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Title: Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat by Gregory F. Michno ISBN: 0-87842-349-4 Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company Pub. Date: August, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.54 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A "Must Have" book for LBH scholars
Comment: This fine book stands with the few really well thought out accounts of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The Herculean task of trying to make sense of all the Indian testimony is done very well here. Michno's discussions at the end of each section helps point out what is plausible and what is not. Michno does not simply swallow as absolutely true all the Indian testimony (Indians could exaggerate and distort as well as Marcus Reno and Benteen could). The importance of this book is twofold in my opinion. It discredits (and rightly so) much of what Richard A. Fox claims in his archaeological study of battlefield shell casings, and it claims the fighting at Last Stand Hill went on a lot longer than the testimony at Reno's court of inquiry admitted. Obviously this has huge implications for Reno and Benteen, who, if true, were hardly blameless for the debacle, to put it kindly. See Lary Sklenar's analysis in "To Hell with Honor" to explore this aspect of the controversy. Just what did they see at Weir Point if Michno's theory is correct? One can only wonder. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Reverse Angle...
Comment: After sending his famous message to Benteen, "Big Village, Come Quick, Bring Packs," Custer and his men vanish from U. S. Army history. What happened thereafter was witnessed mainly by Custer's foes in the battle. Although huge numbers of Indian accounts have been collected in the roughly 125 years since Little Bighorn, historians have generally thrown up their hands at the gross contradictions, inconsistencies, confabulations and impossibilities found in the Indian accounts.
What Michno has done is to go through the published and unpublished accounts available, and fit them into a framework of time and space that actually turns out to make a fairly consistent picture of Custer's last battle. As several other reviewers have noted, there is a large piece missing from Michno's material, namely the accounts of the Indian scouts riding with the 7th Cavalry. It is very puzzling that this resource was ignored. However, that is the only real problem I found with the book. Michno uses the Indian accounts to explode a fairly large number of myths about the battle and its participants, particuarly Gall, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. He also winds up with the only really convincing version I have read of the disposition and movements of Custer's men during the various stages leading up to the classic hilltop "Last Stand."
In the past 50 years academic historians have largely retreated completely from any desire to find out or recount what "actually" happened in any historical event. Instead, the event is used only as the thinnest of pretexts to grind various ideological axes. Custer's defeat was being used in this way almost the second Libby Custer died, more than 70 years ago. So it's doubly refreshing to find a history book where the facts are still the focus of concern.
This book is not, and is not intended to be, a complete account of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It is best read as a companion to other standard works on the battle, such as Gray's.
Rating: 5
Summary: A New Look at the LBH from the Victors Point of View
Comment: One of the great books on the Little Big Horn because it offers a fresh approach from the Native American point of view by consolidating their testimonies through time motion studies. Michno's book offers a different point of view that Custer stayed on his side of the river to stay in some visual contact with Benteen and Reno after the latter's retreat. That Custer hoped that he would draw the Indians to him while the rest of his command would appear in his rear to trap the Indians between two attacking units. He also demonstrates a new spin on Custer's movements that Yate's Battalion of E & F troops joined Keough's Battalion (C, I and L) on Nye Cartwright Ridge instead of Battleridge, that Yates went futher north and west than originally thought, that the Cheyene Lame Whiteman's backbreaking attack ocurred below Custer Hill and not against Company L on Calhoun Hill to the Southwest and that Keough's Company I's collapse caused the destruction of the south of Battleridge leading to the destruction of Custer's battalions. Mincho also adds disturbing insight that Reno and Benteen may have witnessed the destruction of Calhoun's command but not Custer's that was further north and still fighting when the two commands turned away. A lot of detail and testimony that makes Mincho's appraisal more believable because many of the testimonies substantiate each other and isolate those that appear to be exaggerations. And the testimonies trace the whereabouts and actions of Gall, White Bull, Sitting Bull, Wooden Leg, Two Moons, Crazy Horse, Lame Whiteman and many more participants.A good book to go with Utley's, Fox's and Gray's. They all cannot be right in every detail but reading them all brings you closer to narrowing the possibilities.
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