Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat

by Gregory F. Michno

Book Overview

"With careful attention to his book's subtitle, Michno presents the most important surviving testimony of Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux participants in the 1876 Little Bighorn battle. He follows the virtual minute-by-minute approach successfully used in John S. Gray's Centennial Campaign (CH, May'77) to describe events in meticulous detail. Michno's intimate knowledge of the battlefield, as well as his close reading of white accounts and recent archaeological...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878423494
• ISBN13: 9780878423491
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Mountain Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Mrichno's book is excellent, well researched and a wonderful read, so much so it's hard to put down. This work and his The Mystery of E Troop: Custer's Gray Horse Company at the Little Bighorn will go down as two of the very best books on this historical event. Both of his works impressed me and have gone a long way in help shaping my views. You just can't go worng and his writing style is so easy to read.

A "Must Have" book for LBH scholars

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.

A New Look at the LBH from the Victors Point of View

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.

New Food for Thought

What happened at the Battle of Big Horn? There have been hundreds of theories. Which one is right? Gregory Michno's LAKOTA NOON provides all of us with a new version of what happened at the historical battle. Michno has written the history of the battle by time sequences of what happened by primarily using recorded versions of the battle from the victors' viewpoint. What recorded versions have we read in the past about General Custer's last battle? There were no survivors from Custer's troops. Reno's troops were far away and could not see the entire and complete defeat of Custer. That leaves the Indians. They fought both Reno and Custer. They saw it all. Michno has painstakingly researched the Indian's testimony of the actual details of the battles and has brillantly put them into the time sequence of the entire battle. He has also objectively shown which accounts are true and which appears to be false. He has done with a dedicated search for the truth. There are no omissions and wild interpretations of what happened to fit the author's theory of this battle in LAKOTA NOON. Every reader will find an author who successfully lays out new theories and new evidence of this famous battle. The reader will find LAKOTA NOON an exceptional work by someone who has expended many hours researching all the past theories of this battle with a dedicated attempt to provide his readers with the facts and an objective pursuit of evaluating all evidence to shed new light on a subject that has been written by many. Many will debunk Michno's masterpiece because it does not go in accordance with many outdated theories of the Battle of The Bighorn. But, if you are interested in this subject, you owe it to yourself to read something new and refreshing. It is truly new food for thought.

The definitive analysis of American Indians' battle account

Gregory Michno takes previous Custer scholars to task for having too long ignored the battlefield accounts of the participants who lived to tell - and who DID tell us - what happened! Yet Michno is careful not to accept any participants' accounts or claims blindly. He organizes their stories into a time/space format that breaks the battle events down into easily understood parts, each critically analyzed within those constraints and for verifiability of truthfulness, logic, and reliability. He is no less afraid to challenge certain Indian accounts than he is to scold fellow historians' prior "mendacity" in repeating myth or misinterpretation, creating "fact" out of whole cloth, letting their ethnological bias show, or for just plain wrong-headed analysis. If you are not only interested in the where/what/when of Custer's movements, but also the actions of individual Indian participants such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Rain in the Face, Gall and more, Michno tells you. He reminds one of military historian John Keegan, in that Michno exhibits keen interest in not only "the generals" but also the "regular Joes": What they saw, where they ran, and who they spoke to form the core of the narrative. And precisely because of that, Michno reveals that many of the things you thought you knew about the battle (and the people who fought it) are wrong - an assertion which Michno and his subjects do a commendable job "proving". Be it the size of the Indian village, the number of warriors involved, Custer's motives and tactics, the so-called "last stand", or the tragic aftermath, Michno has something to say. If you've read a dozen books on the subject, Michno's is the capstone; if this is the only book you'll read on the battle, Michno saves you both time and misdirection. Hoka hey!