Review of America Unearthed S03E05 "Custer's Blood Treasure"

12/6/2014

This week we continue this season’s treasure hunting theme, this time looking for the apocryphal treasure of George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. Frankly, I find treasure hunts to be rather boring, but never more so than when the treasure in question never existed in the form the hunter seems to think it did. On the other hand, it’s nice to see America Unearthed continue its slow descent into irrelevance as the producers work hard to repair Scott Wolter’s (and the show’s) damaged reputation by course-correcting back toward a more (though never entirely) mainstream show more closely aligned to the slate of new competing knockoff shows premiering this month on American Heroes Channel and Discovery Family like Secrets of the Arsenal and History & Mysteries.

Background

The Black Hills of South Dakota were so lacking in resources that white settlers left it to the Sioux under the Treaty of 1868 and were content to ignore the semiarid wasteland. However, this state of affairs wouldn’t last long once gold was discovered in the Sioux lands. The federal government at first tried to honor its treaty commitments, but a campaign by local politicians and the media convinced federal officials to launch aggressive action to take control of the gold-rich territory. In 1874, the Army sent the Seventh Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer into the Black Hills to confirm that gold was present. When Custer found gold, prospectors flooded the Sioux territory, and the federal government eventually stopped enforcing the treaty. In 1876, the land was no longer the Sioux’s de facto, but the tensions over this takeover are the most important contributing factor for the Great Sioux War of 1876, the battle between Native Americans and the Cavalry that led directly to the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, often known as Custer’s Last Stand. The U.S. victory over the combine Native American forces in 1877 led to a formal settlement that made the gold-laden territory de jure American land.

Some people claim that in 1876, after the Battle of Little Bighorn, a shipment of gold was lost when a steamship called the Far West was trying to rescue George Armstrong Custer and his men. The captain, Grant Marsh, dumped it at an undisclosed location to lighten the load and make room for Custer’s wounded soldiers. There is, however, no evidence that the ship ever carried gold on its journey up the Bighorn and Little Bighorn rivers.

A competing claim, popular in treasure hunting circles but rarely encountered elsewhere, argues that the Seventh Cavalry’s payroll was never recovered after the Battle of Little Bighorn and is therefore one of America’s lost treasures. This treasure supposedly takes the form of wagon containing $25,000 in gold, silver, and banknotes that had been paid out to the Seventh Cavalry at Heart River on the way to Montana. Some believe that the Native Americans recovered and hid the money after the battle.

So far as I can tell, it ultimately derives from Charles Windolph, a survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn who was shot in the ass and received the Medal of Honor for it—well, technically for securing the water supply. He was the source for a first-person account called I Fought with Custer in 1947. In the book, edited (and some say possibly ghostwritten) by Frazier and Robert Hunt, Windolph recalls at age 95 and at seven decades’ remove the last payroll payment:

After we got bedded down [on Heart River, on May 17, 1876] the paymaster turned over to each commander the payroll. We were paid off by companies and there was a lot of grumbling by the men. The paymaster had come up the river three days before, but Gen. Custer wouldn’t let him do his job until we were well away from Bismarck and the gambling and red-light district. […] About half of that payroll found its way into the hands of the squaws and Sioux children when the dead troopers were stripped and mutilated a little more than a month later on Little Bighorn.

Windolph, unlike later treasure hunters, claimed that the payroll was in the form of paper currency, and he said that he found a five dollar bill near the site the next spring that he was sure had been from that payroll. Each man, he said, received monthly pay of just $13. Army records confirm soldiers were paid in banknotes.

It is perhaps worth noting that I can’t find a scholarly discussion of the claim that this treasure is somehow recoverable. The best I can do is trace it to a November 1972 Lost Treasure magazine article, which follows on Emile Schurmacher’s 1968 book Lost Treasures and How to Find Them, which in turn argued for the Far West steamship version of the story. In 1972, author Al Masters suggested that the payroll treasure claim was based on “recent” evidence, and involved several men who had each shared part of the secret of where the material had been buried. The claim resurfaces in Custer’s Ghosts and Custer’s Gold (2007) by Donald W. Moore. Windolph, though, seemed fairly certain that little of the paper money had survived because the Native Americans had no use for it; he said the five dollar bill he found had been used to make a “blanket” for child’s horse toy.

If that weren’t enough, NatGeo’s Diggers did an episode on this legend earlier this year, so Scott Wolter is a bit late to the treasure hunting party. That show claimed that the lost payroll was from 1874, not 1876! They found no trace of it, of course. Somehow that $25,000 in “lost” payroll left no trace in the financial records of the Seventh Cavalry.

In short, the supposed treasure seems to be a conflation of Windolph’s musings on payroll with a distorted memory of Custer’s actual involvement in setting off the Great Sioux War by confirming the discovery of gold in the Bad Lands. The story’s many variants testify to its origins as modern folklore (fake-lore?).

The Episode

Segment 1
We open with a moody reenactment of a dying Native American who receives a white visitor in his cabin. The visitor holds up a piece of paper, and the Native hands him a coin before passing. The music swells and the visitor writes about a note about the “location of money” at the “Custer Battlefield.” Nineteen years later (so says the legend), some men haul a chest to the grave marker of Chief Two Moons and hide some random objects within, along with the note. Later still, someone else breaks in and steals the note. You know he’s evil because he smokes. I’ll be damned if I have any idea what this reenactment is supposed to be. We cut to the opening credits and then to host Scott Wolter telling us that journalist Don Shelby (who last season rhapsodized about the efforts of Knights of the Golden Circle to create a continental slave empire) has a tip for him. Wolter gives a potted history of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

In Minneapolis, Wolter meets with Shelby, who informs him that Custer’s payroll was never recovered, and he gives Wolter the figure provided in treasure hunting literature: $25,000. He also alleges that this money was paid in gold and silver coins, which was not Army policy (the weight alone!) but rather a treasure hunting myth. Wolter salivates over the idea that the individual coins could be worth $50,000 or more at auction. Shelby and Wolter discuss Custer’s role in fomenting the Great Sioux War, and Wolter does not for a moment doubt the existence of the horde of money, and neither man seems willing to accept Windolph’s claim that the money had been distributed and was thus lost with the men.

Shelby sends Wolter off to meet a man who claims to have evidence about Custer’s treasure. He arrives at Excelsior Coin Gallery in Excelsior, Minn., to talk to Jim Stiller, who immediately demands a cash payment. I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t work with America Unearthed without a bribe, either.

Segment 2
After a recap, at the coin shop, Jim Stiller tells Wolter that he will sell Wolter a 1914 buffalo nickel minted in San Francisco for $140. Wolter does not buy the coin. (I’ve got a stack of them I inherited, so I know the coin very well.) Wolter says he’s never seen a buffalo nickel, and instead he decides to lecture about the Indian head penny, which he does know. He says that the face on the coin (a depiction of the goddess Liberty) is a secret symbol of Venus! The coin dealer tells Wolter that the map to Custer’s treasure was sealed in the grave of the Chief Two Moons (1847-1917), who fought at Little Bighorn and was one of the models used for the head on the buffalo nickel.

