125 Stanford Stories

NO. 68
Stanford Today

Revisiting a fateful battle

little big horn horses 2
Grief seems to tinge Red Horse's depiction of horses felled in the 1876 battle. Red Horse (Minneconjou Lakota Sioux, 1822-1907), Untitled from the Red Horse Pictographic Account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881. Graphite, colored pencil, and ink. NAA MS 2367A_08569900.
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Little Bighorn Exhibit
In conjunction with the Cantor Arts Center's exhibition of Red Horse's Little Bighorn drawings, Sarah Sadlier '16 co-taught a course on Native American perspectives on the battle.

Stanford students view Little Bighorn through Sioux art

I came to understand not only how this historical turning point in the Sioux Wars shaped the identity of the American West but also how the battle changed my own identity.

–Sarah Sadlier ’16, co-instructor, The Art and Artifacts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

When Stanford undergraduates study U.S. history, reading books is often just the start. They may also visit the sites, role-play the characters, study the art that participants made and, in one memorable instance in 2015-16, help to put that art and its context on display for the public to see.

For several years, Political Science Prof. Scott Sagan has taken groups of Stanford sophomores to the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. There, Sioux fighters routed Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th U.S. Cavalry in 1876.

In January 2016, Sagan and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford partnered to bring one Sioux combatant’s distinguished art of that battle to its first major exhibition since the battle’s centennial in 1976. They inspired a host of complementary resources including a student-led class whose co-instructor, Sarah Sadlier ’16, had had an ancestor at the fateful event.

Red Horse: Drawings of the Battle of the Little Bighorn exhibited 12 drawings from the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives by Red Horse, a Minneconjou Lakota Sioux who fought against Custer in 1876.

The works are ledger drawings, a genre developed by Native American artists who had often taken part in some of the West’s most storied battles. Their drawings are rare indigenous documents of 19th-century American history. They also give shape to the horrors of war.

Seeing these drawings by Red Horse helps us understand the face of battle … in ways mere words can’t truly express.

–Political Science Prof. Scott Sagan

Sadlier had taken Sagan’s class as a sophomore in 2013, and it helped guide the direction of her studies at Stanford. Sadlier is Minneconjou, and her ancestor John “Big Leggins” Bruguier was an interpreter for Sitting Bull and present in the Little Bighorn camp the day the fighting began.

In conjunction with the Cantor Arts Center’s exhibition of Red Horse’s Little Bighorn drawings, Sarah Sadlier ’16 co-taught a course on Native American perspectives on the battle.

For the exhibition, Sadlier traveled to the Smithsonian to do research on Red Horse. With Isabella Shey Robbins ’17, she also co-taught Native American Studies 76SI: The Art and Artifacts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in fall 2015. The course culminated in a student-curated art exhibition that explored contemporary indigenous perspectives on the battle.

Sadlier called the entire experience “a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

It exemplifies Stanford’s diversity, its resources and its deep commitment to collaboration and experiental learning.

“Interdisciplinary learning takes into account all the perspectives that are so necessary when you create an exhibit about someone’s voice,” Sadlier said.

“Because if we can’t hear all voices, then we can’t hear one voice.”

Read Sadlier’s prizewinning essay on how her Sophomore College trip to the Little Bighorn shaped her life.

In this video, see Red Horse’s drawings and hear Sagan, Sadlier and others respond to them.