Battle of the Little Bighorn
Poet involved
What happened
Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors defeated George Custer's forces near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. The battle arose from United States efforts to confine Indigenous peoples and seize the Black Hills. Victory was dramatic but was followed by intensified military campaigns and dispossession.
Literary impact
Walt Whitman's poem From Far Dakota's Cañon mourned Custer while reinforcing a settler viewpoint. Lakota and Cheyenne oral histories preserve a different narrative centred on homeland, collective defence and temporary victory.
Source: Wikipedia
