The genocidal intent of the soldiers and their arrogance is hard to imagine. They paid dearly for it as the scattered tombstones tell so vividly. It must have been a horrible surprise.
You can make a strong case that up until the very end that, a few infamous massacres notwithstanding, more Indians were killed by other Indians than were ever killed by White people, and diseases wiped out many times morethan the best efforts of both combined.
The Crows willingly led the cavalry down on the Sioux and Cheyenne on the LBH because those two tribes represented a much greater immediate threat to their women and children than the White folks.
Also if those Sioux,Cheyenne et al had remained on the then Great Sioux Reservation, encompassing most of the Dakotas, they wouldn’t have been attacked by the US. I
Also typically underreported is the enormous desth rolls inflicted upon mostly unsuspecting White men, women and children by Indians in times of war.
1760’s French and Indian War/Pontiac’s Rebellion: ~1,500 settlers killed by Indians, most in Pennsylvania.
1770’s-1790’s American Revolution: ~7,500 settlers killed by Indians along the whole frontier.
1830’s-1870’s Texas: ~1,000 settlers killed by Indians.
Most immediate to the LBH, 1963, Santee Sioux uprising: Estimates run as high as 800 settlers killed in Minnesota in just three weeks.
Like wolves today, sympathy for Indians decreased the closer you actually lived to them.
...and by the 1870’s, the US Army was often the Indian’s best friend, Custer notwithstanding.
