you would have gone, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen that. I haven't seen it also, and that's
Speaker 1: very much tied to So Witness is your assignment just
Speaker 1: in honor of the chinz drop Beard got it. But
Speaker 1: then also after that we might do a Harrison Ford
Speaker 1: assignment of I must have you watch.
Speaker 2: The Fugitive, Right, My assignment for you is you've tanted
Speaker 2: to fake beard and try and eat some stew with
Speaker 2: it on.
Speaker 1: No, I'm like, wait, that's not a here's the thing.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is watch a movie.
Speaker 2: Okay, witness and I wrote nineteen eighty nine? Why did
Speaker 2: I don't need this? Was I?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: No, it's eighty five eighty five.
Speaker 3: I'm changing it so I don't watch the wrong one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't watch the one from eighty eighty nine.
Speaker 2: Witnesses so dirty, dude, that is like a made for Cinemax.
Speaker 1: But I had a lot of fun watching the drama
Speaker 1: and then being like, I'm going to make up an
Speaker 1: opinion about this and we're going to discuss it on
Speaker 1: the fan call.
Speaker 3: I'll do it. Hell yeah, Okay, great, it's going to happen.
Speaker 4: It's a deal.
Speaker 2: I love assigning each other. It'scite to watch assignment signing
Speaker 2: each other as signments.
Speaker 1: I was provided some information just to convince you more.
Speaker 1: Witness has ninety two percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 3: Oh that I'll watch it because you know how I
Speaker 3: live by the RT rating.
Speaker 4: You will only that's all I ever talked about, is
Speaker 4: this RT approved?
Speaker 1: Georgia's constantly say what did Artie say about this?
Speaker 4: Because I got to check into my RT.
Speaker 2: Speaking of rotten, we have a podcast network that's right
Speaker 2: called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights. Please listen
Speaker 2: to these other podcasts for us, Thank you.
Speaker 1: We have roughly sixteen incredible can picked by us chosen
Speaker 1: that's right, and then performed by some of the greats
Speaker 1: in the biz.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: A series of hit podcasts Yeah, can't be denied. For example,
Speaker 1: our most recent hit Disgraceland with Jake Brennan. That's here
Speaker 1: on the network. This week, Jake tells the classic true
Speaker 1: crime story behind Sonic Youth's album Goo. It has one
Speaker 1: of the coolest album covers of all time and the
Speaker 1: shocking murders that inspired the artwork.
Speaker 3: That is a rad story.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then over on Ghosted, Roz celebrates Pride Month by
Speaker 2: featuring Queer creators all June long, including this week's guest,
Speaker 2: the one and only Tammy Brown.
Speaker 4: Doing it epic.
Speaker 1: Also not to be gross, but this is a reminder
Speaker 1: to join the fan Cult. You get access to all
Speaker 1: episodes of this podcast, my favorite murder ad free. You
Speaker 1: get merch store discounts on our merch you get exclusive
Speaker 1: video and audio content, and so much more.
Speaker 2: So stop complaining and go to fancult dot supercast dot com.
Speaker 2: Why am I yelling at them?
Speaker 4: It's fun. We get to we still get to yay, yay,
Speaker 4: You're you're off. You're on a three day weekend.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's going to do a solo.
Speaker 4: It's my solo story. I saw a TikTok.
Speaker 1: I need a T shirt that said I saw TikTok
Speaker 1: I do because it's all I say and kind of
Speaker 1: all I do. But it's great because, as we all know,
Speaker 1: we're getting into an era where experts are finally speaking
Speaker 1: and getting up on camera and getting on mic and
Speaker 1: being like, hey, you don't have to be I don't know,
Speaker 1: Sidney Sweeney to get here and perform and speak publicly.
Speaker 1: It's not that big of a deal.
Speaker 3: You're going to talk about peptides.
Speaker 4: Oh, I will because I'm the expert at peptide.
Speaker 1: Okay, the copper peptides are what you want these share
Speaker 1: just found out about that. But it's basically like there's
Speaker 1: more and more people come forward to talk about stuff.
Speaker 1: So I find that on TikTok, I'm finding so many
Speaker 1: more people who are the source of the information. The
Speaker 1: researchers themselves, the authors themselves, the educative journalist exactly, all
Speaker 1: those people that are now the ones telling the story,
Speaker 1: which I love. So I don't know if this person
Speaker 1: is any of those things, but they're the reason that
Speaker 1: I learned about this story I'm about to tell you,
Speaker 1: and they inspired me to want to tell the story
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: Love it.
