Publisher: Peter McGinn November 16, 2023
This is an earnest attempt to tell the true story of the Battle of Little Bighorn, popularly known as Custer’s Last Stand, and known to the native Americans as the battle of the greasy grass, their geographical term for the battle site. Like with the story of the Alamo, another huge miscalculation by defeated leaders in history, this battle was subsequently heavily mythologized and turned into a heroic and tragic story of a pivotal moment in U.S military history. This short documentary serves as a brief and accurate introduction to the incident for those who aren’t familiar with it, as well as those who perhaps only think they are, but there was little new information for me as I have read and watched a lot about Little Bighorn through the years. There is an interesting segment about the drawings of a surviving Native American named Red Horse. He drew them five years after the battle — not for money or notoriety but for a collector friend and as a tribute to his fallen comrades. Simplistic in style, they are considered to be an accurate portrayal of the battle. The fact that there is no apparent depiction of General Custer himself is a good indication the artist was not using the drawings to make money as many others were doing, including Buffalo Bill Cody with his Wild West show. This website lists one streaming site where this documentary can be viewed, but at this writing I found it on the National Geographic channel via Paramount +.