Crazy Horse and Custer: The Series
THE OVERLOOK
By Tom Clavin
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Any of my readers (or friends of readers) looking to partner in an exciting and overdue screen project? An article published in the June 25 edition of Time Magazine titled “Why We’ve Gotten Custer’s Last Stand Wrong for Nearly 150 Years” (written by Olivia B. Waxman) suggests that the Native American perspective is finally getting more traction. As an example, it includes this passage: “When we think of Custer’s Last Stand or the Battle of Little Bighorn, we should think of it as a successful defense by Native people against an attempted act of genocide,” says Lindsay Stallones Marshall, assistant professor of history at Illinois State University.
More attention to this perspective and George Armstrong Custer is the reason why I hope the six-episode series I am co-producing will gain some traction too. It is titled Crazy Horse and Custer: Vengeance On the Plains, and it relies heavily on the indigenous point of view. I’d love to see it air in time for the 150th anniversary of the Little Bighorn battle, which is only three years away. An extensive, detailed, and dramatic treatment of the limited series is being shopped to production companies right now and I’m hoping it finds the right screen partner.
It offers both a factual and entertaining portrayal of Custer, which certainly qualifies as the overdue part. He was not a madman or a buffoon as he has too often been presented, such as played by Richard Mulligan in the film Little Big Man. Another reason is that westerns – or, at least, programs set in the American West – appear to be making a comeback on cable and streaming channels. A lot of this is thanks to Taylor Sheridan with “Yellowstone” and the several series it has spawned, but we’re seeing other projects finding outlets too. A third reason is the project’s emphasis on the great Sioux warrior and mystic Crazy Horse. And lately there has been an eruption of programs featuring Native Americans, including the excellent “Dark Winds,” “The English,” and “Reservation Dogs.”
For your consideration and for the anniversary, here is an excerpt from the opening “pitch” of the 70-page Crazy Horse and Custer treatment:
They kept coming at Custer – Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho – too many to count. Atop the hill on that bloody and boiling hot June afternoon, George Armstrong Custer and his brothers, Tom and Boston, and only a handful of others from the 7thCavalry were left. The air was saturated with the sounds of screaming, rifle cracks and the bee-like buzzing of hundreds of bullets and arrows. As more bluecoats fell, as did his two flanking brothers, Lt. Colonel Custer, though still furiously firing his pistols, finally accepted there was no escape. Then, as though having read his thoughts, Crazy Horse, covered in painted hail stones, turned his pinto stallion back toward the top of the hill and made his final charge at “Long Hair,” the last man standing.
Surprisingly, in a culture that has often preferred legend over truth, some of what we know about Custer’s Last Stand is indeed true. But much isn’t. The famed Budweiser prints, which once hung in many a saloon across America, glorified Custer’s Last Stand into a Wild West apocalypse with Custer meeting his end much like matinee idol Errol Flynn did in They Died With Their Boots On -- the way Americans like it best: against impossible odds. And that movie is 82 years old.
Then there is the rest of the story . . . the true story.
Crazy Horse and Custer are mythical figures of the American West, and their ultimate bloody showdown was the most famous post-Civil War battle ever fought on American soil. One died in a last stand on a hill overlooking the Little Bighorn River on June 25, 1876; the other was murdered a year later by vengeful Army officers. Both were the bravest and most charismatic icons of their era. At one time, every school kid knew what happened that fateful summer day and why – from the white man’s perspective. Today, much of that story has faded into the mist of sketchy history.
There are now at least two generations – a big swath of America and, for that matter, the world – who don’t really know this story at all. They’ve heard the names -- possibly even heard about the battle -- but little else. That worldwide audience will be riveted by the actual tales of Custer, Crazy Horse, and the epic fight that is one of America’s most dramatic passion plays. The Little Bighorn battle has never been accurately portrayed because what really happened that sun-scorched day in Montana, as the nation began to celebrate its Centennial, is far more breathtaking than anyone has yet imagined. It’s time for a vivid retelling, featuring the never-before-shown bios of two fascinating frontier figures and how they fatefully clashed.
George Armstrong Custer was America’s first rock star. His picture was everywhere. Known as “Long Hair” because of his flowing locks, he emerged from the Civil War with the golden image of a fearless and dashing leader. As he prowled the Plains at the head of the 7th Cavalry, he was accompanied by the nation’s first paparazzi – a wagonload of embedded reporters and photographers. The breathless dispatches and images sent east were inhaled by an American public eager to know more about Custer’s fantastic exploits. He and his beautiful wife, Libby, were destined to become the Bill and Hillary of their time – after, that is, Custer returned from a successful 1876 Indian campaign. In fact, that coming November he hoped to succeed another war hero, Ulysses S. Grant, in the White House. Yet all that changed one hot June afternoon when Custer -- the “Boy General” -- unexpectedly morphed from hero to myth by colliding head-on with an Indian force led by Sitting Bull, Gal, and a fearsome warrior conjured up in Custer’s worst nightmares: Crazy Horse. All that was required for Custer’s meteoric rise to immortality was his untimely death. According to those who found him, he died with a smile on his face.
Crazy Horse – in the Lakota language, Tashunkewitko – was the most dynamic and revered Indian warrior ever. In popular culture we know the names of Cochise, Sitting Bull, Quanah Parker, Geronimo, Chief Joseph, and Red Cloud, the great Lakota Sioux leader. Yet for well over a century, we knew next to nothing about Crazy Horse. Like Custer, he too was long haired, physically impressive, and utterly fearless. The Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho, normally enemies, were all drawn to him. A fiery yet mystical man, Crazy Horse’s visions revealed the future – including the belief he could never be hurt by arrows or even bullets. Unlike Custer, he never allowed his picture to be taken – even once. And Crazy Horse never put his mark on any treaty, nor ever slept in any man-made bed. He was willing to die for his beloved Black Hills and all its creatures – lands and buffalo no white man should rightfully take away.
If Sitting Bull was the conscience of the Indian uprising, Crazy Horse was its lightning bolt – a stirring symbol he himself slashed on his own face before a battle. It’s astonishing how little anyone knows about this larger-than-life Indian warrior who not once, but twice, annihilated an entire American military force. (The first time was the Fetterman Fight in December 1866.) After June 25, 1876, the Indian Wars were no more. Native Americans were soon sadly reduced to wooden cigar store Indians or to feathered dancers selling rubber tomahawks at chamber of commerce functions. Even Sitting Bull did a stint in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show – all turned into living ghosts in their own land. In death, only Crazy Horse stayed defiantly true.
This epic story we want to tell in six gripping and authentic episodes. And who are “we”? Peter Israelson is a screenwriter and Emmy-nominated Disney, commercial, and video TV director passionate about American history. I am the co-author of the New York Times best sellers The Heart of Everything That Is and Blood and Treasure (both with Bob Drury), Dodge City, and Follow Me to Hell. In those six action-packed episodes, Crazy Horse and Custer: Vengeance On the Plains is going to tell the story of both fascinating young warriors and the battle whose bloody landscape helped to make America what it is today.
Interested to read the rest? Respond to this column or email me at beachreading@gmail.com. Two of the most dynamic characters in American history are ready for their close-up.
Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 18 books, including his latest, Follow Me to Hell. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.