Podbit · Empire: World History

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore

Explore episode Jul 1, 2026

History

Custer's Last Stand: The Pyrrhic Victory at Little Bighorn

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore · Jul 1, 2026 History

At Little Bighorn in June 1876, Custer attacked a massive Lakota and Cheyenne encampment without reinforcements and was nearly completely wiped out — a decisive Lakota military victory. But it was a Pyrrhic win: the news enraged a centennial-celebrating America, painted Custer as a martyr, and ended any US interest in diplomacy with the Lakota, accelerating the seizure of the Black Hills.

Where this was said

Gold Rush, Illegal Settlements, and the Ultimatum

At 14:20 · chapter starts 12:40

Word of gold set off a massive rush that the US government could not stop. Thousands of miners poured into the hills, creating illegal settlements that form the backbone of western South Dakota today — Rapid City, Keystone, Custer, Deadwood. These are all gold-rush towns founded in defiance of a treaty signed just six years earlier. Faced with this unstoppable influx, the US government dropped any pretence of honouring the Fort Laramie Treaty and issued the Lakota a stark ultimatum: be on government-run reservations by the beginning of 1876 or, in Davis's words, be 'quote-unquote hunted down.' The stage was set for one of the most famous confrontations in American military history.

The US government cannot stop it. And they sort of give the Lakota now an ultimatum. They say you need to be on government-run reservations by the beginning of 1876 or you will quote-unquote be hunted down.

Matthew Davis

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore

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