Custer's Last Rally, Ambrose Park Brooklyn

Custer’s Last Rally takes its subject from one of the largest spectacles staged in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: the reenactment of the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry were defeated by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. With cowboys, cavalrymen, and Native American performers taking part, the Wild West often blurred the line between history and myth in the service of entertainment and showmanship. That line was especially complicated by the presence of performers with direct connections to the battle, including Sitting Bull, the Lakota leader who toured with Buffalo Bill for one season and rode in the grand parade that opened the show.