Wolter goes to Montana and meets with a novelist who points Wolter to Two Moons’s pyramidal monument, built twenty years after his death. The novelist tells Wolter that in the 1950s a journalist visited the monument… and then we cut to commercial.

Segment 3
After another on-screen recap, Wolter recaps again verbally. David Meyer shows Wolter an article by Kathryn Wright, who saw a manila envelope in the grave marker—but no treasure map. The monument was vandalized in 1960, and whatever it contained was stolen. The two men leap to wild conclusions and fail to establish that there ever was a map, let alone that the Cheyenne kept it hidden from the death of Two Moons in 1917 to 1936, when the grave marker was built. According to most accounts, the envelope contained recollections of Two Moons about the Battle of Little Bighorn, not a treasure map.

Wolter believes that W. P. Moncure, the builder of the pyramidal grave marker, is somehow the responsible party in the conspiracy. We then get a reenactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn, played out while Wolter gazes on in rapt attention. John Slatton teaches civilians to pretend to be Little Bighorn fighters at the recreational U.S. Cavalry School (named differently on the show as the U.S. Cavalry Training School, and taking its name from the U.S. Army Cavalry School that operated under various names from 1838 to 1955), and Wolter agrees to take part in the reenactment games. We then go to commercial.

Segment 4
After an on-screen recap, Wolter gets into an 1876-style cavalry uniform, and Wolter seems annoyed that the producers have turned him into a reality TV show contestant. I’m all for humiliating Wolter more frequently with reality show games. They are quite fitting for a show that bends the concept of “reality” as much as this one. Slatton tells Wolter about Custer’s last days and the Battle of Little Bighorn, much of which is irrelevant to the hunt for the alleged treasure. Wolter asks Slatton about the lost treasure, and Slatton says that the treasure possibly existed but rather than talk about it forces Wolter to participate in a battle reenactment. Maybe next week, when Wolter goes looking for Captain Kidd’s treasure, the producers will make him dress up as a pirate! In fact, I think he should do future episodes dressed as characters from it: Marco Polo, a Knight Templar, a Cistercian monk, etc.

Segment 5
With no recap (!), we watch Wolter reenact Custer’s Last Stand. We see some ridiculous “hero shots” of Wolter on horseback, and he and Slatton talk about their feelings afterward. Wolter says he has stopped looking for the treasure and is instead interested in learning more about the Little Bighorn, whose history he feels is misrepresented in textbooks. After the reenactment, he now feels that “what we’ve been told” about what it was like to be killed by Native Americans isn’t accurate. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. We then go to commercial. I am thinking that when Wolter repeatedly uses the word supposed to describe the treasure, it is his indication that this is another topic the producers foisted upon him. He seems completely uninterested in even pretending to look for the loot.

Segment 6
After an on-screen recap and a verbal recap, Wolter says he “can’t stop investigating” Custer’s treasure (because the producers require it?), but Wolter didn’t even go through the motions of looking for the loot. Wolter brings up the Saddle Ridge Hoard from a couple of years ago, when a California couple found 1400 gold coins in cans on their land. Wolter ridiculously suggests to Don Shelby that it is Custer’s lost treasure, even though many of the Saddle Ridge coins date from the 1880s and 1890s. The coin dealer from earlier in the episode tells Wolter that the coins are too late to be those of Custer’s payroll. Nevertheless, Wolter says “it’s possible” that a few of Custer’s coins were taken to California to form the nucleus of the Saddle Ridge Hoard and simply added to during the 1880s and 1890s. Oh, please. By that logic, my coin collection “could have been” part of the lost treasure, too. Shelby tells Wolter he’s “thinking like an investigative reporter,” which is an insult to journalists the world over. The three men all agree that the treasure is still out there, but then Wolter’s voice over says that it might not have even existed. The contradictory claims seem to reinforce the idea that Wolter’s heart just wasn’t in this one.

123 Comments

CHV

12/6/2014 02:09:04 pm

This episode was a total road to nowhere.

Although (and this is nitpicking) I found it amazing when Scott claimed that prior to "meeting" that Minnesota coin dealer (who sure was handy with helping Wolter by dropping breadcrumbs for him to follow) that he'd never heard of an "Indian Head nickel" (often called a "Buffalo nickel") before. Among coin collectors, they're pretty common and don't go for a lot of money.

Clete

12/6/2014 02:27:35 pm

What a waste of time. Watching Scott Wolter dressed up like one of Custer's soldiers pretending to be at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Would have been better shown at Holloween, then he could go door to door asking for candy or the stolen treasure map.

12/6/2014 03:19:49 pm

"He says that the face on the coin (a depiction of the goddess Liberty) is a secret symbol of Venus!"

What does this have to do with anything? Is this Wolter's way of giving a shoutout to his wife's neopagan follies? Or remains of a completely different plotline that got dropped by the show?

12/7/2014 06:34:47 am

The face on the Indian head penny is apparently from a variety of sources, but is ultimately a white woman - not a Native American.

12/6/2014 04:46:37 pm

I could have sworn I saw Wolter giving the secret Masonic sign of distress during the reenactment.

12/6/2014 05:30:22 pm

Are you sure it wasn't a banzai salute? :)

http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/263927-4/C__pia+de+Rikusentai+_59_

12/7/2014 04:05:31 am

Japanese Masons. Who knew? :)

12/7/2014 04:22:34 am

If Japanese Muvians, why not Japanese Masons? :)

TonyD

12/6/2014 05:02:39 pm

If the producers are dictating everything, what do they need Wolter for.
Wasn't this his show or has he lost the show to the "producers"?

Matt Mc

12/8/2014 09:31:59 am

It was always the producers show. Wolter is just a host, he does have some influence over content the producers is the final word. If Wolter dictated the show he would be a co-producer

Jerky

12/6/2014 08:48:49 pm

"A competing claim, popular in treasure hunting circles but rarely encountered elsewhere, argues that the Seventh Cavalry’s payroll was never recovered after the Battle of Little Bighorn and is therefore one of America’s lost treasures. This treasure supposedly takes the form of wagon containing $25,000 in gold, silver, and banknotes that had been paid out to the Seventh Cavalry at Heart River on the way to Montana. Some believe that the Native Americans recovered and hid the money after the battle."

Yes, a claim that can be traced back to a supply train of 14 wagons that went missing in the Indian Territory of present day Oklahoma. The supply train had a paymaster's wagon attached to it, and rumor has it, it was attacked by Natives some where in Harper County Ok. between 1868 and 1870. The only true "lost treasure" tail that directly involves Custer and his 7th Cavalry as they where stationed at Camp Supply (located outside Fort Supply Ok. in Woodward County just on the Harper Woodward county line.) when the supply train of 14 wagons went missing. The supply train was indeed ambushed in the hills 1 to 1.9 miles north of Camp Supply in 1867-68.

