Custer's Scout Curly

 

Curly a young Crow scout born around 1856, served with Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry during the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. He was one of six Crow scouts attached to Custer's command, but he did not participate in the fighting; instead, he was dismissed before the final engagement, observed parts of the battle from a distance, and became the first to report the defeat to U.S. forces aboard the steamboat Far West. Over the decades until his death in 1923, Curly provided multiple accounts of the events, often through interpreters, which varied in detail and sometimes conflicted—likely due to memory, media sensationalism, and cultural differences.

 Curly's earliest known account was given shortly after the battle. Curly, hidden in a ravine with limited visibility, estimated the fight began around 2:30–3:00 p.m. and lasted until nearly sunset. He vividly portrayed the intense, continuous firing as "the snapping of the threads in the tearing of a blanket." The troops repelled several charges until ammunition ran low, leading to a final Indian assault where soldiers were killed at close range, many with arrows.

Curly claimed Custer animated his men until mortally wounded about an hour before the end. Curly escaped by wrapping his blanket like a Sioux warrior and passing through their lines during the chaos, possibly mistaken for an ally.

Near the end of his life in 1923, Curly provided what was described as his "last story".  After Reno split off; Custer and his men rode to a hill, then down a ravine, and briefly surveyed the valley from a high point, seeing Reno's men advancing amid rising dust. Custer proceeded down Medicine Tail Creek, halted, and sent the gray horse troop ahead while turning north.

Curly’s accounts are valuable for their Native perspective but show inconsistencies. Claims like hiding in a gutted horse or high Sioux casualties likely stem from media embellishments. Despite this, his descriptions of Custer’s movements, the village’s size, and the warriors’ tactics align with archaeological evidence and other accounts, making his early reports particularly useful when cross-referenced.

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