title: Little Bighorn Remembered: The Untold Indian Story of Custer's Last Stand
author:  Herman J. Viola 
description: One of those events familiar to even the historically unaware or uninterested, Custer's Last Stand (or the Battle of Little Bighorn) has suffered the unfortunate fate of becoming a cultural icon, to be repackaged to fit different historians' ideologies. The last large-scale pitched battle between Indians and soldiers, it was a dramatic defeat for the U.S. military and yet the beginning of the end for the victorious Plains Indians. The picture is more complicated, though, as several Indian tribes served as scouts for Custer. Viola, curator emeritus at the Smithsonian and a frequent writer on Indian subjects, creates an interesting overview by collecting accounts of the battle by descendants of Indians who fought on both sides. Lavishly illustrated with period photographs, maps, and color drawings by witnesses as well as photographs of descendants, this recalling of the battle, supplemented by new archaeological research, should be popular with many readers. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries. (Photos not seen.)ACharles V. Cowling, Drake Memorial Lib., Brockport, NY <br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: CUSTER AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN
  
  I J
  TO HELL WITH HONOR
  Custer and the Little Bighorn
  The image of the famous “last stand” of
  the Seventh U.S. Cavalry under General
  George Armstrong Custer has metamor-
  phosed into myth. We picture the solitary
  Custer standing upright to the end, his
  troops formed into groups of wounded and
  dying men around him. In this book, Larry
  Sklenar analyzes and interprets the widely
  accepted facts underlying the accepted
  portrayal of Custer's defeat. His perspective,
  however,
  is fresh, and he offers wholly new
  conclusions about one of the most endur-
  ing mysteries in American history—the
  1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.
  Sklenar contends that Custer did have
  a battle plan, one different from any other
  suggested by scholars thus far. Custer, he
  argues,
  • had reason to believe that his scheme
  might succeed with minimum bloodshed,
  • made decisions consistent with army
  regulations and his best instincts as an
  experienced commander,
  • had subordinates who could not ov