(light music) - [Narrator] We're
standing in a storage room in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Mia, looking at a painting
that was made in 1900 of the Battle of Greasy Grass, one of the most famous
battles in American history, commonly known as Custer's Last Stand. This took place at Little
Bighorn, which is a river. Custer had come out of the Civil War, and many of the officers he served with had also served in the Civil War, but they turned their attention against the Native Americans. - [Narrator] It is incredibly
important that we have this document by One Bull that depicts this event in a way that
is not normally presented in our textbooks in a way
that is Lakota centric, this other side of history. - [Narrator] The Black Hills,
which had been controlled by the Lakota, were an
area where gold was found, and the United States
decided they needed to take the land away from the Indians. - [Narrator] One Bull depicts this through a figurative painting, part of Lakota and plains art. - [Narrator] So this is
prat of an ancient tradition of drawing, documenting past events. My eye first goes to the
section of the Muslim where we see five circles
with a series of teepees that radiate from that center. - [Narrator] One Bull is
setting up the depiction of the camps of the major groups. The encampment to the left
is of the Cheyenne Indians who were, at that time, great
allies with the Lakota people. And then there's four other
campsites of Lakota people, including the Oglala, Chief
Crazy Horse's encampment with Red Cloud, Chief
Spotted Eagle's encampment, The Minikowoju of Chief One Horn and Chief Makes Room's encampment, and then lastly, the very
important Hunkpapa-Tipi, and that is the band
of Chief Sitting Bull. Chief Sitting Bull did not fight at the Battle of Little Big Horn, but when individuals wanted counsel, they came to Sitting Bull. - [Narrator] And the artist
of this work was his nephew. - [Narrator] Sitting
Bull adopted One Bull, and with that comes a
great sense of honor, and he depicts himself
holding Sitting Bull's shield. These shields have
incredible spiritual power, and in this rendering,
you can see One Bull at several different moments of time, the first when he is approaching Reno, the second is when he saves Good Bear, one of the fellow warriors
who is just dripping in blood, as well as his horse injured with blood gushing from his right leg. - [Narrator] And then
there's Native Americans moving forward, U.S. soldiers retreating, and you can tell that they're retreating because they're facing backwards, and within this group,
you see One Bull again still holding the shelf of Sitting Bull with his club hitting
one of the U.S. soldiers whose pistol is firing
at the very same moment. This may be across the
river as Reno's troops are trying to retreat up a steep hill. - [Narrator] And one could say that he's actually counting coup. Counting coup for Lakota
people is striking an enemy. You don't necessarily have
to even kill that enemy, but if you're the first to
strike that enemy, you have won. One Bull depicts the many,
many faceless military men who had died, and the American flag and coup sticks representing
all of the achievements of the Lakota and Cheyenne
people in this particular event. - [Narrator] Every single representation of Native American warriors is an individualized representation so that these people can be identified. Their individual achievements
can be identified. - [Narrator] One Bull is trained to only depict that which
he has been witness to. When these types of works
of art are being made, it would be discussed during counsel and there would be individuals
that would have to agree to the depiction of
what actually happened. - [Narrator] On the extreme right, we can see one of the initial events. The U.S. army came across
and Indian boy named Deeds with his horse, and they killed him. The first serious engagement took place under the command of a man named Reno. Reno had been sent by
Custer with a detachment to engage the encampment
while he circled around and tried to cut off the
possibility of escape. In the lower left corner,
we see figures depicted in a very different way. There's no color, it's
just black and white, and we see silhouettes of figures, both in profile and full face. - [Narrator] One Bull is
depicting the encampment of women, children, elders,
injured who were at the battle. - [Narrator] And they were
important because Custer was trying to get at them to
use them as human shields. On the extreme upper left, we see a circle of U.S. soldiers that
are clearly under attack. The U.S. flag has been turned upside down, a signal of distress. - [Narrator] It's clear that
these aren't Custer's troops because everybody died, and Custer fell. - [Narrator] In 1876, the year
of the American centennial, 100 years after the
signing of the Declaration of Independence, a year of
great national celebration, the U.S. had one of its
great military defeats at the hands of the Lakota,
as well as the Cheyenne. Custer was heroized despite the fact that he was the aggressor. This battle was seen as a heroic sacrifice in the larger picture of manifest destiny, of the United States making claim to the entire continental United States. - [Narrator] The idea of
such a celebrated figure, General Custer, being decimated by Lakota and Cheyenne people, made it
so that they could never have a victory like this again. - [Narrator] And that's
because the U.S. government then poured all of its resources
into claiming this land. - [Narrator] The Battle
of Little Bighorn is one of the greatest successes of
Lakota and Cheyenne people. (light music)
