New Light on the Last Stand

Custer's battlefield yields clues to old mysteries

On the afternoon of June 25,1876, with guns blazing and sandy hair shining, Lieut. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, along with some 220 of the troopers under his command, was massacred near Montana's Little Bighorn River. The secrets of his last stand against more than 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors were buried with him. There were no white survivors to tell the tale, but plenty of folks back East were ready to propel Custer directly into legend as a straight-shooting hero. The years have only served to embellish the myths and mysteries.

Now 30 archaeologists, historians and...

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