George Armstrong

¶ … Worth it? The work of literature authored by Scott et al., They Died with Custer: Soldiers' Bones from the Battle of Little Bighorn is a niche piece of literature within the overall scope of U.S. history and that pertaining to Westernized relations with indigenous peoples in this country. The focus of the book is not so much on the battle in which Custer, the five companies of his Seventh Cavalry and numerous civilian bystanders were slaughtered, but rather about very specific aspects of these people.

These aspects include who they were, how old they were, where exactly on the battlefield they were when they perished, and in what sort of way they died. In this regard, the work is more a forensic study of the bones which the authors believe "have individual tales to tell" (1) of those that died than a historical accounting of this martial encounter.

Granted, the authors were able to reconstruct some of the details of this encounter, but their overall focus was on minute details that seemingly matter only to the most robust of history buffs -- or to the close family and relatives of the deceased who were murdered over a century before the investigators set about working on the manuscript. The authors did pay due diligence to historical accountings of this battle, which populates the pages of their narratives sparsely at best.

The vast majority of this work, however, is centered on hardcore forensics including facial reconstructions and attempts to dig up the bones of the deceased to analyze them. There are plenty of details regarding the various chemical, photographic, and even x-ray analysis conducted on these bones, all for the purpose of discerning with as little doubt as possible the particular instances that brought about the deaths of these individuals.

The forensic examination is not merely limited to death, however, as the authors also examine the remains of the participants in this battle for the sake of determining facets of the lives these people lived such as what sorts of maladies they had, and what might have caused them. Analysis Although this work of literature is general classified as history, there is little doubt that it is structured like a scientific text.

In addition to the conventional text of the narrative (which includes a preface,) the work encompasses references, an appendix, an index, and a glossary of anthropological jargon. In fact, the scientific nature of what largely amounts to a history text is typical of the cross-disciplinary approach the authors utilize and which functions as the general motif of this work.

In addition to elements of anthropology, forensics, and historical record, the writers also leverage various aspects of archaeology, osteology, and socio-cultural disciplines as well to best discern the facts about how those who died in the Battle of Little Bighorn both lived and succumbed to death. Because of the "multidisciplinary studies" (2) viewpoint that the authors used for their research, this work highlights numerous aspects of the methodology they utilized. The crux of their findings is based on the skeletal remains of approximately 50 participants in this particular martial encounter.

Doing so involved analyzing specimens found at museums and in the various burial grounds that existed near the site of what for the United States amounted to a massacre. Furthermore, the authors wrote in great detail about some of the process of mutilating the U.S. soldiers, as practices such as scalping the dead and pillaging them for their weapons and valuables were common among Native American tribes that triumphed in military encounters with the Americans.

From a pragmatic standpoint it was necessary to address all of these issues to convey to the reader the considerable difficulty the authors faced in attempting to obtain forensic information from a long ago battle. From an academic and scientific perspective, the evidence the authors utilized and their methodology for using it is solid. Again, their goal was to identify as much information about the participants in this battle as possible. Thus, they made numerous attempts at facial reconstructions and to discern the age of participants.

Indeed, some soldiers were identified "by their teeth" (3). To their credit, they were even able to identify a couple of the participants fighting with General Custer -- although they were not able to do so definitely, but rather in a manner in which there was a high probability that their inferences were correct. It is important to realize that these inferences were not just based on scientific evidence, but a hodgepodge of evidence that included historic accountings as well.

Nonetheless, the main problem with this narrative is that it is highly specialized and the authors largely confine themselves to.