The Rest Is History The Rest is History Club

"I will bury my heart, at Wounded Knee"

With Native American culture in free fall in the years following their triumph at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the rise of the Ghost Dance - a form of spiritual expression that promised liberty from the oppression of 19th century American politics, modernisation and mass entertainment - brought a new hope to the Sioux. Even so, the once great war chieftain Sitting Bull, unable to see visions int the dance, and having allowed himself to be seduced by Buffalo Bill and the mass entertainment industry, found his authority in the Reservation waning. Meanwhile, a plan was being concocted to do away for him once and for all…his fate would set in motion a tragic chain of events that would culminate in a terrible, barbaric massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, where, amidst the bathetic winter snows, it seems that the Lakota had finally met their end.

Join Dominic and Tom for the epic conclusion to their mighty saga on the Lakota Sioux and the American Indian Wars, as they discuss the fate of Sitting Bull, the Ghost Dancers, and their last stand at the terrible Wounded Knee massacre.



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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

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Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Following the tragic death of Crazy Horse and the ruthless cessation of the Sioux way of life, the last of the great Native American leaders were gradually picked off or repressed by the U.S. Government. Few though had so pitiful a fate as the once mighty Lakota War Chieftain, Sitting Bull. Having to fled to Canada in search of peace from the relentless harrowing of his people, Sitting Bull finally returned and arrived at the Standing Rock Reservation in 1883. He was unprepared, however, for the changes wrought upon his people. With the explosion of railroads and the decimation of the already flailing buffalo populations, the Great Plains had been transformed into a desolate, barbed wasteland. While, the Native Americans within the reservations were increasingly coerced into Christianity by missionaries, or controlled by Federal agents. Then, news reached Sitting Bull and his people of a messianic figure from beyond the Rocky Mountains, who would come to liberate them from their plight. With him he brought the answer to their troubles: the Ghost Dance. Would it see the drums of war sound once more?

Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the life of Sitting Bull in the years following his victory at the Little Bighorn: the destruction of the Plains, his time with the infamous Buffalo Bill, and the birth of the mystical, incendiary Ghost Dance.




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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Did the Vikings ever come into contact with the Native Americans? What became of the Mohican tribe from the film, Last of the Mohicans? Are there parallels between the leaders of the Lakota Sioux during the American Indian Wars, and the leaders who rose up against Imperial Britain in India or Afghanistan? If Henry VIII had been granted a divorce by the Pope, would England have become protestant? How did the Nazis settle upon the term “Aryan” to describe their grotesquely idealised Germanic race? And, If the nuclear bomb had been available before 1945 when in the whole of world history might it have been used?

Join Dominic and Tom for this week’s bonus episode, as they discuss some scintillating historical questions.





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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Though the Battle of the Little Bighorn seemed for the triumphant Lakota and their allies - the largest gathering of Plains Indians ever assembled - a miraculous victory, it was for them the beginning of the end. A great council was held near the battlefield in which they made the fateful decision to split up. Meanwhile, in Washington, Custer’s death and the military defeat of the army was being politicised, and the public rallied against the Lakota. Red Cloud, their political leader through so many of their struggles, was replaced with a puppet interloper. Then, during the winter of 1877, a contingent of ruthless and fiercely effective U.S. officers, including General Crook and General Miles, chased and harried the retreating Sioux contingents through the snows, leaving them starving, beleaguered and desperate. At last, in March 1877 the once formidable war chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull found themselves cornered, and their people left with little choice but to admit defeat. What then would be their fate?
Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the annihilation of the Plains Indians and the dissolution of their extraordinary culture and nomadic way of life, along with the tragic death and downfall of one of the most mesmerising and mysterious characters of the entire story: Crazy Horse. 



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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
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What happened between the moment that George A. Custer dispatched a trumpeter with his famous final plea for back-up, and the gruesome discovery of his forces at the Little Bighorn? Certainly, the morning of the 26th of June 1876 found the overwhelmed Major Reno and what remained of his men, along with Captain Benteen, gathered atop a hill, bloody, dehydrated, surrounding by putrefying corpses, and mystified as to the whereabouts of Custer. And the nightmarish ordeal of Reno's clash with the Lakota and their allies was not yet over. Gunfire, carbines and the whiz of arrows echoed in the distance, while below them fearsome Lakota warriors were unnervingly draped in the bloodied jackets and hats of Custer’s 7th Cavalry. Finally, at 3pm, the vast encampment of Lakota began moving off, and at dawn the next day they glimpsed a dust cloud in the distance: reinforcements at last. What they saw upon finally descending the hill, was a scene of such horror, that it would resound through the ages…

Join Dominic and Tom as they describe, moment by moment, the events of George Custer’s electrifying last stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and its aftermath. What really happened, and what became of Custer, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull? Above all, who was to blame for the events of that shocking day?



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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Was the Cold War the ultimate East-West confrontation, or was it the Persian Wars? Are concepts of freedom and autocracy central to the antipathy between East and West? What did Tom and Dominic make of their time in Sarajevo? Why is the city such a cultural melting pot? What happened during the Siege of Sarajevo? And, what role did Christianity play in ideas of East vs. West in the Roman Empire?

Join Tom and Dominic for this month’s livestream, as they discuss some of the world's most totemic meeting points; the historical places where religions and cultures have most virulently melded and clashed.


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*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*

Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!


Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook


Producer: Theo Young-Smith

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor