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Custer. Established July 4, 1877. Located on the bluff above the confluence of the Big Horn and Little Big Horn rivers. Intended to control the Sioux and other Indians of the area. Established by Lieutenant Colonel George P. Buell, 11th U.S. Infantry. Originally called Big Horn Post or Big Horn Barracks, it was officially designated Fort Custer on November 8, 1877. Named for Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, 7th U.S. Cavalry, killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
(from friends of the Little Big Horn Battle)
Still living in the Yellowstone area, Absaloka tribal young men were hired as scouts for the U.S. army-they would not fight
the "ba-eshta-she-lay"( meaning not Indian, (yellow eyes black) A black frontier woman Jim Beckourth, who lived with them for many years in the 1830’s In 1876, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahos, with reservation and territory troubles of their own, swarmed into Absaloka land, and some of the finest of Absalokas' young men were contacted by the cavalry and many volunteered and six became scouts for General Custer. They rode with him and his companies but not to their death. They were released just before battle time, the only Indian to die with Custer was the part-blood Sioux interpreter, Mitch Boyer. Because the Indian tactic of fighting/ allowed some enemy to survive and return to tell the battle story, Absalokas returned, telling the story. (source: “A Worthy Work in a Needy time. (The Montana Industrial School for Indians (Bonds’s Mission for Indians, 1886-1897. Margery Pease. (a Crow)
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