How Did Custer Die?
Custer was not killed by arrows. According to Lieutenant Godfrey, “He had been shot in the left temple and left breast. “There were no powder marks or signs of mutilation.” This emphasis on the lack of powder burns and mutilation was meant to dispel rumors that Custer had committed suicide and had been horribly mangled by the Indians. We’ll never know for sure, but it must be kept in mind that the Indians did not know whom they were fighting, and that any mutilation would have been a random thing. Most of the dead troopers, some 212, found with Custer, were mutilated, however, for Plains Indians believed that an enemy arrived in the spirit world in the same physical condition he left this one, and so the dismembering of the freshly killed implied a special vindictiveness. Aside from scalping and the shooting of bullets and arrows into the bodies by the warriors themselves, most ritual mutilation was done by women who had lost family relatives in recent combat. Mention of suicide among