Custer had helped establish Camp Supply in November 18, 1868 and left the post some time in 1870 when it became a temporary Indian Agency.

A few of the locals have found the site of the attack, a large numbers of spent shell casings, unfired rounds, fired minie balls, buttons barring the federal eagle, with a crate holding a spare officers uniform, gold and silver coins (about 10$ worth), a model 1862 army colt revolver, an unopened box of cartilages for that revolver and many personal effects belonging to that officer. This story we had all thought had been just a tall tail until we started finding artifacts from the ambush along with army reports from the time the attack was said to take place. Now we are planing to find the last thing needed, some kind of evidence of the pay master's chest.

This story is the only one with evidence supporting it. And it predates the little bighorn treasure story witch if I'm right, any one who knew all of Custer's actions in the military, will have hard of his time in Oklahoma, and possibly of the rumored missing pay masters wagon. (the whole gold and silver coin thing came around after a lot of gold and silver coins started turning up at places like Camp Supply, and redoubts along the Fort Dodge/Camp supply military trail, and other frontier forts and posts in use between 1868 and 1875.

I would also like to point out, the army didn't keep vary good records at that point in time (this is why so many treasure tails crop up with the 7th). We have only just now learned of the Battle of Camp Supply, And there is still no record of the Battle of Laverne (As we have taken to calling it.) that happened between the 7th U.S. Cavalry and one of the Native Tribes fleeing the Federal forces. No evidence of what tribe was being engaged has been found yet, but based on brass buttons barring the 7th's insignia we can say that the 7th was there. Yet none of these battles had been recorded properly, only in small detail. We only know one man died at the battle of Laverne, his death was recorded and the location of his death and how he died, the location description fits the location of the battle where we found the artifacts.

As soon as I can talk the county historian (The man who has located the remains of the trail, the redoubts, and the sites of over 12 minor skirmishes ambush sites, and the only two battles where cannon where used (to vary little effect)) into giving the search another shot, we are going to pull together some founding to pay for a complete search of the area where that crate was found, The crate was a standard shipping crate used by the army in back in those days, So it had to come off an army wagon, And there is only 14 army wagons to have gone missing, in that area. So we ether find a 15th unknown wagon or we find the missing 14 wagons, Or more artifacts of our local history, and seeing how the trail passes through my lands, (the very land with the house that got vandalized no less) I am looking forward to catching more trespassers, and if we find the wagons (With the dead troopers and soldiers) we can dig there graves on my land and get it federal protection.

12/7/2014 04:22:06 am

"I am looking forward to catching more trespassers, and... we can dig there graves on my land and get it federal protection."

I skipped over the middle of this sentence on the first reading :)

12/7/2014 05:12:05 am

lol I didn't even notice that.

12/7/2014 06:39:46 am

"based on brass buttons barring the 7th's insignia we can say that the 7th was there."

Couldn't it have been buttons off uniforms that were looted from somewhere else and brought there?

12/7/2014 07:12:48 am

Only a small 10% to 20% chance of that. The buttons of each cavalry unit uniforms have a Federal Eagle on each button, and on the shield over the eagles breast is a 7th these buttons come off vests, trousers, coats, kepi's, blouses, and cloaks. The insignia comes off hates like Kepi's in a large brass form, and smaller ones can be found on the uniform coats and blouses, We also found remains of a company banner, the red and white banners tied to the types of a lance that a cavalry trooper carried into battle. Each regiment had an American flag and regimental banner with a small elongated triangle banner. This one had a 7 on it, only a small peace was found, in bad condition. We found personal effects, a ring with a name engraved on the inside that can be tied back to the 7th. To many items tied to the 7th for it to be a chance, looted items from other battles or captured supplies. Add to that the documentation that Custer took the 7th to Camp Supply for about 3 years or so.

12/7/2014 07:54:25 am

EP, I should also add that each Trooper had any where from 20 to 30 brass buttons, and on site we call Battle Hill, we found in 3 days of metal detecting, over 350 brass federal eagle cavalry buttons, 348 of them with a 7 on the shield over the eagle's breast, To put it in perspective, a 25 man unit will have around 500 buttons on 25 uniforms, and they fall off very easily. So to find so many buttons, ether 25 to 30 natives where wearing full cavalry uniforms, Or the wagon train that was escorted by a unit or two of cavalry troopers from the 7th had been ambushed there. The hill its self is only half a mile from where one of my fellow metal detector enthusiasts had found a crate with union military items in it that had to have come off a supply wagon, and there is only 1 known wagon train to have gone missing in this area.

12/7/2014 09:06:58 am

Needless to say, this answers my question!

12/7/2014 09:12:12 am

Any other questions you would like me to answer before I head to bed EP?

12/7/2014 09:23:37 am

Nah, I don't know anything about American military microhistory, so I wouldn't know what to ask. :)

12/7/2014 08:46:09 pm

Well you could ask what we do with the finds, I am no treasure hunter. Every thing we find gets turned over to local museums or restored/preserved and sold to private collectors with all income going to the city hall to help keep our town running.

In 4 years of doing this, I have not made more thin 100$ (in modern u.s. coinage).

12/8/2014 03:46:56 am

Maybe I will ask you something (that just occurred to me): Do you know whether scalps are considered human remains for the purposes of government regulations?

12/8/2014 04:03:40 am

"Maybe I will ask you something (that just occurred to me): Do you know whether scalps are considered human remains for the purposes of government regulations?"

It would fall under the same law as a shrunken head dose. But I wouldn't know, Not every tribe practiced "Taking scalps" the same way, and I am not sure of any one ever finding a scalp. But it would be the same as a shrunken head.

I know, lets see what Jason thinks on this subject. While I doubt I would ever find a scalp, I think I might like to know in case we find one, we will know what to do with it.

Don

12/6/2014 10:45:23 pm

O! M! G! Wolter has truly jumped the shark.

12/6/2014 11:15:23 pm

Any one else think Wolter will do the same thing with that certificate he got like he did with that cup o' coffee?

B L

12/8/2014 03:11:54 am

Ha! The first thing that came to mind when I saw Wolter in that uniform?......As evidenced by his mystery M.S. degree, Wolter is probably now convinced that he is officially an enlistee of the 19th century US Calvary!

12/8/2014 03:28:59 am

I know right lol

Titus pullo

12/7/2014 01:16:59 am

As a Georgia tech grad I was going back and forth from scots cool adventure and the game. It was another show about nothing. With so much history to unearth this show is just phoning it in. What the heck did those gold coins found in California have to do with anything?

there are interesting historical events that few know or have been distorted by the history books. Do some shiws on the race to the north pole, the Greeley expedition, the failed airship the america. There is enough speculation with those events to allow scott to hypothesize and still introduce some lost history to the masses.

12/7/2014 01:19:22 am

Forgot to add tech lost to Florida state. A bad night all way around

J Adamson

12/7/2014 03:10:31 am

Aye a sad day for us Jackets. Even the basketball team lost to South Carolina Upstate University earlier.

