The Battle of Greasy Grass was a key turning point in the “battle for the west” and native resistance as a whole. There are two fairly clear reasons for this, one having affected native resistance in a positive way and the other in a negative way. The negative one, for lack of a better way of putting it, is that the victory at the Little Bighorn brought more attention to Native Americans. This attention eventually culminated in the redoubling of efforts to “deal” with them, so to speak. This “increased attention” was largely supplemented by the “Custer’s Last stand” campaign which, with reference to slide 12 of the Slideshow presented to the class on the 18th of September, invigorated the U.S government to adopt a policies of “increased policing presence” and “increasingly aggressive military action” to force native Americans to cede their land and move to reservations. Although native American resistance was successful at times throughout U.S history, by the late 19th century the military power that the U.S government was capable of deploying was far beyond any individual tribe or group of tribes was able to confront. In this fashion, it could be potentially said that the Battle of Greasy Grass sealed the fate of Native American resistance. On the other hand, it must be said that such a victory certainly revitalized Native American resistance. While, unfortunately, this battle was one of the last victories of the movement, it served as inspiration for many nonetheless. An example of this is during the flight of the Nez Perce. When Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce refused to move to a reservation following the seizure of his ancestral land in 1877, he fled with his warband north, seeking refuge with none other than Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa Lakota (refer to slide 8 of the slideshow presented on September 20th). Couldn’t it be said that Chief Joseph was inspired by the victory at the Little Bighorn that happened the previous year and decided he and his people may be safe with the victors? I think such a thing is not unlikely. A second example I’d like to point out concerns Kicking Bull, whose painting was featured in class. He was known to have traveled to Nevada to learn the Ghost dance religion from the Paiute in 1889 (Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center). I’d say his dedication to the possibility of reviving native american tradition through the dance very well could have been inspired by his people’s victory in 1886. In any case, the battle most certainly had a great impact on the tide of Native american resistance, which was definitely on it’s last legs throughout the North American continent, or at least in the United States.
“Kicking Bear.” Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, 28 Apr. 2022, aktalakota.stjo.org/american-indian-leaders/kicking-bear/.