"Killin Custer" Reflection

James Welch's historical novel provides a stark contrast to the traditional American view of General Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn. Welch's novel sheds another viewpoint on the trajedy that took place during the Battle of Little Bighorn. Instead of another book from the viewpoint of the whites, Welch's novel is from the viewpoint of the under-represented Native Americans. For this reason, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and found it very interesting. On top of this, it has drastically changed my opinion of the battle, and the Native Americans as a whole.

After reading this novel, my opinion of General Custer, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and the Native Americans has drastically changed. Before reading the novel, and taking this class, I had always thought of General Custer as a hero, and that the Battle of Little Bighorn was just another blunt example of the Native American's savagery, or at least the savagery that the American society portrays the Indians as having. Having now read this novel, I now believe that the whites were the savages, and the Natives, worn down by the concept of manifest destiny, were just defending themselves and trying to protect their land. Also, I believe that General Custer should be stripped of his heroic standing as he often killed innocent people, including women and children. This novel showed the many reasons not usually talked about in novels written by white Americans, that the Indians had for attacking General Custer's army. This novel provided many sad truths about the whites, and has drastically changed my opinion of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Overall, while I thought the novel was very interesting and enjoyable, I found it difficult to read. Welch used a very unique approach to writing as he switched back and forth between time periods quite often making it very hard to know exactly what was going on. Other than that, I thought the novel was very good.