" The last word about the Little Bighorn belongs to perhaps Custer’s most insightful chronicler, Robert Utley. “The simplest answer, usually overlooked, is that the army lost largely because the Indians won,” he writes. “To ascribe defeat entirely to military failings is to devalue Indian strength and leadership.” The invasion of the Black Hills and the order to abandon the unceded lands galvanized the Lakotas and Northern Cheyennes. "

― T.J. Stiles , Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America