The True Death of General Custer: Smothered by a 300-Pound Woman?

General George Armstrong Custer may have been born in New Rumley, Ohio, but he spent a good number of his young years in Monroe, Michigan, and Monroe has become known as Custer’s hometown. Before he began getting bad press, years after his death, he was loved and revered in Monroe and Detroit.

Custer had many friends in the surrounding Detroit area, both military and civilians. He organized a veterans’ association in Detroit and frequently visited wounded soldiers in the hospitals. When he was killed at Little Big Horn, an article in the Detroit Free Press stated “Custer is dead. How like a death knell the words fall upon our hearts. Custer the brave soldier, the chivalrous gentleman, the kind and sympathizing friend, is no more.”

Since that time, public opinion of Custer has been split; some see him as a heartless Indian killer and ruthless general, while others call him ‘hero’. Whatever your opinion of Custer may be, one thing is certain: he died in 1876.

Get our free mobile app

But not how history has been telling it all these years.

One of the tales that has been told about Custer’s death says he was smothered to death by a 300-pound woman. This sets the mind swirling...just now did that happen? Was he having an affair with this woman and she ended up passing out on top of him, smothering him to death? What the heck? If so, who was the commander that died at Little Big Horn?

That is partially true...but only the part about him being killed by a woman; whoever added the “smothering” and "300-pound" parts must have been either joking or high. Thanks to a 100-year vow of silence by the Cheyenne people, the truth has been withheld.

A number of years ago at the High Plains Book Festival the emcee told the audience, “The chiefs said to keep a vow of silence for 100 summers. One-hundred summers have not passed and we’re breaking our silence. This is going to be a first for the Cheyenne people and a breakthrough for Western history.” This is just a part of the story he told...

In a separate battle, Buffalo Calf Road Woman rode her horse into a battlefield to save her brother. In a very rare ceremony, she was honored by her tribe and named a ‘warrior chief’. In another battle between the cavalry and the Cheyenne, her father had been killed by Custer’s men. Buffalo Calf Road Woman wanted revenge. She was granted permission by the tribe to seek retribution.

During the infamous Battle at Little Big Horn – Custer's Last Stand - Buffalo Calf Road Woman rode into the battlefield, came up behind Custer, and smacked him in the head with a hatchet-type club. Custer had already been shot twice, and with that clubbing, he fell to the ground.

Some of the tribe elders stated that after Custer fell, another warrior woman stabbed him with a saber, and other women stuck sewing utensils in his ears.

Re-writing the Little Big Horn battle has been started but could take a long time. As to whether or not Buffalo Calf Road Woman weighed 300 pounds, it’s not likely. Historic photos of her prove just the opposite.