12/7/2014 02:08:19 am

That's only too true. So much history is out there in the U.S. that has gone untouched that I never learned about in school. The Utah war, The Red River war, The world war II aircraft carrier the allies tried to build out of frozen water and wold pulp...

They could have done a better episode on Custer if Scott attempted to settle the The Little Bighorn "Gatling Gun Controversy". "Why did he leave the Gatling Guns behind? And if he took them with him, would that have made any difference in the battles outcome?". Then Scott could show off his manliness by shooting water melons R. Lee Ermey stile with a Gatling Gun.

12/7/2014 06:40:32 am

They had Gatling Guns?!?! :O

12/7/2014 08:13:59 am

"General Alfred Terry’s Dakota column included a single battery of artillery, comprising two Rodman guns (3-inch Ordnance rifle) and two Gatling guns. (According to historian Evan S. Connell, the precise number of Gatlings has not been established, ranging from two to three)" -Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn#The_Gatling_gun_controversy

Not the best source to use, but yes, Gatling Guns where offered to Custer but he rejected the offer. And no, He didn't take them with him, he left them behind along with his sick, wounded, drunk, and enough men to reform 4 or 5 full companies if the worst should happen to his command.

12/7/2014 08:28:34 am

"The world war II aircraft carrier the allies tried to build out of frozen water and wold pulp... "

That should say: "The world war II aircraft carrier the allies tried to build out of frozen water and wood pulp..."

12/7/2014 09:16:05 am

Man, can you imagine the Wild West, but with tachankas?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachanka

Those things are basically hard counter to superior cavalry numbers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTEb3V5wL-4

12/7/2014 09:45:10 am

Not really, see the barrel? it's water cooled, so it suffers the same draw backs as all water cooled MG's its pron to jamming, and can not put up a sustained fire for long before the barrel over heats and warps. The Gatling gun can out-do the Vickers MG in fire power, and its air cooled thanks to its multi barrel set up. And it is less pron to jamming, and has been mounted to gunboats, and even wagons.

All you have to do is flank it. 10 men to the right, 10 men to the left. How ever they don't have nearly the rang of a 20 in. Rodman gun, with an effective range of 8,001 yards to the Maxim MG's effective range of 2,000 to 4,000 yards. And Rodman guns where used to support cavalry charges, all though cavalry was better used for cutting down routed units.

12/7/2014 10:18:14 am

Tachankas are really at their best once your enemy thinks it's chasing you, so that it's out of the range of whatever artillery support it may have. Or, if it doesn't have artillery support at all. Obviously their use in major conventional engagements is rather limited.

It's like African "tacticals". Just because they would get slaughtered by NATO armored infantry with air support doesn't mean they don't have their uses :)

Cathleen Anderson

12/7/2014 01:36:52 am

Don Shelby should be ashamed of himself. I just lost the respect that I had for him.

dlefhcie

12/7/2014 02:34:00 am

I'm only in the first few minutes of the show, but am I the only person who thinks this episode is totally meaningless? Basically, this boils down to "a bunch of soldiers died and the spare change in their pockets went missing". Wow, what a mystery. I'm going to suggest a couple of things: 1) the Native Americans took all the good stuff from the bodies and spent it, 2) the people who came to bury the bodies took all the good stuff and either spent it or sent it back to the soldier's families. Either way, this gold would have disappeared from history without a mention. Why does it make any sense to assume someone cleaned out everyone's pockets and put it all together in a stockpile, which they proceeded to hide away somewhere for some reason and then left it there for future peoples to find? Considering the usual treasure tales, I'm going to guess a treasure map shows up at some point in the episode and Scott will be on it like white on rice. Hopefully, there will also be some rocks and inscriptions for him to declare to be "old".

12/7/2014 05:01:22 am

I really can't imagine how anyone with any self respect would allow themselves to look so foolish as Wolter did in that silly cavalry uniform. He tried to act as though he was really interested, but then...we know how his "acting" goes, don't we? He really looked like a complete fool this week. Next week, he should try making his producers walk the plank.

12/7/2014 05:14:46 am

I still can't see why any one in there right mind would let him hold a gun, regardless if it was loaded with blanks.

12/7/2014 07:25:57 am

Actually, Wolter with a gun shooting blanks is a fairly elegant metaphor for the series.

12/7/2014 08:15:30 am

you do have a point.

12/7/2014 08:47:05 am

You too. In one scene Wolter was holding the pistol right in front of his face while his horse was bouncing around.

12/7/2014 08:58:49 am

Exactly, and he was holding what looked like an army colt. A percussion cap revolver. Even firing blanks, one of those percussion caps, if made too powerful, can be set off by the gun when bumped hard enough and can blow fingers off, blow out an eye, and the blank its self can do some major damage at point blank range (0 to 6 feet). I have worked with real Civil War percussion cap fire arms that have seen action at Gettysburg, Mine Creek, Honey Springs , and I can tell you this much, I wouldn't trust one to any one unless they went trough 6 months of proper training. Those things are dangerous, and the fact he was holding one that showed no signs of being a fake, with it just inches from his face...

12/7/2014 09:18:10 am

Guys, are you questioning the manlines of a man who believes that all of the world's history revolves around a hidden New-Age Sacred Fenimine Mother-Goddess cult his wife is into? :)

12/7/2014 09:46:43 am

Question his manliness? Absolutely not. I question his IQ, but I'm only making fun of his manliness.

12/7/2014 09:48:29 am

Why yes, yes I am.

12/7/2014 09:51:26 am

A truly manly man rides a horse into battle carrying a Howitzer in his arms, and firing it like it was a rifle.

12/7/2014 10:08:45 am

LOL if you need to use both arms to hold a Howitzer. Go back to ballet school, you girlymen! :)

PaulN. link

12/7/2014 05:16:54 pm

Nah! A MANLY-MAN goes into battle riding his charger with a rifle in one hand and a double barreled shot gun in the other while gripping the reins in his teeth, ala Rooster Cogburn.

Shane Sullivan

12/7/2014 05:53:52 pm

Wouldn't a manly man ride a dinosaur into battle rather than a horse?

12/7/2014 06:32:31 pm

Well... According to JaredMithrandir... :)

12/7/2014 08:17:27 pm

Only John Hammond is allowed to ride the mighty Dino.

Toomuchtimeonmyhands

12/7/2014 05:38:33 am

I'm afraid our favorite archaeo-geologist is circling the bowl....This episode was only worth watching for the heart-stopping footage of Scott charging to his doom in that way -too-small "cavalry" hat. The amount of misinformation, speculation, irrelevancy and horse-pucky was phenomenal. Virtually nothing in this epic had anything to do with anything else that had been mentioned. Oh, well....

Zoë Corsi

12/7/2014 11:11:36 am

America Unshaven. Why do older guys think stubble is sexy?

