Custer the Clown
Title: On Tribal Grounds: Custer the Clown
Subject: George Armstrong Custer, Indian Wars, and Battle of Little Bighorn
Created: 2014
Medium: Graphic Design
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Dimensions: 8″x10″
Article
“Sharply criticizing the self-styled “Indian fighter”, U.S. Indigenous people’s organized movements have emphasized Custer’s role in the U.S. government’s treaty violations and other injustices against Native Americans.
Standing Rock Sioux theologian and author Vine Deloria Jr. made a comparison between Custer and Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann, referring to Custer as the “Eichmann of the Plains” in a 1996 Los Angeles Times interview. In his 1969 book Custer Died for Your Sins, Deloria condemned Custer’s violations of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty that established the Black Hills region as unceded territory of the Sioux and Arapaho peoples. Custer’s violations of the Fort Laramie Treaty included an 1874 gold expedition and the 1876 Battle of Greasy Grass (Battle of the Little Bighorn).
Critics have also highlighted Custer’s 1868 Washita River surprise attack that killed Cheyenne non-combatants including mothers, children, and elders. Custer was following Generals William Sherman and Philip Sheridan’s orders for “total war” on the Indigenous nations. Describing total war methods, Sherman wrote, “We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children…during an assault, the soldiers can not pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age.” There is credible evidence that, following the attack, Custer and his men sexually assaulted female captives. Another historian writes, “There was a saying among the soldiers of the western frontier, a saying Custer and his officers could heartily endorse: ‘Indian women rape easy.'”
– Wikipedia, George Armstrong Custer
Download the 8.5″x11″ print (.pdf), On Tribal Grounds: Custer The Clown.
Close Ups
On Tribal Grounds
On Tribal Grounds is a series of artworks by Ihanktonwan Dakota artist David Bernie that addresses issues Native American and First Nations communities face when non-Native people access Reservations and Reserves.
Creative Commons License
On Tribal Grounds: Custer the Clown © 2014 by David Bernie is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
