# Battle of the Little Big Horn Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/letters-from-an-american-5323066/battle-of-the-little-big-horn Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/letters-from-an-american-5323066/battle-of-the-little-big-horn.md Podcast: [Letters from an American](https://stenobird.com/podcast/letters-from-an-american-5323066) Published: 2026-06-27T01:04:10+00:00 Episode link: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/battle-of-the-little-big-horn Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/203778619/301617662434a9bb57d2a0e218905946.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/letters-from-an-american-5323066/episodes/battle-of-the-little-big-horn Duration seconds: 590 ## Resource June 25, 2026 Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong lost his entire command to Lakota warriors, The road to the Little Bighorn started during the Civil War, The US government, strapped by the cost of war, stopped providing food, forcing the Santees to flee to join the Teton Lakotas in what is now Montana, The massacre at Sand Creek convinced the Tetons that they must resist, After Robert E Lee’s surrender, General Sherman was transferred to the Plains, The government abandoned the Bozeman Trail in favor of protecting the railroad, giving the Lakotas control of the Great Sioux Reservation, Miners wanted access to gold and business interests wanted land, and set out to build a fort in the Black Hills to intimidate the warriors who were skirmishing with the intruders, The Lakotas refused to sell land in the Black Hills, The War Department commanded the army to subdue the Lakotas, General George Crook planned an attack on Sitting Bull’s camp, The Lakotas and their allies who had settled on the Greasy Grass, or Little Bighorn, were unaware of Custer’s troops approaching, They recovered quickly and chased some of the men across the river, and stampeded the others, All the soldiers were killed, the Lakotas lost about 40 men. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ- Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe You can also find me: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from a… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/letters-from-an-american-5323066/episodes/battle-of-the-little-big-horn/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/letters-from-an-american-5323066/battle-of-the-little-big-horn.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.