Speaker 1: So it's a TikTok from a woman named Mary Kate Teski.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's her name on TikTok if you want to
Speaker 1: go follow her. This is how I first found out
Speaker 1: about this story.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: So, if you are listening to this the day this
Speaker 1: episode comes out, which is June twenty fifth, twenty twenty six, Hi,
Speaker 1: your first day of listener, I want you to know
Speaker 1: today's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of one of the
Speaker 1: most infamous battles in American history. The Battle of Little Bighorn,
Speaker 1: also known as Custer's Last Stand Okay, On this day
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy six, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and
Speaker 1: his men were wiped out by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and
Speaker 1: Arapahoe warriors who are under the command of legendary Native
Speaker 1: leaders like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bowl. Of course, the
Speaker 1: history lesson we got about this battle presents Custer as
Speaker 1: some kind of noble martyr to our expanding nation and
Speaker 1: completely ignores the Native American experience and perspective and version
Speaker 1: of the story. But that changed around two thousand and
Speaker 1: five when Montana's tribal colleges began to spearhead a push
Speaker 1: to preserve the state's native histories and storytelling. And so
Speaker 1: they gather a group of Northern Cheyenne storytellers in Billings, Montana,
Speaker 1: so that they can share their oral history of the
Speaker 1: Battle of Little Bighorn, which the Cheyenne and other Plains
Speaker 1: tribes actually called the Battle of the Greasy Grass. So
Speaker 1: from many people outside the Cheyenne community they will be
Speaker 1: hearing for the first time that day the truth about
Speaker 1: what happened, and what those storytellers in Billings describe ends
Speaker 1: up capturing headlines across the country because for the first
Speaker 1: time we hear about the Cheyenne warrior responsible for customs death.
Speaker 1: So today, in honor of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you the story of that warrior.
Speaker 1: Her name is Buffalo Calf Road Woman.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: Our sources for today's story are articles from the Independent
Speaker 1: Record and the Billings Gazette archives and the work of
Speaker 1: writers Rosemary and Joseph Aganito, and the rest of the
Speaker 1: sources are in our show notes. Okay, so everything in
Speaker 1: this is going to be very condensed and very like
Speaker 1: our version of things. Yeah, this is the Karen Georgia
Speaker 1: Wikipedia version of things called my favorite Murder, no Offense,
Speaker 1: Maaron mclash and my brilliant researcher.
Speaker 4: But to tell stories like this, it's like I.
Speaker 1: Will assume people know as little as I do about
Speaker 1: American history, about Native American history, about all these things
Speaker 1: that are really important that I just feel fully uneducated about.
Speaker 1: So by the eighteen hundreds, in America, the Cheyenne are
Speaker 1: a powerful nation spread across the Great Plains with a
Speaker 1: population in the thousands. They are a vibrant, horse centric
Speaker 1: culture with a highly organized military system. And while Cheyenne
Speaker 1: warrior culture is largely associated with men, gender norms are
Speaker 1: not cut and dried with this tribe. Author's Rosemary and
Speaker 1: Joseph and Gando write about the Cheyenne quote. We have
Speaker 1: numerous accounts of women taking up weapons and risking their
Speaker 1: lives when attacked. Women were adept at using a variety
Speaker 1: of weapons, including the gun end quote. So by the
Speaker 1: eighteen forties, what's going on in the United States is
Speaker 1: that we are aggressively expanding under the banner of manifest destiny,
Speaker 1: which is basically the belief that white Americans are ordained
Speaker 1: by God to spread across the North American continent and
Speaker 1: to take whatever they want. Essentially, so, while the Cheyenne
Speaker 1: have long had to defend themselves against rival tribes, the
Speaker 1: defense is now needed to fight the encroachment of white
Speaker 1: settlers and the army. So as tensions ramp up, some
Speaker 1: Chyan leaders seek peace with the United States. At this point,
Speaker 1: the Chyenne nation is broadly divided into Northern and Southern Cheyenne,
Speaker 1: so Buffalo Calf Road woman is born into the Northern
Speaker 1: Cheyenne tribe in what is now Montana. Her birth year
Speaker 1: is believed to be eighteen forty four. But unfortunately we
Speaker 1: have almost no personal details about Buffalo Calf Road Woman
Speaker 1: or her life because Cheyenne oral history is heavily disrupted
Speaker 1: by forced assimilation onto reservations and into places like Native
Speaker 1: American boarding schools, which that story also needs to be told,
Speaker 1: And I have been trying to work out a story
Speaker 1: about that. Marin and I have for literally years to
Speaker 1: get it told correctly concisely. It's so expansive, it's so horrific,
Speaker 1: and it's colonization. It's basically, how do you tell the
Speaker 1: story of colonization in this country? So what we do
Speaker 1: know about the life of Buffalo Calf Road Woman is
Speaker 1: that her childhood is shaped by an ever escalating tension
Speaker 1: with these white pioneers in the US military. In eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty one, when she's about seven years old, the Treaty
Speaker 1: of Fort Laramie is signed in Wyoming, so it formally
Speaker 1: recognizes a large stretch of the Great Plains as belonging
Speaker 1: to seven different tribes that include the Cheyenne. But just
Speaker 1: a few years after that signing, in eighteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: gold is discovered in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and
Speaker 1: so white miners flood the area in what's now remembered
Speaker 1: as the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. So, even though this
Speaker 1: is supposed to be a protected land, the United States
Speaker 1: does nothing to stop them. Then, in eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: the betrayal multiplies when the US signs a new treaty
Speaker 1: that shrinks Cheyenne territory down to a thirteenth roughly a
Speaker 1: thirteenth of its previous size, so that it can open
Speaker 1: more land to white settlement and mining operations. Many Cheyenne
Speaker 1: simply refuse to comply, continuing to hunt and live on
Speaker 1: land that is now suddenly declared off limits to them,
Speaker 1: even though they have lived there for literally thousands of years.
