Much Ado About Custer: Rethinking the "Indian Wars"

For decades, the fight for the American West has fascinated writers and readers alike. The mystery of Lt. Col. George A. Custer's death, the lives of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and the catastrophe at Wounded Knee have been too powerful to resist. Yet it turns out that the United States Army's unpublished manuscript correspondence-hidden away in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.-changes what we think about the era. This colloquium will explore the misguided notion of those so-called "Indian Wars," the forgotten peers of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and why Custer still looms large in popular memory