title: Indian Views of the Custer Fight: A Source Book
author: Richard G. Hardorff
description: "By emphasizing Indian perspectives, Hardorff contributes to the reorientation of Indian wars history."
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  ![cover](cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  **BANTAM BOOKS BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I dedicate this book to  
  Richard Wheeler  
  the gentle poet and philosopher  
  of the high plains of Montana
  
  
  #
  
  
  On Custer Hill the knot of fallen men graphically portrayed the drama of the
  last stand. Although Cooke and Tom Custer had been badly butchered, most in
  this group escaped severe mutilation. “The bodies were as recognizable as if
  they were in life,” Benteen wrote to his wife a few days later.
  
  
  Although naked, “The General was not mutilated at all,” Lt. Godfrey later
  wrote. “He laid on his back, his upper arms on the ground, the hands folded or
  so placed as to cross the body above the stomach: his position was natural and
  one that we had seen hundreds of times while taking cat naps during halts on
  the march.”
  
  
  > —ROBERT M. UTLEY,  
  >  _Cavalier in Buckskin_
  
  
  I believe anyone familiar with old-time Indians will prefer their version of a
  fight to that of other eye-witnesses. The Indian was by n