A gripping account of the legendary battle, told from the Lakota perspective

The 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn has become known as the quintessential clash of cultures between the Lakota and white settlers. The men who led the battleCrazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Colonel George A. Custerhave become legends.

Here award-winning Lakota historian Joseph Marshall reveals the nuanced complexities that led up to and followed the battle. Until now, this account has been available only within the Lakota oral tradition. The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn is required reading for anyone enthralled by the tale of the tragic fight that changed the scope of both America and the American landscape.

"America's westward expansion in the 19th century was far from a foregone conclusion to the thousands of indigenous peoples, whose ancient way of life lay in its path. Historian Marshall (The Journey of Crazy Horse; The Lakota Way), who was born on South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux Reservation and has long chronicled the traditions and perspective of the Great Plains tribes, explains the context and the painful aftermath of this major turning point in his people's history. His careful description of the Greasy Grass Fight of 1876 (or the Battle of the Little Bighorn) overturns the popular misconception that the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors' victory over the U.S. Seventh Cavalry was a 'fluke' or, worse still, 'a massacre.' Yet he also registers the enormity of the change that followed — including forced settlement, assimilation and dependency — when Crazy Horse surrendered his rifle to a U.S. Army officer less than a year later. Chapters alternately emphasizing strategy, weaponry, beliefs, lifestyle and other areas lend a fractured quality and some redundancy to the narrative. But Marshall's thoughtful reflections and rich detail (much of it drawn from the oral stories of unidentified Lakota elders) also immerse the reader in the experience of a once free people wrestling with an uncertain destiny." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

From the author of "The Journey of Crazy Horse" and "The Lakota Way" comes a gripping account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn as told from the Lakota perspective.