New Perspectives on the West- Yellow Hair

In The website New Perspective on the West In Episode Six  Fight no more Forever a page was written on Yellow Hair, the nickname given to General George Armstrong Custer. The page describes Custer as a less than brilliant general. He graduated at the bottom of his West Point class and was described as “impulsive and high spirited”. He was at times reckless while once hunting in Indian Territory went to shoot a buffalo and instead shot his own horse in the head causing injuries to himself. His men had to rescue him.

“He was a self-promoter ...a man who rode to the top over the backs of fallen comrades... and a lot of men fell...because Custer was leading them into situations that he shouldn't have been leading them into.”[1] In the summer of 1874 Custer lead an expedition to find a location to build a new fort and went marching directly into the Lakota sacred ground the black hills. He was also looking for gold. Custer seemed pompous wearing a buckskin uniform different from other militia men which caught the attention of reporters and his enemies. It also brought him the nickname yellow hair[i].

Custer’s excursions led to a mining invasion in the Black Hills and resulted in a violation of The Fort Laramie treaty which promised the Black Hills would be Lakota land forever.

“So many times, the Indians were promised that they could keep the land...and so many times those promises were broken....I think that the Indians understood the meaning of the treaties. And wanted very much to live by them. But the cumulative effect was one of distrust. Betrayal.”[2]

White men who followed Custer’s trail named it the Freedom Trail, while The Lakota called it Thieves Road.

It was a sign of things to come.

                                                   

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[1]http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/six/yellowhair.htm,Stephen Ambrose

[2]http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/six/yellowhair.htm, N. Scott madaMoy