Who, in their right mind, would give Scott Wolter a Loaded Pistol?

He needs to go back to his crackpot, "White people built america" nonsense. He's getting really boring.

I have never met more worthless people, than the "treasure hunters" I've met. Delusional Losers with the conviction that work is worthless; hunting for (mythical) treasure is a better strategy.

MPE

12/7/2014 11:49:28 am

Jason as a Retired Army Officer I find it very disrespecful to not refer to Gen. Custer by his rank. He earned it

Only Me

12/7/2014 01:22:02 pm

I'm curious, MPE. Do you hold this opinion in every instance where Custer isn't referred to by his rank...like, say, "Custer's Last Stand" or the title of the episode "Custer's Blood Treasure"? Were you just as disappointed by Scott Wolter and the guests when they also referred to him by only his last name?

12/7/2014 01:24:20 pm

It's "Scott Wolter, MSc", Only Me! Have show some respect! :)

12/7/2014 02:14:42 pm

But, EP, it was YOU who awarded me with an honorary master's degree! Where's MY respect?! ;)

12/7/2014 02:19:00 pm

You've been demoted! How you like them apples? :P

Jason Colavito link

12/7/2014 02:00:07 pm

Are you referring to me or Wolter? Wolter calls Custer "Lt. Col." throughout the hour instead of Gen. I purposely left it off because I didn't feel like launching a big thread about what rank was right to use when referring to him at the Little Bighorn. It looks like it didn't work!

12/7/2014 02:06:40 pm

Just call him Witch Doctor Custer, Jason :)

scot link

12/7/2014 03:13:20 pm

MPE , I also am a retired army officer. And they , both Jason and Wolter are referring to Custer by his proper rank. Custer was a Captain when he was given a Brevet promotion to Brigadier General of Volunteers along with command of a Brigade. He was later promoted to Brevet Major General in both the Vol. and Regular Army.Upon the end of hostilities and the disbanding of his Division he reverted back to his rank, in this instance Captain, He obtained further promotion and at the time of The Little Big Horn his proper rank was Lt. Col.

12/7/2014 05:00:34 pm

Finally some one who knows Custer's real rank when he died.

John

12/8/2014 05:19:38 am

also a retired officer but it is obtuse to continually call someone long dead by a title or rank when tlaking about them. Should Napoleon always be alled emperor (any he also earned that title)?
The info about Custer's rank is a little off. In the Civil War an officer could hold four ranks if he was a member of the Regular army (i.e. a prewar officer more or less). So the regular army was the first component Custer would have belonged to. The volunteer service was the temporary component formed to fight the war. Since there were no real awards, officers could win brevet promotions as awards. These were honorary ranks frequently given to officers holding commands requiring a higher grade (as the government was stingy on higher promotions). You could get brevets in both the regulars and the volunteers. Custer was a captain in the Regular Army's 5th Cavalry Regiment when the CW ended. Promotion in the RA was based strictly on seniority and usually within one's regiment. He was also a brevet major general in the regular army, a rank he received only at the end of the war. But he was also a substantive major general in the volunteer service. He had held volunteer brevet commissions but they became void when he became a voluinteer major general at the end of the war as that was the highest grade. The volunteer service went away so he reverted to his captain rank in 1866. However, the regualr army expanded and he received appointment as the LtCol of the new 7th Cavalry,(a way of getting around the seniority rules) technically the second in command of the regiment and a much lesser position than that he had held in the CW. Since the Army was short on higher ranking officers (stingy government), many regimental colonels were detached from their commands and held static geographical commands elsewhere. This is what happened with the 7th whose colonel at the time of Little Big Horn was an incomptent CW cavalry general named Sam Sturgis. Sturgis was in an administrative command in St. Louis at the time and was only brought back to the 7th after Custer was killed. His subsequent headquarters near the Black Hills, Fort Sturgis, later became the motorcycle town of Sturgis, SD. His son, a recent West Point graduate, died with Custer.
It was customary for officers to be addressed by their brevet rank as a matter of courtesy. So Custer would have been called General Custer although his actually rank was Lt.Col. Similarly his two principle subordinates Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen were addressed as colonel because of brevets they had won. Reno was later court martialled for peeking through a window at Sturgis's daughter.

12/7/2014 04:58:38 pm

You do know that when Custer died, he was a Lt. Col. not a General? and that his full rank before bighorn he was a Brevet Major General? until he was court marshaled and his rank striped from him. He was reinstated at the rank of Lt. Col. and given command of the 7th at the start of the plains Indian Wars. So it is disrespectful to call him by a rank he was no longer at as well.

ETC

12/10/2014 12:06:58 am

Custer's rank reverted from Major General of Volunteers and Brevet Major General, U.S.A. to his highest regular army rank of Captain, U.S.A. once the Civil War was over and the volunteer units disbanded. When the 7th Cavalry was formed in 1866 he was assigned to it as Lt. Colonel. His rank change had nothing to do with his later court martial. He was the field commander of the 7th Cavalry from the late 1860s onward, as the Colonels in command of the regiment during his time showed little interest in being active military men in the West. They were content to sit behind desks in St. Louis and elsewhere while Custer rode at the front of the 7th.

In the custom of the era officers were as a matter of course referred to by the highest rank that they had achieved during their careers, regardless of current rank held. There is no disrespect in referring to him as General Custer. It was a common courtesy.

DTG

12/7/2014 01:58:07 pm

"It's possible." should be the slogan of this show since it's the only thing Wolter has ever come up with that even resembles evidence.

Dan

12/7/2014 02:01:56 pm

This week Scott searches for Custer's missing payroll. Next week, the treasure of Jefferson Davis's collection of women's clothing.

12/8/2014 12:43:12 am

don't joke! if you can track down the shawl
Jeff Davis wore when leaving Abbeville S.C
you'd net yourself a small fortune on e*Bay.

12/8/2014 02:03:59 am

Funny thing is, people will buy any thing. Saw a guy sell a model 1862 light cavalry saber replica to this fella once, told him it was Robert E. Lee's sword (the real sword he wore at Appomattox). They guy instantly forked over the 500,000$ asking price without bothering to even look up what Lee's sword even looked like let alone that the sword in question was over in the Confederate Museum in Richmond and not in some antique store's Civil War display case. He forked over 500,000$ for the exact same sword I have hanging on my wall that cost me only 150$.

12/8/2014 03:15:50 am

@ Jerky

This reminds me of this movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_X5Mf-fmAE

You should watch it, it's awesome.

12/8/2014 03:32:24 am

I should but I don't watch many movies

Andrew Churchill

12/7/2014 02:23:25 pm

"On the other hand, it’s nice to see America Unearthed continue its slow descent into irrelevance as the producers work hard to repair Scott Wolter’s (and the show’s) damaged reputation by course-correcting back toward a more (though never entirely) mainstream show."