Speaker 1: Buffalo Calf Road woman is around fifteen years old when
Speaker 1: all of this starts taking place. She's coming of age
Speaker 1: as this violence begins to intensify across the plains, and,
Speaker 1: as writer Catherine S. Gardner puts it, quote, she never
Speaker 1: experienced the Chyenne life of her elders. From birth until
Speaker 1: her death, her tribe and culture were continuously under threat
Speaker 1: of extermination, and it's kind of fascinating because she has
Speaker 1: and it'll come up a little bit later, but she
Speaker 1: has a brother, and imagining the life of a young
Speaker 1: woman who absolutely had to know how to fight, absolutely
Speaker 1: had to be good at it, and in their culture,
Speaker 1: which is a militaristic culture, that was a big thing
Speaker 1: for the Chyenne. I just can't imagine that she didn't
Speaker 1: absolutely go get right into the training and the fray
Speaker 1: and everything else. She's a teenager watching her people being massacre. So,
Speaker 1: in start contrast to Buffalo calf Road Woman's story and
Speaker 1: the fact that we barely know anything about it, we
Speaker 1: know a lot about the early life of George Armstrong Custer.
Speaker 1: He was born in Ohio in eighteen thirty nine, just
Speaker 1: a few years before Buffalo calf Road Woman was born.
Speaker 1: Custer is largely raised in Michigan. He develops an early
Speaker 1: knack for getting into trouble. He does very badly in school.
Speaker 1: He graduates last in his class at West Point in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 5: Last.
Speaker 3: It's kind of impressive.
Speaker 1: It's fucking nut so that he's one of the most
Speaker 1: famous like military entities at this time and he was
Speaker 1: the worst student in his class in eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: he had an unbelievable seven hundred and twenty six demerits Jesus,
Speaker 1: which I guess is like, you're in trouble. It happened
Speaker 1: that many times. But the Civil War starts the same
Speaker 1: year that he graduates, so the US Army is desperate
Speaker 1: to fill ranks, and Custer quickly becomes an officer.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: But his blatant disobedience is what helps him arguably rise
Speaker 1: so quickly.
Speaker 4: Through the ranks.
Speaker 1: He shoots up the chain of command while in his
Speaker 1: early twenties and becomes the subject of glowing Union newspaper coverage,
Speaker 1: earning him the nickname the Boy General, and some of
Speaker 1: that reputation is earned. Custer is known for charging straight
Speaker 1: into battle and relentlessly pushing his men while they're under fire,
Speaker 1: with he himself often writing in the front of the
Speaker 1: cavalry instead of the back. He is seemingly unfazed by
Speaker 1: the threat of death. Any of that sound familiar to
Speaker 1: a certain personality type that.
Speaker 4: You've heard of over the years.
Speaker 1: Narcissists, sociopath socupath Right, Yep, he's just like no rules
Speaker 1: apply to me. Yeah, I do what I want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And Oh, it's something horribly dangerous. Let's all go over there,
Speaker 1: let's do it. But he's also very smart, and he's
Speaker 1: keenly aware of the power of self mythology, so his
Speaker 1: public image is very calculated. Time Magazine points out quote
Speaker 1: Custer ghost wrote newspaper dispatches in which he pretended to
Speaker 1: be a correspondent and inflated his own roles in battles
Speaker 1: and military exploits.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like he left comments in his own section. Yeah, like,
Speaker 3: I love this.
