Little flag, Bighorn price: Detroit museum looks to make millions off Custer's Last Stand relic

[Bozita]

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/06/little_flag_bighorn_price_detr.html

Little flag, Bighorn price: Detroit museum looks to make millions off Custer's Last Stand relic
Published: Friday, June 25, 2010, 7:43 AM Updated: Friday, June 25, 2010, 7:44 AM
The Associated Press



AP Photo | Sotheby's
This photo provided by Sotheby's in New York shows The Culbertson Guidon from the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. Since 1895, the silk American flag--or guidon--has been the property of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which has decided to sell it and use the proceeds to build its collection.




Lt. Col. George Custer and the men of his 7th Cavalry Regiment went into the Battle of the Little Bighorn with flags flying, but they were wiped out, and nearly all their military artifacts were carried away by the victorious Lakota Sioux warriors.

A single swallowtail flag was found days later under the body of a fallen soldier.

Since 1895, the silk American flag, called a guidon, has been the property of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which has decided to sell it and use the proceeds to build its collection.

The guidon, discovered by Sgt. Ferdinand Culbertson while on a burial detail of the battlefield, has been valued at $2 million to $5 million and will be auctioned in October, Sotheby's auction house announced on Friday, the 134th anniversary of the battle.

The current auction record for a flag or any textile is $12.3 million, for an American flag captured by the British in a 1779 battle in Bedford, N.Y. It was sold by Sotheby's in 2006.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, claimed 210 soldiers, including Custer, as several thousand warriors led by Sitting Bull fought for their land near what's now Crow Agency, Mont.

The Black Hills in southeastern Montana (present day South Dakota) were declared Indian land in the late 1860s. The conflict erupted when the government tried to drive the Indians off the land after white settlers discovered gold there.

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[dipsydoodle]

1. Lt. Col. George Custer

was a war criminal.

[Ikonoklast]

3. No more than any other officer following orders.

President Grant made the decision to remove the Lakota from the Black Hills by force, breaking the treaty and instigating hostile action.

The blame for this belongs to him.

[aquart]

2. Which insufficiently taxed individual is buying that flag?

[Veruca Salt]

4. That should be in the national archives

Not being sold for profit. It's part of American history and belongs to us.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Agree.