I think it is precisely this that is killing the show completely and likely will see it cancelled sooner rather than later. The only thing remotely interesting about the show was it's embrace of wacky, far-out and fringe theories that at least gave it some semblance if piquancy and originality, even if it was all total nonsense. Now it's just boring and virtually unwatchable.

I would also be a bit leery of cheering its demise too enthusiastically on this website/blog. You may well be killing the goose that has laid the golden egg......

John Dunham

12/8/2014 12:49:00 am

I too am amazed that anyone is even showing interest in this now.

I could not even bring myself to keep watching after the silly cowboy and indian skit. This show is starting to make Tsoukalos seem interesting.

diggz

12/7/2014 04:25:48 pm

I am guessing by Wolter's first reaction on the value of each individual coin, that if he found anything he wouldn't donate it for pu pic viewing of a piece of history, but rather sell it privately bit by bit to maximise his profit.

12/7/2014 07:09:33 pm

Post death his Brevet Rank was made permanent by Congress.

12/7/2014 08:14:10 pm

yes yes, that's all well and good, But his Brevet rank was stripped from him at his court marshal, and there for I refuse to recognize it, regardless of what congress has said.

12/8/2014 07:04:31 am

You're right Jerky, on top of being relieved of command , stripped of the Brevet rank of Maj. Gen. ( which was completely ceremonial, and had 0 meaning. He was offer a General's rank and position in the Mexican Revolutionary Army fighting Maximillian, the US Army gave him the Brevet rank back , but, there were no volunteer units, the "rank" was strictly an ego massage that meant nothing) he was suspended for a year w/o pay. And the congressional proclamation had and has no meaning either, the US congress does not now or ever has it been the branch of Gov which confirms or promotes officers, that would be the Senate. On top of yourself the Army itself doesn't recognize Custer as a Maj. Gen but instead a Lt. Col.

12/8/2014 07:27:13 am

Scot, I know I'm right. I spent my whole adult life listening to stories, and reading books about the man. I even have friends who are retired members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry and some who are still active members.

Another thing, President Grant detested Custer as Custer had busted his son for being drunk on duty in public while in uniform, and later Custer testified against Grants brother leading to Grants brother being impeached from office. Philip H. Sheridan also detested Custer as did Reno who actively tried to get Custer court marshaled.

Custer was a good Cavalry Commander, He was brave as hell, and the Natives spoke highly of his actions at little bighorn. But he was not a well liked man. Most people in my home county talk about him saying he was a mad man, a crazy fool, a criminal. I admire the man, but in my eye's, he doesn't deserve any post humorous honors.

12/8/2014 08:32:55 am

I should also say, It's kind of hard to have news paper stories about America's Boy General, If America's Boy General is really only America's Boy Lt. Col.... just not the same ring to it.

Sorry is my last comment to you Scot sounded like an attack of like it was hostel in any way.

12/10/2014 12:10:19 am

This is incorrect, as I have outlined in reply to your earlier comment as to same.

12/10/2014 12:41:11 am

No, Custer was a Lt. Col. the only thing I have found to counter that is a grave marker. No records I have found have shown any change in his rank being stripped from him.

12/8/2014 03:02:41 am

In his newest blog post, Wolter admits that (insert rank here) Custer's troops had no gold and silver. :P

12/8/2014 03:17:59 am

This is so fucking wrong, on so many levels:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZwYdMUCee4/VIRx1W0JFFI/AAAAAAAAAYc/nRGd0dc1G6w/s1600/IMG_4786.JPG

12/8/2014 03:33:48 am

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! he is wearing the same vest I am wearing, It goes on over your shirt but under your coat/blouse.

12/8/2014 10:47:43 am

No, he is wearing it correctly under a enlisted man's sack coat. He even has the top button. buttoned as was standard for undress until the 1880's.

12/8/2014 09:43:56 pm

I have no idea what your talking about? I never said he was wearing it incorrectly, only that he has a vest on under he coat, and that i was wearing the exact same vest, under my leather duster

12/9/2014 08:57:31 am

Sorry Jerky. I had a major mis-understanding of your grammar there. Upon re-reading it I perceive that I had asevere brain-fart that prompted the response. Again my apologies.

12/9/2014 09:06:44 am

It's okay. I typed that after being awake for 2 days. That and I was never good at English.

12/8/2014 03:41:56 am

From Scott Wolter's most recent blog:

"It's because of people like these guys who served and continue to serve in the military with honor and distinction that allows guys like me to run around playing Indiana Jones."

Thanks a lot, VETERANS! Look what you did! :)

"We all have to keep that in mind and be grateful for the freedom we enjoy. I certainly am."

Says the man who makes a living by accusing the government these people serve (as well as its military) of grand-scale deception of its own people. Wolter's hypocrisy is remarkable.

"the natives considered currency to be "Picture paper" and thus was meaningless to them... the paper money taken from the dead soldiers, was given to the children who threw it up into the air and watched it blow away in the wind."

Is this true? Because it sounds both implausible and kinda racist to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

"Besides, what would the natives do with paper money? Walk into a grocery store and spend it? Hardly."

What would they do with gold or silver, then? Wolter makes it sound like the Natives had no trade connections with the "white man", which certainly wasn't true. In fact, the very societies that fought against Custer et al. were completely reliant on imported trade goods.

12/8/2014 03:52:41 am

Also, the gigantologist Dr. Greg "UFO demons will steal your sperm!" Little stopped by to comment. Apparently, Wolter is reading Little's book. That could only end well...

12/8/2014 03:56:54 am

The natives only took what they needed an no more. Paper currency was useless to them. The Cherokee certainly knew the value of paper currency and in the 1880's even sold grassing licenses to Texas ranchers driving there beeves to Kansas. And a few of the Native warriors at little bighorn had fought for both the Union and Confederate armies in the Civil War and would have known what to use it for. The fact is, the troops that died at bighorn where out of cash. Having spent it all before the battle, they got paid once a month and there last pay would have been on the last 3 days of may or the first 3 days of june.

On other news, Scott Wolters long lost shorter and fatter twin brother just walked into the hotel. (yes, I live at a Hotel, owned by my mother, I farm, she runs the hotel, and on my days off from the farm, I sit in the office on my pc) Wish I had a camera to take the guys photo, he looks a dead spitting image of Wolter.

12/8/2014 04:42:40 am

It also seems pretty racist to suggest that Two Moons would keep a "treasure" hidden away while his people were suffering from starvation and disease.

12/8/2014 07:10:04 am

1.) They where supplied with winchester repeating fire arms and ammunition from WHITE gun runners. This is a fact.

2.) They bought whiskey from WHITE bootleggers, this is also a fact.

3.) They bought knifes from WHITE fur traders/general goods stores/trading posts. Again a long proven fact.

4.) They could buy food, blankets, medicine, cows, seeds for crops from any of the Indian Agencies scattered across the west. One such agency was set up in 1870 at Camp Supply not but 18 miles from my home. They still have records of what all a Native could buy from them with Federal Greenbacks (Federal bank notes). Another proven fact.

