Jessica Crabtree

History Channel’s 2-hour documentary, first released in 1999, airs on History International this Tuesday, March 16 (check your local listings).

The History Channel description:

The grandson of one of Custer’s Native-American scouts tells the stories handed down to him about the battle that has become a touchstone of American history.

The battle of the Little Big Horn–”Custer’s Last Stand,”–has been examined and re-examined so many times that it would seem the subject has been exhausted. But LITTLE BIG HORN: THE UNTOLD STORY proves otherwise.

The product of over twenty years of research by Dr. Herman J. Viola, Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, this study draws on some of the most impressive source material imaginable, including restored footage of the first-ever reconstruction of the battle, filmed in 1908 with many of the Native Americans who took place in the real fight. The Red Horse drawings–40 vivid color portraits made by an eyewitness–offer another privileged view of the famous battle. But perhaps most intriguing are the on-camera accounts of Dr. Medicine Crow, who as a young man knew five of the six Crow scouts in Custer’s employ, as well as Sioux and Cheyenne veterans of the fight.

Through these authoritative accounts, kept silent and unseen for decades, a remarkably cohesive, new view of the legendary battle emerges. This is a must-have DVD for anyone who wants to know what really happened at the Little Big Horn.

Also highly recommended is the Battlefield Detectives special on Little Bighorn, released in 2003. Using forensic archaeology and ballistics, researchers have been able to overturn most traditional accounts of the battle and recreate the actual course of events on the field, including new details about the condition of the soldiers on both sides.

Right: View of the Little Big Horn River from Last Stand Hill, from the National Park Service.

See also:

LITTLE BIG HORN: THIS DAY IN HISTORY