Over the longer run Custer’s defeat, like the Alamo, became an iconic American battle. On the surface, this seems quite odd. Why celebrate defeat, particularly catastrophic defeat, at the hands of what by any measure was a weaker foe? The answer was that such defeats provided justification for conquest. An invasion of Lakota lands became the noble defense of outnumbered white men against savage warriors. Americans, by this logic, did not invade Indian lands; they simply defended themselves against ruthless enemies. Their ultimate victory was not the work of invasion, conquest, and empire. It
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