Where dose Scott get the idea that they couldn't spend money at a store from? Let me guess, he saw it in a John Wayne movie? Pfft Scott needs to read "A History of Oklahoma" and learn the truth about Native Americans.

spookyparadigm

12/8/2014 07:34:55 am

He thinks white Templars brought civilization to North America, and brag about it today by placing the evidence in the design of Oreo Cookies. John Wayne would be a step in the right direction.

12/8/2014 07:43:49 am

Scott Wolter is basically perpetuating the (factually incorrect and racially tinged) "noble savage" myth.

Sad thing is, if he really got the story from the Native American reenactors like he says, it just shows how their self-image is warped by biased scholarship (including recent scholarship that aims and purports to be pro-Native American).

12/8/2014 07:46:24 am

I can see it now, Schools using John Wayne movies (And yes, I know the mans real name isn't John Wayne) to teach kids about the Natives (Oh how I hate saying that word).

I said it before and I'll say it again, I know see why we have high school kids graduating from high school thinking Columbus sailed over here on the Mayflower. And yes, I have met people who truly think he came over here on the Mayflower.

12/8/2014 07:49:07 am

Fun Fact: Columbus spent his later years traveling this great land, planing apple trees whenever he went. That's why the Maya tribespeople of Florida called him Columbus Appleseed. :)

12/8/2014 08:00:09 am

"Native American reenactors"

Funny thing, I doubt there even Native American.... Any one can be a member of a tribe, so long as they can prove there family member had been a part of the tribe before 1900 i think... And to join a tribe with out that, all you have to do is be 3/16th Native or greater depending on the tribe. My half brother is 3/16 Choctaw and is a card carrying member of the Choctaw Tribe, but he is a blond haired blue eyed white as whip cream kid. I look Native American, Dark brown hair, brown eyes and I'm constantly mistaken for a Native but I'm only German, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, and English, and Cherokee in so small amount that I don't even qualify to be a card carrying member of the tribe, but yet, I have seen card carrying members of the Choctaw tribe who where not even Choctaw by blood, but who had a family member, a great great grandfather, who married into the tribe after his first wife did. And I have seen 3rd generation Hispanics claim to be members of the Lakota tribe but who where not registered card carrying members and who had no Lakota blood in them.

So I doubt there Native American...

12/8/2014 08:03:25 am

Fun Fact, Davy Crockett blew up the Alamo. It must be true, John Wayne was in it, and we all know how historically accurate John Wayne movies are.

12/8/2014 10:46:57 am

I don't want to defend Wolter, but the claim probably comes secondhand from Charles Windolph, who said that a five dollar bill had been used as a blanket for child's toy, and that all the currency was taken by children and women--pointedly not the men. Wolter doesn't know that, of course, but Windolph's observation has been expanded into the bigger claim that the money had no value to the Native Americans of the area.

12/9/2014 08:37:57 am

Jason, please elaborate on "area" ? The Natives at the little bighorn battle came from a large area, and some even came from Oklahoma, and all over the Great Plains. So witch area and with group of people? As far as I know, the Native force there was made up of warriors from a few tribes, most being from the Lakota (of South and North Dakota), Cheyenne (From Oklahoma) and Arapaho (found in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Nebraska) tribes. As you can see they came from a VERY LARGE area. This claim by Charles Windolph came from his book "I Fought With Custer, The Story of Sergeant Windolph" yes? Published in 1947? At the height of many American Black and White westerns that portray a racist view of Natives. I call into question the claim as it came from a man who was already 96 recounting memories and details of an event from 71 years before the book. Is it safe to say his claim was inspired by John Wayne films? Seeing how they where prominent at the time he had the book written. In fact, Charles Windolph didn't even write the book, he was just the source for it, so how do we know Windolph even made that claim him self? The writer could have added it. It was a common claim back then, inspired by Hollywood who loved to depict the Native as a blood thirsty savage and the Cavalry Trooper/Cowboy/Outlaw as the good sometime misunderstood hero of the west. All I'm saying is that claim was only made when Hollywood was focused on WWII films and westerns, and that claim of not valuing money was popular in those westerns and dime store novels before that.

12/9/2014 08:57:56 am

I think we're all in agreement that the claim that these Native American groups didn't value paper currency is ridiculous.

While Wildolph's statement may have been influential in perpetuating this silly legend, I'm sure he's not its original source. It reeks too much of the classic "noble savage" mythology, which has been (and is still being) pushed by pro-Native intellectuals as the antidote to the "bloodthirsty savage" mythology.

Ratbark007

12/8/2014 06:25:12 am

I thought I knew the definition of racist, but reading the last three posts I thought perhaps I didn't really know it. So I got my college dictionary and it defined it like I remembered it. I thought perhaps we were using the words "racist" and "bigot" interchangeably, but that really doesn't work out either. So are we changing to definition to something that collectively refers to any remark about another race that doesn't show them in the best light? Even though the normal distribution of heinous acts by a race or collection of people would follow a bell curve and thus we could pick outliers to use in every imaginable instance of every imaginable act, but by re telling said act are we racist? I'm not trying to be a smart ass troll like the rest of the "im smarter than you" people I get tired of reading posts from, im confused.

12/8/2014 06:56:14 am

The last three posts, I assume you are referring to EP's post, tm's post and my own post. I am a little confused if that is true, where at in my post did I say any thing about any one being racist or making racist claims?

12/13/2014 04:15:10 pm

Yes, go tell a Native American from the Cheyenne Tribe that "Your great great great+ grand father didn't know what paper money is and there for gave it to his kids to play with like it was a toy". See just how well they will like you after that. My great great great Cherokee grandmother in 1880 was making Traditional Cherokee beaded jewelry and selling it to the West bound pioneers for 0.25 cents a peace out of her home in South West Missouri. I'm pretty sure she wasn't giving the money to her kid

I thought on Wolters blog he was repeating a story told to him by native Americans.

Can he not repeat a story told to him as an answer to a question without being a racist?

12/13/2014 05:05:48 pm

No one is sayingf Wolter is a racist because he told the story. I suggested (and a few people seem to agree) that the story is racist. Geez!

12/8/2014 07:46:17 am

Ratbark007, you're not making any sense. I suggest you try again. Please concentrate this time.

12/9/2014 03:37:42 pm

"the natives considered currency to be "Picture paper" and thus was meaningless to them... the paper money taken from the dead soldiers, was given to the children who threw it up into the air and watched it blow away in the wind."

Is this true? Because it sounds both implausible and kinda racist to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

My college dictionary says a racist is : a person who believes that one race should control all others. It also says a bigot is a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, one who regards or treats the members of a group(as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance. I was trying to think of "ethnocentric" but it doesn't fit very well either. In other words im having trouble fitting any of the definitions above to fit a story told about ancestors actions as told by living relatives.

My great great great grandfather was an illiterate tenant farmer. What's the difference in my retelling that, and another telling of children and what they did with money. My four year old would do the same if it weren't for watching my 7 year old act with money.

