“…And together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

“I shall have glory by this losing day.” — William Shakespeare

“Oyate kin ninpi kta ca lecamu yelo” (“I do this so that the people may live.”) — Lakota song

“My mind was occupied mostly by such thoughts as are regularly uppermost in the minds of young men. I was eighteen years old, and I liked girls.” — Wooden Leg

To the Lakota people, the Black Hills of South Dakota were — and still are — "the heart of everything that is." To the United States, they were a goldmine, and Manifest Destiny’s next target. It was for the Black Hills that the Lakota went to war against the United States for the last time.

In this episode:

When he is not attacking camps full of women and children, Custer is a sensitive guy who cries at the theater

How Grant, Sheridan, and Co. engineered their own version of the Gulf of Tonkin incident

Frodo, the destiny of Middle Earth and Sitting Bull

Custer decides to challenge Grant over corruption

Lost in presidential dreams, Custer probably never realized he was being set up

An American army that wasn’t really American

A soldier’s scalp in an abandoned village

The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother

Cross-dressing Crow warriors

Custer: “Why are you doing all this?”

Half Yellow Face: “Because you and I are going home today—by a trail that is strange to both of us.”

This summer I will be part of a tour of the Little Bighorn and relevant sites across Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota organized by www.geeknationtours.com Check out the details of the tour at http://geeknationtours.com/tours_post/signature-battlefield-series-the-battlefield-of-little-big-horn/

This episode is sponsored by www.blueapron.com/onfire For less than $ 10 per meal, Blue Apron delivers straight to your door seasonal recipes along with pre-portioned ingredients to make delicious, home-cooked meals. Get your first three meals free—with free shipping—by going to www.blueapron.com/onfire

Please, also show some love to my regular sponsors by shopping for supplements, special foods, clothing and exercise equipment at http://www.onnit.com/history and receive a 10% discount.

And if you are in the market for backpacks, computer bags and other hemp gear, check out my favorites at http://www.dsgear.com and use the code “daniele” at checkout for a discount.

My lady (and author of History on Fire logo) has a FB public page about her art & fighting: https://www.facebook.com/NahryEm/. This is the video of her pro debut match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxM81mds1Qs&feature=youtu.be Thank you to Onnit, Datsusara, Float Clinic, Shaman’s Simple Solutions, and Fight Chix for sponsoring her for her first MMA fight. If you’d like to check out Fight Chix merchandise, you can get a 20% discount by going to http://www.fightchix.com/ and entering the code Fire20 upon checkout.

This is my public FB page: https://www.facebook.com/danielebolelli1/

Here is a link to the audiobook of my “Not Afraid”: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/not-afraid-audiobook/

For those of you who may be interested, here is a lecture series I created about Taoist philosophy: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/taoist-lectures/

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