Previous
Thomas King
General George Armstrong Custer led U.S. troops into the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne for control of the Black Hills. The U.S. government had already promised the Black Hills to the Lakota with the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. However, after Custer led an army expedition into the Hills in 1874 and found gold there, non-Natives began to arrive in droves to mine, and the U.S. government did little to stop them. The U.S. lost to the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, and Custer died in battle. Over time, history has “framed [Custer’s death] as a romantic tragedy,” and his fateful final battle is known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” In The Inconvenient Indian, King reframes this narrative, arguing that Custer’s death was a consequence of his hubris, tactical miscalculations, and the ultimately flawed decision to take on the Lakota, who were much stronger than the U.S. Army.
General George Armstrong Custer Quotes in The Inconvenient Indian
The The Inconvenient Indian quotes below are all either spoken by General George Armstrong Custer or refer to General George Armstrong Custer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1. Forget Columbus
Quotes
Almost immediately after word reached the world that Custer had got his ass kicked in Montana, America’s artistic class went to work. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Frederick Whittaker, and the like lifted Custer out of the Montana dirt, hoisted him high on their metered shoulders, and rhymed him around the country in free verse and heroic couplets. At the same time, artists began recreating and reimagining the story with paint and canvas.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Inconvenient Indian LitChart as a printable PDF.
General George Armstrong Custer Quotes in The Inconvenient Indian
The The Inconvenient Indian quotes below are all either spoken by General George Armstrong Custer or refer to General George Armstrong Custer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1. Forget Columbus
Quotes
Almost immediately after word reached the world that Custer had got his ass kicked in Montana, America’s artistic class went to work. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Frederick Whittaker, and the like lifted Custer out of the Montana dirt, hoisted him high on their metered shoulders, and rhymed him around the country in free verse and heroic couplets. At the same time, artists began recreating and reimagining the story with paint and canvas.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