12/9/2014 03:47:39 pm

You either have a really shitty dictionary, or don't know how to use one. Either way, you are not exactly doing your ancestors proud. Also, read subsequent discussion and the nature of alleged racism should become apparent to you.

Not to blow my own horn, but if you want to play definitional games with me, then you don't even realize how out of your element you are.

12/10/2014 10:18:28 am

Ratbark007. You think you can understand a complex social issue with a dictionary? Seriously?

Your ancestor's circumstances are a fact of your family history, not a myth based on ignorance.

You want to understand racism you can start by googling some terms like "bias", "unconscious racism", and "racist assumptions".

12/10/2014 02:23:05 pm

"My college dictionary says a racist is : a person who believes that one race should control all others."

Source 1:

racist
noun
1.
a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that one's own racial group is superior or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
adjective
2.
of or like racists or racism

Source 2

racist - a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others

"one race should control all others"

Control has nothing to do with it, it's all about superiority/inferiority of one race verses another race.

"My great great great grandfather was an illiterate tenant farmer. What's the difference in my retelling that, and another telling of children and what they did with money. My four year old would do the same if it weren't for watching my 7 year old act with money. "

Yes, go tell a Native American from the Cheyenne Tribe that "Your great great great+ grand father didn't know what paper money is and there for gave it to his kids to play with like it was a toy". See just how well they will like you after that. My great great great Cherokee grandmother in 1880 was making Traditional Cherokee beaded jewelry and selling it to the West bound pioneers for 0.25 cents a peace out of her home in South West Missouri. I'm pretty sure she wasn't giving the money to her kids to play with as a toy.

Finally, the "the natives considered currency to be "Picture paper" and thus was meaningless to them... the paper money taken from the dead soldiers, was given to the children who threw it up into the air and watched it blow away in the wind." quote, was taken off of "From Scott Wolter's most recent blog:" meaning Scott Wolter or one of his fans said it. And EP quoted it here like he has done a number of times in the past when ever Scott or one of his fans posts something on Scott Wolter's own blog. Mostly it is to point out just how many people buy into the junk on Scott's show.

12/13/2014 04:11:38 pm

Thanks! You proved my arguement. I'll quit using all the other words and just use the generalization of racism for any topic that includes two races with one or the other looking different.

Sorry for being out of my element with using a dictionary, but Im just now finishing my masters, I humbly bow to your superior education.

Ratbark270

12/13/2014 04:36:46 pm

Sorry I didn't clarify that last post about you (EP) proving my arguement. I re read that and it appears that you might misconstrue that as being in reference to the statements on racism and what qualifies as such and if we are using no other terms to describe that or varying degrees in today's world. I was not referring to that.

I was referring to your first reply being one of name calling and put downs. Instead of one of helpfulness. What is the point of a reply like that? What do you get personally out of that type of reply in contrast to one that shows your viewpoint? And then threatening me with definitional games? Why would I want to play games with you? II gain nothing from this discourse except knowledge. I don't care about some sort of pseudo intellectual, "who can look up the most crap and regurgitate it here the quickest", game you speak of.

And to lesser degrees a couple other of the posts in relation to my questions and analogies, that mock the person asking questions, trying to figure out things.

It's been a long time since I participated in anything online, and I really had hoped that I had found a place that wasn't the same old crap.

12/13/2014 04:59:12 pm

Ratbark, your comments so far have been barely comprehensible and have prominently exhibited that you don't understand simple words like 'racist' and 'classified'. Unless English is not your first language, it's really sad. And even if it isn't your first language, you should realize that people here can be expect neither to read your mind nor to give you English lessons.

My first reply stated a fact and offered friendly advice. The fact that you didn't like it doesn't change what it is. Oh, and no one here needed to look up anything to respond to you.

12/14/2014 04:05:56 pm

Again, can YOU, or Scott, or the "Native Americans who told him this" prove it to be a true story?

"the natives considered currency to be "Picture paper" and thus was meaningless to them... "

As I stated, my great great great Cherokee grandmother never viewed money in that manor, so to say "the natives" means the race as a whole shared that view point. No particular tribe was named, no particular members of said tribe where named. There for it is a sweeping statement about a race of people that isn't true. I can give you good examples of this but then, I might get in trouble for posting them.

drhiii

12/9/2014 08:13:42 pm

After watching a few minutes of America Unearthed, I did a quick search where I could post a reaction to this History Channel program. Happily found this site that articulated my reaction to a few minutes of this program. "Slow descent into irrelevance" pretty much sums it up. I could not believe how un-compelling, beyond mediocre, classless drivel that was presented in just one commercial to commercial segment. Nothing redeemable about this Custer Treasure program. Nothing.

FWIW, my father was a company commander during the Korean War in the 7th Cav. He was interviewed by the History Channel a few years ago where he was quoted as saying one of his company actions was "Custer's Revenge"... where he led what was left of Company K of the 7th Cav up a hill in 1950 of heavily dug in and fortified North Korean and Chinese. The attack started with 37 men of the 7th Cav. He learned after the attack his 37 men assaulted a hill of 600. They killed 400, and captured 192. He had 15 men left. They led the 192 captured prisoners down the hill. In the dark. Custer's Revenge as he occasionally refers to it.

Mention the above because of the Custer reference, and that it is a hell of a lot more interesting than this dismal America Unearthed program. Gather most felt the same here. FWIW

12/10/2014 12:23:32 am

Thorough, balanced and well-researched biographies/books that provide a better perspective on Custer than 21st century media companies and journalists:

Robert M. Utley: "Cavalier in Buckskin"
Jeffry D. Wert: "Custer: The Controversial Life of George Armstrong Custer"
John S. Gray: "Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876"

Joanne

12/14/2014 12:49:22 pm

I was absolutely FASCINATED by this episode because (1) Don Shelby and I run into each other at the same political fundraisers (2) I've been doing business with that Excelsior MN coinman for years (3) I travel that route to South Dakota frequently for dinosaur hunting and (4) a friend of my son worked for Scott around 8 years ago analyzing concrete samples. You can believe that I'll be asking my people if they realize that much of the world is laughing at Scott!

12/14/2014 01:51:10 pm

Joanne, it may also be of interest to you that Scott Wolter once participated in a revisionist conference that is a notorious forum for Holocaust deniers organized by people with ties to Neo-Nazis and other usavory types.

https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t25432/

Roger

12/14/2014 04:05:49 pm

EP, you been here a hell of a lot longer than me. What do we know about Wolter's degree? I thought I heard there was some sort of monkey business going on.

12/14/2014 04:57:07 pm

EP, nevermind. I found the mother load on here about his "non existent degree". I'm going to read Colavito's post and some of the almost 1600 comments. Did find that Wolter demanded his bio removed from Wikipedia. I was just wondering where he got his degree because I wanted to read about that degree program, as I find it interesting. Interesting in that my gut tells me he might have a 4yr degree in geology, but the forensic part is BS.

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