Speaker 4: He's so brave, what a great leader. He's also very flashy.
Speaker 1: He perfumes his flowing blonde hair with cinnamon oil, and
Speaker 1: he wears a custom blue velveteen jacket and a wide
Speaker 1: brimmed hat and a bright red tie into battle. None
Speaker 1: of those are standard issue. That was Whim's the call
Speaker 1: his costume. Custer clearly wants to stand out.
Speaker 4: It works.
Speaker 1: He's famous before the war is through. So meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: situation on the plains between the Chyenne and the United
Speaker 1: States remains volatile. In November of eighteen sixty four, these
Speaker 1: tensions boil over in a horrific way when an Army
Speaker 1: colonel named John Shivington approaches a Cheyenne and a rapa
Speaker 1: Hoe camp at Sand Creek in eastern Colorado. There's about
Speaker 1: seven hundred people at this camp and it's led by
Speaker 1: Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, who's repeatedly sought peace with
Speaker 1: the United States. So this is one of the many
Speaker 1: tribal leaders of the Native people who constantly were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we let's agree that, you know, let's do this. Let's
Speaker 1: divide up this land. There's plenty of it. We've been
Speaker 1: here a long time, and every single time it'd be like, sure, sure, here's.
Speaker 4: Some pox filled blankets.
Speaker 3: Massacre.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to the point where at this camp there's a
Speaker 1: white flag and an American flag flying. But Colorado's then
Speaker 1: Governor John Evans does not seem to care. He wants
Speaker 1: to chyend removed from this area. So Shivington and some
Speaker 1: seven hundred volunteer soldiers attack the camp and they kill
Speaker 1: around one hundred and fifty people, and most of them
Speaker 1: are women and children. The survivors are traumatized by memories
Speaker 1: of their loved ones being mutilated in front of them.
Speaker 1: News of the massacre spreads quickly across the plains, provoking fear, despair,
Speaker 1: and the end of whatever hope was left that the
Speaker 1: US could be trusted by the Cheyenne and the Native people,
Speaker 1: and even some white Americans are outraged at the time,
Speaker 1: and Shivington ends up resigning in disgrace. Still, neither he
Speaker 1: nor any of his men are criminally prosecuted for the
Speaker 1: massacre at Sand Creek. Now it's eighteen sixty five, the
Speaker 1: Confederacy has been defeated. The Civil War comes to an end,
Speaker 1: so a now twenty five year old Custer is sent
Speaker 1: to the frontier. He swaps his blue velveteen for buckskins,
Speaker 1: which again are not standard issue. So he's got his
Speaker 1: new costume, his new personality, and his next assignment is
Speaker 1: to help force the planes tribes onto US designated reservations.
Speaker 1: These are very difficult campaigns for the United States. They
Speaker 1: are usually very much outmatched by the Native warriors. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty seven, Custard ditches his post to visit
Speaker 1: his wife in Kansas, which results in a court martial,
Speaker 1: his suspension from rank, and the loss of his paycheck
Speaker 1: for a year. Despite his insubordination, though the US Army
Speaker 1: is convinced that they need someone as aggress of his
Speaker 1: Custer to fight against these resisting planes tribes, so less
Speaker 1: than a year after being court martialed, he's reinstated, and
Speaker 1: the newspapers refer to it as quote Custer's luck. The
Speaker 1: system is beyond rigged. So the next year, in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, the now twenty nine year old Custer is
Speaker 1: brought to Black Kettle's village, now sitting on the Washida
Speaker 1: River in modern Oklahoma. Four years after the Sand Creek massacre.
Speaker 1: Black Kettle is still trying to broke her peace with
Speaker 1: the United States, but the US military increasingly classifies any
Speaker 1: Native communities living outside the reservations to be quote hostile adversaries.
Speaker 1: So Custer's men carry out another brutal attack. They killed
Speaker 1: dozens of Native people, including Black Kettle himself. They killed
Speaker 1: the chief, hundreds of horses are slaughtered, and lodges are
Speaker 1: burned to the ground. The news of these attacks again
Speaker 1: spread rapidly across the plains, and again even among white settlers.
