Day Sixty-Three

6/3

The Book: Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

ISBN: 0-8050-6669-1

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: 9:15-P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 237-292 (55)

The Lead In: Squeezed my reading into the end of a long day, makes for a lack of focus and this book is dense already...

The 411 on the 55: While everyone remembers Custer for his last stand, his pursuit of Indians began much earlier. He was a hardened fighter before his fateful clash. And he was known to play some pretty dirty pool.

In a clash with the Kiowa, Walking Bird walked up to him and jokingly said “Heap big nice sonabitch.” One, freaking hilariously awesome. Two, massive amount of guts. Three, Custer didn’t laugh.

Instead he ordered the Kiowas to ride into the fort with him to hash out a treaty. They agreed. When they arrived, Custer captured the chiefs to put them on trial for various offenses. In doing so, he sparked a war that spanned two states and killed hundreds of innocent people.

Line of the Day: (still awesome) “Heap big nice sonabitch” pg 244

The Fact on the Fiction: George Custer, the son of a blacksmith, was born in New Rumley, Ohio, on 5th December, 1839. The family was poor and when he was ten Custer was forced to live with his aunt in Monroe. While at school he met his future wife, Elizabeth Bacon, the daughter of a judge. Custer did odd jobs for her family, but was never allowed into the house. He  wanted to become a lawyer but his family could not afford the training so he decided to become a soldier instead. He attended the Military Academy at West Point but he was a poor student and when he finally graduated in 1861 he was placed 34th out of a class of 34. Spartacus