Editing George Armstrong Custer (section)

==Death==
It is unlikely that any Native American recognized Custer during or after the battle. Michno summarizes: "Shave Elk said, 'We did not suspect that we were fighting Custer and did not recognize him either alive or dead.' Wooden Leg said no one could recognize any enemy during the fight, for they were too far away. The Cheyennes did not even know a man named Custer was in the fight until weeks later. Antelope said none knew of Custer being at the fight until they later learned of it at the agencies. [[Thomas Bailey Marquis|Thomas Marquis]] learned from his interviews that no Indian knew Custer was at the Little Bighorn fight until months later. Many Cheyennes were not even aware that other members of the Custer family had been in the fight until 1922 when Marquis himself first informed them of that fact."<ref>Gregory F. Michno, ''Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat''. (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press, 1997) p. 293.</ref>

Several individuals claimed responsibility for killing Custer, including [[White Bull]] of the [[Miniconjou]]s, [[Rain-in-the-Face]], Flat Lip, and Brave Bear.<ref>Dee Brown, ''Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee'', Vintage, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-09-952640-7}}, p.296-297.</ref> In June 2005, at a public meeting, Northern Cheyenne storytellers said that according to their oral tradition, [[Buffalo Calf Road Woman]], a Northern Cheyenne [[heroine]] of the [[Battle of the Rosebud]], struck the final blow against Custer, which knocked him off his horse before he died. She hit him with a club-like instrument.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/502013/retrobituaries-buffalo-calf-road-woman-custers-final-foe|title=Retrobituaries: Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Custer's Final Foe|date=June 22, 2017|website=mentalfloss.com|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_fcf44c96-cfb6-56f4-9c57-062e944350ce.html|first=Martin J. |last=Kidston|title=Northern Cheyenne break vow of silence|publisher=Helenair.com|date=June 28, 2005|access-date=October 23, 2009}}</ref>

A contrasting version of Custer's death is suggested by the testimony of an Oglala named Joseph White Cow Bull, according to novelist and Custer biographer Evan Connell. He says that Joseph White Bull stated he had shot a rider wearing a buckskin jacket and big hat at the riverside when the soldiers first approached the village from the east. The initial force facing the soldiers, according to this version, was quite small (possibly as few as four warriors) yet challenged Custer's command. The rider who was hit had shouted orders that prompted the soldiers to attack and was next to a rider who bore a flag, but when the buckskin-clad rider fell off his horse after being shot, many of the attackers reined up. The allegation that the buckskin-clad officer was Custer, if accurate, might explain the supposed rapid disintegration of Custer's forces.<ref>Connell (1984), pp. 413–414.</ref> However, several other officers of the Seventh, including [[William W. Cooke|William Cooke]], [[Thomas Custer|Tom Custer]] and William Sturgis, were also dressed in buckskin on the day of the battle, and the fact that each of the non-mutilation wounds to George Custer's body (a bullet wound below the heart and a shot to the left temple) would have been instantly fatal casts doubt on his being wounded or killed at the ford, more than a mile from where his body was found.<ref>Wert, 1996, p. 355.</ref> The circumstances are, however, consistent with [[David Humphreys Miller]]'s suggestion that Custer's subordinates would not have left his dead body behind to be desecrated.<ref>[[David Humphreys Miller]], ''Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story''. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.</ref>

During the 1920s, two elderly Cheyenne women spoke briefly with oral historians about their having recognized Custer's body on the battlefield and said that they had stopped a Sioux warrior from desecrating the body. The women were relatives of [[Mo-nah-se-tah]], who was allegedly borne two children by him. Mo-nah-se-tah was among 53 Cheyenne women and children taken captive by the 7th Cavalry after the [[Battle of Washita River]] in 1868, in which Custer commanded an attack on the camp of Chief [[Black Kettle]]. Mo-nah-se-tah's father, [[Little Rock (Cheyenne chief)|Cheyenne chief Little Rock]], was killed in the battle.<ref name="greene-169">Greene 2004, p. 169.</ref>

During the winter and early spring of 1868–1869, Custer reportedly sexually assaulted teenage Mo-nah-se-tah. Cheyenne oral history alleges that she later bore Custer's child in late 1869.<ref name="greene-169" /><ref name="utley-107" /> (Custer, however, had apparently become sterile after contracting venereal disease at West Point, leading some historians to believe that the father was really his brother [[Thomas Custer|Thomas]]).<ref name="utley-107" /> In the Cheyenne culture of the time, such a relationship was considered a marriage. The women allegedly told the warrior: "Stop, he is a relative of ours," and then shooed him away. The two women said they shoved their [[Stitching awl|sewing awls]] into his ears to permit Custer's corpse to "hear better in the afterlife" because he had broken his promise to [[Stone Forehead]] never to fight against Native Americans again.<ref>{{cite news|magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]| date=November 2010|title=How Little Bighorn was won|author=Powers, Thomas }}</ref>

When the main column under General Terry arrived two days later, the army found most of the soldiers' corpses stripped, scalped, and mutilated.<ref>Marshall 2007, p. 11</ref><ref>Welch 2007, pp. 175–181.</ref> Custer's body had two bullet holes, one in the left temple and one just below the heart.<ref>Welch 2007, p. 175.</ref> Capt. Benteen, who inspected the body, stated that in his opinion the fatal injuries had not been the result of .45 caliber ammunition, which implies the bullet holes had been caused by ranged rifle fire.<ref>Connell (1984), P. 410.</ref> Some time later, Lieutenant Edward S. Godfrey described Custer's mutilation, telling Charles F. Bates, that an arrow "had been forced up his penis."<ref>Richard Hardoff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments''. (El Segundo, CA: Upton and Sons, 1989, {{ISBN|0912783141}}), p. 21.</ref>

The bodies of Custer and his brother Tom were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried in a shallow grave, covered by the basket from a [[travois]] held in place by rocks. When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered. "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up."<ref>Richard Hardoff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments''. (El Segundo, CA: Upton and Sons, 1989, {{ISBN|0912783141}}), pp. 25, 45.</ref> Custer was reinterred with full [[Military funerals in the United States|military honors]] at [[West Point Cemetery]] on October 10, 1877. The battle site was designated a [[U.S. National Cemetery|National Cemetery]] in 1886.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mrail.net/data/cemete/mont/bighorn/custer/index.htm|title=Custer National Cemetery – Big Horn County – Montana|website=mrail.net|access-date=February 18, 2020|archive-date=April 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425020138/http://www.mrail.net/data/cemete/mont/bighorn/custer/index.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>