Speaker 1: The brutality and violence of this attack instantly makes Custer
Speaker 1: a controversial leader, but it also cements him as one
Speaker 1: of the United states most well known so called quote
Speaker 1: unquote Indian fighters. Around the same time, in eighteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: a second Treaty of Fort Laramie is signed. The treaties
Speaker 1: have the same name because they're signed at Fort Laramie
Speaker 1: at both times. But this treaty establishes the Great Sioux
Speaker 1: Reservation and recognizes the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory
Speaker 1: as belonging to the Lakota. But the same situation plays
Speaker 1: out here like it did before. In eighteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: gold is discovered in the Black Hills, white miners come
Speaker 1: flooding in. The US Army, for its part, sends Custer
Speaker 1: to investigate the reports of gold. He confirms them, and
Speaker 1: then that leads the US government to try to purchase
Speaker 1: the Black Hills back from the Lakota. Can imagine the
Speaker 1: Lakota say no, which begins to fuel tensions with the US,
Speaker 1: but then strengthens resistance among the plains tribes. So it's
Speaker 1: the Lakota, the Arapaho, and the Chyenne. So the US
Speaker 1: seizes the Black Hills from the Lakota in eighteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: and just fyi. A century later in nineteen eighty, the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court rules this seizure was unjust and they awarded
Speaker 1: the Sioux Nation monetary compensation, but the Sioux Nation refused
Speaker 1: to take the money, insisting they just want the land back.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: The fight to return this land continues to this day.
Speaker 1: It's believed that land is now worth more than a
Speaker 1: billion dollars. By eighteen seventy six, the conflict between the
Speaker 1: United States Army and a coalition of Northern Cheyenne, Arapahoe,
Speaker 1: and Lakota warriors has boiled over into the Great Sioux War.
Speaker 1: Buffalo calf Road Woman is now in her early thirties
Speaker 1: and she's living in the Rosebud Valley of Montana along
Speaker 1: Rosebud Creek with Lakota and to Rapahoe allies. And here
Speaker 1: in June of eighteen seventy six, a US general named
Speaker 1: George Crook arrives outside of her camp with thirteen hundred
Speaker 1: of his men, and the Native coalition fights them in
Speaker 1: a battle that lasts several hours. According to a tribal
Speaker 1: oral tradition, Buffalo Calf Road Woman's brother, a warrior named
Speaker 1: comes in Sight, is among the thousands of Native men
Speaker 1: who charge the US soldiers. But during the fighting, Comes
Speaker 1: in Sight is knocked off his horse and he gets
Speaker 1: trapped under fire. So Essentially, in these battles, if you
Speaker 1: get knocked off your horse, it's basically you're dead because
Speaker 1: someone just comes by and shoots you. So he's on
Speaker 1: the ground. His death is all but insured until his sister,
Speaker 1: Buffalo Calf Road Woman, jumps onto her horse and charges
Speaker 1: directly into battle. She rides so fast no bullets can
Speaker 1: strike her, and per the oral account, she pulls her
Speaker 1: brother up onto her horse, and she gets him to
Speaker 1: safety Jesus in the middle of a full on war.
Speaker 1: In the end, the Native coalition forces the US troops
Speaker 1: to retreat. Today, United States history remembers this event as
Speaker 1: the Battle of the Rosebud, but the Cheyenne remember it
Speaker 1: as the fight where the girl saved her brother. Wow,
Speaker 1: Buffalo Calf Road Woman is believed to be the only
Speaker 1: female warrior who rides into this battle. So this Native
Speaker 1: victory is extremely important because just eight days later, Custer
Speaker 1: arrives at another encampment belonging to the same Native coalition,
Speaker 1: but this time they're in the Little Bighorn Valley in
Speaker 1: southeastern Montana, and this time, crucially, Custer does not have
Speaker 1: the amount of troops like reinforcements that General Crook had.
Speaker 4: They have all retreated after the loss at.
Speaker 1: The Battle of the Rosebud, at the fight where the
Speaker 1: girl saved her brother. But on top of that, Custer
Speaker 1: badly underestimates the size of the coalition that he is
Speaker 1: about to attack, and probably the talent of it. So
Speaker 1: on June twenty fifth, eighteen seventy six, Custer and around
Speaker 1: six hundred soldiers arrived near the Little Big Horn encampment.
Speaker 1: His forces are split into several battalions intended to attack
Speaker 1: the camp from different directions. Custer himself heads north with
Speaker 1: about two hundred men. But what they don't know is
Speaker 1: that word of this impending attack is sprending quickly among
Speaker 1: the tribes. They know it, they have looked at they
Speaker 1: know how to use this land and protect their camps,
Speaker 1: and so immediately they know that it's happening, And thousands
Speaker 1: of warriors rise up and ride into battle, many of
Speaker 1: the same who had just.
Speaker 4: Fought the Battle of the Rosebud days earlier.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: The Battle of Little Bighorn is hard fast and totally chaotic.
