That is the kind of preservation that oral tradition can accomplish when it is sustained and valued — not the impersonal record-keeping of official documentation, but the preservation of specific human lives within the memories of the people who loved them.

THE BATTLE’S FINAL ACCOUNTING

When the fighting was over on June 26, 1876, and the Lakota and Cheyenne began to strike their camp and move away from the battlefield, the immediate military reality was stark.

The 7th Cavalry had suffered one of the worst defeats in the history of the United States Army.

Custer was dead, along with roughly 268 soldiers and attached personnel — the exact number remains debated by historians, with different counts reflecting different decisions about who to include.

All of Custer’s immediate command in the five companies that made the final attack had been killed.