Custer's Last Fight: Anheuser-Busch's Famously Inaccurate Painting of The Battle Of The Little Big Horn

Custer's Last Fight: Anheuser-Busch's Famously Inaccurate Painting of The Battle Of The Little Big Horn

From the Custer Battlefield Museum:

"Custer's Last Fight" is the most famous depiction of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and the most famously inaccurate.  It has been seen by millions of people in the last 106 years. For the first time ever Anheuser-Busch Corporation has granted special permission to the Custer Battlefield Museum to reissue on high quality paper this famous print. 

Anheuser-Busch distributed thousands of these long ago. That's just a snippet above. If you want to have some fun, make it a project for yourself to try to get one of these displayed in your local school.

Comments

[Woody]

My older brother had this picture in his room when we were little. To cover the embarrassing lack of clothing by the Indians, he covered their bare buttocks with Civil Defense stickers. Maybe I can get Civil Defense to reissue those stickers so that my brother can have an accurate reproduction of his earlier masterpiece.

Forget getting this into schools. People today have this romanticized view of Indians, which totally neglects their savagery to the early Jamestown settlers and other colonists who posed no threat to them or to the entire North American continent. Liberals are mad because we won. I guess 100 years from now they'll talk about how unfair we were to the Taliban. Anyway, don't pictures of guns scare liberals so much that they consider pictures a violation of the weapons "no tolerance" rules?

[Tom McMahon]

Indians with Civil Defense stickers covering their butts: Would that ever be a great use for Photoshop, eh?

I didn't say you'd be successful getting this into a school, just that it would be fun to try. Tweak their noses a bit.

[Sha_kri]

Even in the most positive light, I doubt there were any colonists (as a group) who posed no threat to the indians (especially when you include diseases). But you said something that is rarely, if ever, said. Movies like Dances with Wolves are so far off from a semi-accurate portrayal of the Indians that those movies should not even be considered fiction (far far off fantasy maybe).

hi,
i asked 4 worlds most wanted but i got this please put this web in another web

[Tato]

How much would an original painting be worth today of Custer's Last Stand?

[G.C. Littlefield]

I have a copy of Custer's last Fight copyright 1952 by Anheuser-Bush Inc. and AugustA. Bush Jr. Signed by O. Becker A 2ft. by 3ft. bud.
painting has orginal card board frame. Hung in a bar in the late 50' given to my dad by the owner of the bar.

[SKIP HALL]

IM CURIOUS TO KNOW THE VALUE OF A "CUSTER'S LAST FIGHT" I HAVE ONE IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WHICH I HAVE HAD SINCE AROUND 1970.

I find it interesting how we as white men can justify doing what we did to the Native Americans. Perhaps if they would have put a barbwire fence around their buffalo, had a deed to their tee pees, and wore a crucifix around their necks, maybe we wouldn't have slaughtered so many of them. Since they had none of these, we felt obligated to help ourselves to their land, their buffalo and anything else they possessed. Why do we get so offended and feel so violated when someone from another country comes and attacks us? Hmmn! Go figure. Maybe we feel compelled to retaliate and defend that which we deem to be ours. Oddly enough, they probably felt much the same way and responded accordingly to the best of their abilities. Technically, we were illegal immigrants to this country. They protested, and since we considered them to be heathens and savages we felt justified in slaughtering them. After all, many of us were Christians which elevated our positions as humans. God what hypocrites we are! To all Native Americans, I am truly sorry. Byron

[Soothsayer]

Yep, the First People of the Americas got a pretty raw deal from the Europeans and yes it is a disgrace how many of the native population died due to ignorance, violence and disease, but make no mistake, the Americas were far from an idyllic world before Europeans got here.

Read about the Aztecs Empire to get a clue of why that was not a fun people to be conquered and enslaved by, and read about the rivalries that existed between North American Indian tribes to get an idea of how the First Nations got along (pretty much like Europeans at the time, with alliances and enemies, and many minor wars between neighboring nations).

The Europeans appeared and positioned themselves within these existing rivalries to try to undermine eachother's power (French with the Huron people and the British with the Iroquois, for example). You would think that in the long run, siding with the winning side might do you a few favours, but in reality, it did not work out that way for the Indian people in the US, who were, for the most part, marginalized, stripped of their land and sent into segregation on poor quality reservation lands.

Not a bright moment in the history of the US, but at least many tribes have casinos now so hopefully this might provide many of the Indian tribes in the US with some compensation... here in Canada they seem to be working out ok.

[Barbara]

Slipping a comment into the encouragingly varied perspectives here. If we could just see history in the making like the Little Prince our planet, wouldn't we find better investments for our energies(and engergies for our investmen (in this age of "make a buck" through war for oil or pipelines) than those that many of our electees are intent on defending in our names?

[Barbara]

PS. Considering the problems of alcohol and violence that reservations seem to face, there remain identity challenges, (as you do bring up here). The Who am I? Who was I? Who do I really want to be (and why)?

[Dave]

The truth of it is that we know little about what really happened between the settlers and Indians, good or bad. The story of the events had to be told by someone. Someone who's perspective was colored by who their loyalty was to, either to the Natives or the Settlers.

dave, www.TheHistoryBluff.com

[Dee England]

I believe my Husband and myself have this print, we owned a business that was over one hundred years old and found this upstairs in the the dance hall. We were wondering what the value would be and where we may find a buyer.

[Pat]

I actually have the original pair that hung in the lobby at A/B on Pestalozzi street. I'd really like to know the value of these as times are getting sort of tough here, and I see the economy getting worse, so any help here would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[Al]

I bought the a canvas painting at a yard sale. Can someone put a price on this here print.

[Brian Buss]

I also have a print from 1952 of this with a cardboard frame (made to look like oak I believe) If anyone has found a value on these please let me know !

you can email me at buss@alltel.blackberry.com

[opelske]

History of the entire world is one of migration, conquering and conquest - by all the peoples of the world. And it is still going on today for much the same reasons.

[Hali]

I would like to buy one of these old prints. If someone is willing to sell their's please contact me at halimadere@yahoo.com. Make the subject line Custers Last Fight. Thank you.

[Luwana Faulkenburg]

I believe I have an original painting hanging in my living room. Who would I see about this painting?

[Luwana Faulkenburg]

The painting is on canvas and has been behind glass in a frame since the 50's

[Luwana Faulkenburg]

I see all types of pictures of this Custer's Last Fight but they all have color, like the red shirt on the indian. However my canvas painting is all painted in tan colors, no bright reds ect...

[Luwana Faulkenburg]

Well decided to take the picture off of the wall and open it up. Looks like a poster instead of canvas. My grandma had this picture hanging in her living room when my dad was dating my mother in early 1950's. As I said above it has no colors except light blues and tans, looks just like the one above as to colors.

[dave]

if anyone has the original from the 50's, budweiser's poster of the "custer's last stand", and is willing to sell, please contact

[Jay]

We just inherited this print and were told that the owner had bought the rights to reprint it...How and who could we find out from if this is true.

[Wade Munford]

In the 1940's my father worked for A-B. One day he came home with one the prints. It is still in the family, but is beginning to suffer from age and exposure