Speaker 1: One US battalion attacks, only to immediately retreat after realizing
Speaker 1: how incredibly outnumbered they are. Then a second battalion retreats
Speaker 1: and so Custer looks around. All his men are leaving,
Speaker 1: but he makes himself and his two hundred men push
Speaker 1: forward anyway, and they are completely overwhelmed. In less than
Speaker 1: an hour, every single soldier riding with Custer is killed,
Speaker 1: including Custer himself.
Speaker 3: Holy shit.
Speaker 1: And because there's no survivors who can report back to
Speaker 1: the army officially what happened, or to newspaper reporters, the
Speaker 1: historical record around Custer's last moments are very murky, which
Speaker 1: of course then sets the stage for the folk hero
Speaker 1: treatment that he ends up getting. What we do know
Speaker 1: is that Custer's body is found among dozens of his
Speaker 1: men with two bullet wounds, one is in his heart
Speaker 1: and the others in his head. It's not until two
Speaker 1: thousand and five in Billings, Montana, when those Northern Chyenn
Speaker 1: storytellers finally share their oral history of Little Bighorn, that
Speaker 1: we learn what really happened. They say that Colonel Custer
Speaker 1: was shot to death on the ground because he got
Speaker 1: knocked off his horse by a warrior's club, And that
Speaker 1: day they reveal that the same woman who say her
Speaker 1: brother from certain death in the battle days before is
Speaker 1: the one who knocked Custer off his horse. It's Buffalo
Speaker 1: calf Road woman.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And the oral accounts describe her as being quote out
Speaker 1: in the open during this intense battle. Wasn't like she
Speaker 1: was off to the side or whatever. She was in
Speaker 1: the fray. And they also confirmed that quote she stayed
Speaker 1: on her horse the entire time.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So the Battle of Little Bighorn is arguably the most
Speaker 1: famous Native victory of the Plains Wars and one of
Speaker 1: the most infamous defeats in the US Army's history. The
Speaker 1: Northern Cheyenne say that's the reason they kept the story
Speaker 1: of Buffalo calf Road Woman a secret for so long.
Speaker 1: They were afraid that when the Army heard that a
Speaker 1: Cheyenne woman is basically the one who got Custer or killed,
Speaker 1: it would result in even harsher assaults by the Army
Speaker 1: on their tribes. Yeah, the US still seeks retribution for
Speaker 1: the defeat, and Buffalo calf Road Woman, like many Cheyenne,
Speaker 1: remain under constant pressure from the military to submit to
Speaker 1: US authority or be killed. In eighteen seventy seven, she
Speaker 1: and her family will be forced onto an Oklahoma reservation.
Speaker 1: She spends about a year there and during brutal living conditions,
Speaker 1: and it's belief there she gives birth to her second child.
Speaker 1: Not long after, in eighteen seventy eight, she and her
Speaker 1: family join what's known as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus, which
Speaker 1: was a desperate, defiant, and ultimately successful push led by
Speaker 1: the Northern Cheyenne chiefs Morning Star and Little Wolf to
Speaker 1: leave the reservation and return to its Montana homeland. So
Speaker 1: Buffalo calf Road Woman is one of the three hundred women, men,
Speaker 1: and children who escape the Oklahoma reservation. They set out
Speaker 1: on a dangerous, exhausting journey, spanning hundreds of miles. Along
Speaker 1: the way, members of the group are captured by American
Speaker 1: troops or they're killed in skirmishes. Others die of exhaustion
Speaker 1: or of illness, and Buffalo Calfe Road Woman is among those.
Speaker 1: She dies in eighteen seventy nine in her mid thirties,
Speaker 1: likely of dip theory, We're not sure. She's believed to
Speaker 1: be buried somewhere near present day Miles City, Montana, but
Speaker 1: her grave has never been identified. It's unclear how many
Speaker 1: members of this group ultimately made it to Montana. Sources
Speaker 1: suggest it's less than half the original number, so around
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty people. But this exodus puts enough
Speaker 1: political pressure on the US government that the Northern Cheyenne
Speaker 1: who do make it to Montana are not forced back
Speaker 1: to Oklahoma. This is how the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
Speaker 1: in southeastern Montana is established in eighteen eighty four. And
Speaker 1: of course, in death, General Custer and Buffalo calf Road
Speaker 1: Woman could not have been treated more differently. Custer is
Speaker 1: the subject of countless history books, biographies, paintings, photographs, yet
Speaker 1: there isn't a single confirmed portrait of Buffalo calf Read
Speaker 1: Woman to be found, and most of the images that
Speaker 1: you see online of her use either misidentified photos of
Speaker 1: other Native women or slop ai where it's just slop ai.
