12. Creating the Custer myth
The Sioux War didn’t end with a dramatic victory over the combined tribes, instead, it gradually fizzled out as the hostile bands gradually went to the Indian Agencies in surrender. Settlers poured into the Black Hills, as they had before the war, which was in fact one of its chief causes. Sitting Bull and his followers remained for a time in Canada, ignoring the pleas of the US Army to return to the reservation. Not until 1881, following problems with other native tribes in Canada and the Canadian authorities would the remaining Sioux return to the United States, where they were transferred to the Standing Rock Reservation.
The only notable battle in the public mind regarding the Great Sioux War remained that of the Little Big Horn, and the fact that it was a military defeat for the United States did not sit well. Major Reno and Frederick Benteen went to great lengths to blame the defeat on Custer, with Benteen, who had willfully disobeyed Custer’s orders to support him, being especially vile in his accounts of the campaign. Ulysses Grant, no longer burdened with the office of the Presidency, was critical of Custer, as were Generals Terry and Sherman. Custer’s longtime friend and comrade Philip Sheridan was discreetly silent rather than vocal in support of Custer. The atmosphere was ripe for the creation of a legend.