Philbrick's The Last Stand

Reading Before Bedtime

David and I have been reading a historical narrative written by Nathaniel Philbrick titled The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of The Little Bighorn. This of course is the true story of various Indian tribes and American soldiers who had fought for the confederacy during the last war. In fact, Custer had been a war hero and now was part of troops sent to beat the Indian tribes out of their land.

Philbrick is a historian and has now written a New York Times bestseller based on military dispatches and reports by eyewitnesses who were there during the bloody fighting by the Lakota and Cheyenne at
the battle of Little Big Horn — with Indian tribes killing each other as well as killing American soldiers, and soldiers drinking heavily and sometimes betraying one another.

Toward the end of the book, Philbrick has the following to say:

In the almost century since Little Big Horn, the Native population of the United States has been steadily increasing. The reservations continue to be plagued by a series of social issues. Unemployment,
alcoholism, drug addiction, and a high suicide rate. There are positive signs: Traditional practices such as The Sundance are making a comeback. Some tribes have begun buying back land the government
took from them in the nineteenth century … the Lakota and the Cheyenne have endured.

David and I have almost finished this book. And thus we spend our evenings. Actually this is a wonderful, exciting and true story of our land. And I recommend it for your reading … if that’s how you like to spend your quiet time as we do. And this story is a true thriller. And so I share it with you for your consideration.