Speaker 1: So in February twenty twenty six, the Trump administration issues
Speaker 1: an executive order calling for a review of signs and
Speaker 1: exhibits at national parks and monuments that could be seen
Speaker 1: as critical of the US government. That includes signage at
Speaker 1: the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Washington
Speaker 1: Post reported earlier this year that quote at Little Bighorn
Speaker 1: Battlefield National Monument in Montana exhibit text that described the
Speaker 1: United States being quote hungry for golden land and breaking
Speaker 1: promises to Native Americans was ordered changed or removed.
Speaker 3: Just fucking rewrite history. Why don't check.
Speaker 1: An erase it worked before? Another text describing how US
Speaker 1: run boarding schools for Indigenous children violently erased cultural identities
Speaker 1: and language was also deemed not to comply with Trump's policy.
Speaker 2: If the facts don't comply with your policy, your fullling
Speaker 2: was wrong with their fucking policy.
Speaker 1: I guess okay, it's not an option. No, it's not
Speaker 1: a choice to say it didn't happen.
Speaker 3: Well, not for fucking people who aren't psychotic.
Speaker 1: So the Northern Chayan leadership is actively opposing this administration's efforts.
Speaker 1: Tribal leaders issued a press release this past February saying, quote,
Speaker 1: this attempt to change or remove tribal markers and monuments
Speaker 1: dims the light of the healing and progress we have
Speaker 1: all made end quote, which is a very generous thing
Speaker 1: to say in the light of Native American progress and
Speaker 1: how little any government has ever given them or made
Speaker 1: for them, and you're trying to take that away. And
Speaker 1: then but that goes too. While there's never been a
Speaker 1: monument for Buffalo Calf Road, woman. She has always been
Speaker 1: memorialized by her people, who have carried the story of
Speaker 1: her courage, her strength, and her valor in two bloody
Speaker 1: battles for more than a century. When telling Buffalo Calf
Speaker 1: Road Woman's story, a Northern Cheyenne saying is often shared,
Speaker 1: and it says, quote, a nation is not conquered until
Speaker 1: the hearts of its women are on the ground.
Speaker 4: Then it is done, no.
Speaker 1: Matter how brave its warriors or how strong its weapons.
Speaker 1: Buffalo Calf Road Woman's heart was never on the ground.
Speaker 1: She stayed on her horse the whole time. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, that's what we're going to do tonight.
Speaker 4: We ride. Today, we ride.
Speaker 1: And that's the story of the Cheyenne warrior, the one
Speaker 1: who defeated Custer.
Speaker 4: Buffalo Calf Road Woman.
Speaker 2: Wow, I wish we could have the actual historical story
Speaker 2: because but it's even more badass, and there's even more
Speaker 2: fucking incredible things she did.
Speaker 3: But like and other women and like her tribe that
Speaker 3: we just don't know about.
Speaker 1: And in thinking about that, how many stories have been
Speaker 1: lost of people just like her because of the annihilation
Speaker 1: of the genocide of the Native American people in this country.
Speaker 1: It is the gigantic tragedy, the effects of which continue
Speaker 1: to this day.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, well, great job.
Speaker 5: I had never heard that.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 4: Right, me too.
Speaker 1: I wish we could know more. Do you want to
Speaker 1: make a donation? Definitely, Let's donate to the Native American
Speaker 1: Rights Fund. Here's their quote about themselves. They hold governments accountable.
Speaker 1: They fight to protect Native American rights, resources and life
Speaker 1: ways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise. Hell yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll give them ten thousand dollars. If you want
Speaker 1: to donate to the Native American Rights Fund, go to
Speaker 1: NARF dot org and give them what you can give them.
Speaker 3: Amazing. Well, great job, thank you, excellent solo episode.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Right yeah, let's do another batch of honking horays, brought
Speaker 2: to you by Henday.
Speaker 5: Thanks Hendaynday.
Speaker 6: This one it's from Brittany A and she wrote a
Speaker 6: fan cult.
Speaker 1: It says, my ninety seven year old cowboy grandpa and
Speaker 1: long standing conservative Mormon aunt told me they didn't vote
Speaker 1: for the current administration because of my wife and myself
Speaker 1: we are married females of ten years.
Speaker 6: And then in.
Speaker 1: Parentheses, it says that's a hoorrayal on its own. Man,
Speaker 1: they understand that their vote would go against my marriage
Speaker 1: and they didn't want any part of that. Hearing this
Speaker 1: made me feel cared for and heard for the first
Speaker 1: time ever on this side of the family. Keep having
Speaker 1: the hard conversations because sometimes they'll listen.
