WE have all heard about Custer's Last Stand, how a brave handful of soldiers, the Seventh Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, fought to the last man against a huge Indian force commanded by Sitting Bull.

Richard Eggington, in his talk The Road to Little Big Horn, examined the legend and placed the story into the wider context of the colonisation of the New World by Europeans.

Richard told us about the culture of the American Indians, their nations, their traditions and their belief that all living things were interlinked in nature. Their gods were not in the heavens but all around. Their way of life, established for centuries, was thrown into turmoil by the arrival of the settlers. The English settlements were transformed into colonies and eventually spread down the length of the eastern seaboard and inland to the Mississippi. All the time, the Indians were being forced out of their traditional lands into progressively smaller areas.

George Armstrong Cutler was the son of a blacksmith whose headstrong tactics for the Union forces in the American Civil War saw his rapid rise to general. At the end of the conflict he joined the US Army in his substantive rank of Captain and rose to the rank of Colonel.

Richard described the fragile relationship between the native and the new Americans and the use of the army in maintaining control. The Little Big Horn is a river in Montana and it was near here the battle, the best-known incident in the Great Sioux War of 1876, was fought.

In considering the battle's outcome Richard examined Custer's temperament, his relationship with fellow officers, the quality of equipment, the state of the Seventh Cavalry, and the adequacy of the orders he had been given. Richard's talk was filled with a wealth of visual material: there were maps, battle plans, early photographs of the combatants and a several modern photographs showing the conflict area and surrounding countryside.

Richard's enthusiastic presentation held our members' attention for a full hour, after which he spent some time answering questions.

On Thursday, July 9we shall hear about the civilian holders of the Victoria Cross followed by Les Deux Canards on July 16.

STEVE SWARBRICK