A Native American Timeline-- Part 6: George Armstrong Custer and the Little Bighorn

**  NOVEMBER 27, 1868:  Lt.Col. George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle destroying the village and killing more than 100 people, including Black Kettle.

**  1873:  Crazy Horse encounters George Custer for the first time.

**  1874:  Gold is discovered in South Dakota's Black Hills.  U.S. troops ignore a treaty and invade the territory which has been set aside for the Indians.

**  JUNE 25, 1876:  In the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, troops under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer fight Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, along the Little Bighorn River.

Custer and his soldiers are killed, increasing tensions between the Indians and white Americans.

**  OCTOBER 6, 1879:  The first students attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.   This is the country's first off-reservation school, created by Civil War veteran Richard Henry Pratt.  It is designed to assimilate Indian students into American society.

--Cooter

The Belangiga Bells-- Part 1: Taken As War Trophies

Last month I wrote about the Belangiga Massacre which took place during the Philippines Insurrection in 1901.  That was in relation to Fort Russell in Wyoming where two of the bells ended up as war trophies.  That traced back to Francis E. Warren, a powerful senator from that state and a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient.  This was all part of one of my Road Tripping Through History.

From Wikipedia.

The Belangiga Bells are three bells that were taken by the U.S. Army  from the Church of San Lorenzo  de Martir in Belangiga, Eastern Samar, Philippines, as war trophies following the Belangiga Massacre in 1901.  One ended up at base camp of the 9th Infantry in South Korea and two others at the former base of the 11th Infantry at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

People representing the Catholic Church in the Philippines, the Philippines government and the residents of Belangiga have tried since the 1950s to get these bells returned and they were returned on December 11, 2018, after 117 years.

A Story With a Happy Ending.  --Cooter

The Belangiga Massacre-- Part 3: Massacre and U.S. Retaliation "I Want No Prisoners"

Continued from  April 12.

On the morning of September  28, 1901, the villagers made their move.  Filipino prisoners on communal duty overpowered their American guards.  They then attacked other Americans having  breakfast.  Of the 74 men of Company C, 36 were killed including all its commissioned officers.  Twenty-two were wounded and four MIA.

Eight later died of wounds and only four escaped unscathed.  The villagers lost  28 dead and 22 wounded.

American retaliation was swift.  Company G of the 9th U.S. Infantry sailed to the Belangiga, found it abandoned, burned the American dead and then burned the town.

American reaction to the news was horrified, comparing it to Custer's massacre at the Little Bighorn in 1876.  Major General  Adna R. Chaffee, military governor of the Philippines, received a message from  President Theodore Roosevelt to pacify Samar.

General Jacob G. Smith instructed Major Littleton Waller, USMC, :: "I want no prisoners.  I wish you to kill and burn, and the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me....  The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness."

As a result of this order, General Smith became known as "Howling Wilderness Smith."

--Cooter

The Belangiga Massacre-- Part 2: Friendly Then Not-So Friendly

The attack and subsequent retaliation remains one of the longest-running and most controversial issues between the governments of the Philippines and the United States.  Conflicting accounts only further the situation.  Some Filipino historians hold that the true "Massacre" occurred took place when American troops burned whole towns during the March Across the Samar.

In the summer of 1901, Brigadier General Robert P. Hughes started an aggressive policy of food deprivation and property destruction to force the end of Filipino resistance.  Samar was a major center of the hemp trade which was financing resistance forces.  Plus, American interests wanted to get control of the lucrative business.

On August 11, 1901, Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry arrived at Belangiga, the third largest town on the island.  At first, relations between the Americans and villagers were friendly.  The situation deteriorated and the villagers and their leaders decided to attack the Americans.  There is a whole lot more in the Wikipedia article.

--Cooter

June 25, 1876 A Real Bad Day for the Custer Family

On June 25, 1876, five members of the Custer family were killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, including three brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law.  Of course, the real famous one was George Armstrong Custer.

I have been doing a lot of research on the family of George Armstrong Custer in my Not So Forgotten War of 1812 blog.  He had a strong connection with veterans of the War of 1812.  Plus, he was from Monroe, Michigan, the site of the infamous River Raisin Massacre during that war.

Plus, two of the Custer family are buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Go to the site by clicking on My Blogs to the right of this to find out what happened June 25, 1876.

Plus, you can find out where George and his brother Tom are buried.

--DaCoot

25th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

From the June 5, 2014, Chicago Tribune "Tainanmen anniversary: 2 different scenes" by Barbara Demick and Julie Makinen.

At the scene of the student takeover and massacre on June 5, 1989, it was very quiet on the 25th anniversary.  Two large video screens flashed Communist Party slogans and there were plenty troops and police in the area.

Very few foreign tourists were there as well.  State-run media did not mention it and even the number "25" was blocked on social networking sites.

The scene was far different in Hong Kong where more than 180,000 people converged on Victoria Park for a candlelight vigil.  A wreath was laid beside  a replica of the Monument to the People's Heroes at Tiananmen Square and the "Goddess of Democracy Statue" that was seen so often during the stand-off.

It took me a long time to figure out how to spell Tananmen as we followed it in my classes at Magee middle School in Round Lake, Illinois.

Besides the opening of the Berlin Wall, I consider this a major victory for freedom and democracy over Communist dictatorships.