Speaker 6: And it's Pride month, so the things can happen.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna cry.
Speaker 3: I know, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: This one is from Sierra Bohnenberger. Don't know what that is.
Speaker 6: That's an online name on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Today, I actually got off work early enough to make
Speaker 2: happy Hour at our local wine bar.
Speaker 5: Oh hashtag tgif.
Speaker 6: I hope she went to TJA that's her local one.
Speaker 6: She gets the best wine at tgif.
Speaker 5: They have a Josh cellar it is.
Speaker 6: It's all yellow top to tail yellow. I get four
Speaker 6: cubes of ice and it shouted doctor Pepper. Well, I
Speaker 6: mean like happy hour, happy hours.
Speaker 5: There's nothing like it.
Speaker 6: What a reward.
Speaker 5: If you're at happy hour your life is going well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't forget you don't have to drink a
Speaker 1: happy hour you can eat their weird or dirt.
Speaker 5: Totally get those happy hour sliders.
Speaker 1: Get in there. It's very similar. But on the other
Speaker 1: end of the spectrum. This is from Eat Shoots and
Speaker 1: travels over on Instagram, and they say I paid off
Speaker 1: my mortgage, Oh my god at forty three by myself.
Speaker 6: I'm not rich.
Speaker 1: I just saved really hard, literal tears at the bank.
Speaker 1: I love that. Can you imagine You're just like standing
Speaker 1: in the bank like it doesn't matter to you. People
Speaker 1: don't know what this is, but I am absolutely getting myself.
Speaker 5: To a brand new place.
Speaker 2: This is a life changing experience and I'm going to
Speaker 2: cry in front of strangers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you better cry at forty three food incredible.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: This is from Taylor on her email.
Speaker 2: My hooray is that my friend and I signed up
Speaker 2: up for water aerobics.
Speaker 5: Yes as three two year olds, Yes, and we love it.
Speaker 2: I love the water and was frustrated by the lack
Speaker 2: of swimming in adulthood.
Speaker 3: That's so true.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's not enough.
Speaker 2: I dive in every class and the older ladies are
Speaker 2: always shocked and slightly offended. But they're sweet and have
Speaker 2: added me to their swim sister's email chain.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, so much shit has talked on an
Speaker 6: email chain.
Speaker 1: Betty you're not going to believe you should have seen
Speaker 1: the way she looked in her three piece suit.
Speaker 5: We talk about books.
Speaker 2: We were nervous to go her friend and her but
Speaker 2: it's now a big highlight of my week and actually
Speaker 2: a decent no impact workout.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's water hell yeah.
Speaker 2: Plus I had an excuse to buy bright yellow shower
Speaker 2: sandals with carrots and bunnies on them in Chinatown.
Speaker 1: That is such a good pastime, kind of like way
Speaker 1: to fill your time. Yeah, because it's very social, you know,
Speaker 1: shoulders and head above water almost the whole time.
Speaker 5: It's not going to get sucked up chat chat chat.
Speaker 3: I really love an alt workout routine is my favorite thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not going to do it right, I love
Speaker 5: it knowing about them.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to do any of it. But I
Speaker 6: love a pool.
Speaker 3: Loveapool, love a pool.
Speaker 1: This is a FASTI because it's Megan writing in from
Speaker 1: fan Culton, saying, this morning, I flipped the eggs without
Speaker 1: bursting the yolks.
Speaker 6: I finally found the perfect oil.
Speaker 5: To heat ratio.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell us no, no, totally gatekeeping that,
Speaker 1: but just letting the world know that Megan t had
Speaker 1: her egg victory this morning.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, Congratulations, I've never done it well. Thank you to
Speaker 2: Hundai for presenting these honking arrays, and thank you guys
Speaker 2: for writing them in. Please write them in more and
Speaker 2: we'll read them.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 6: And also stay sexy, don't get murdered.
Speaker 4: Goodbye, Elvis.
Speaker 3: Do you want a cookie?
Speaker 4: This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
Speaker 2: is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 4: Our editor is Aristotle Lascevedo.
Speaker 3: This episode was mixed by Leona Squalacci.
Speaker 4: Our researchers are Mayor McGlashan and Ali Elkin.
Speaker 2: Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot.
Speaker 4: Com and follow the show on Instagram at My Favorite Murder.
Speaker 2: Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Speaker 2: Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: And now you can watch My Favorite Murder on Netflix.
Speaker 3: And when you're there, hit the double thumbs up and
Speaker 3: the remind me buttons. That's the best way you can
Speaker 3: support our show.
Speaker 4: Goodbye,