Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Captain Thomas Weir, 7th Cavalry

The lone teepee was not burning, Custer’s scouts did that. Finding a dead Indian in a teepee that was still set up in an area that indicated a camp movement, would not indicate any previous conflict, certainly not with Crook.

Custer would not have gone far enough down the Rosebud to detect the lack of Crook or his conflict with Crazy Horse. I am sure Custer still expected Crook’s assistance, but his focus on the Indian encampment was his priority. Remember, that by this time his scouts had found that Indians had already discovered Custer’s presence when they found the Indians going through a lost pack on the trail.

These circumstances all contributed to Custer’s decision to attack the village on the 25th instead of the 26th as originally planned.

This picture is of the bluffs above the site of the lone teepee. I consider this the real beginning of the battle. It is at this site where Gerard first saw about 20 Indians that came out of a coulee mounted and heading towards the Little Bighorn River.

It is here that Custer sent Reno down Reno Creek to the Little Bighorn to strike the village from the south. It is argued as to the location of the lone teepee, and our conclusion is this is the correct location. The Park places the site at the location where the North Fork of Reno Creek meets the Middle Fork. Why, I don’t understand, because the testimonials of the participants of the battle describe the area near the white bluffs over 20 minutes or several miles from the Little Bighorn River…