History Was Human

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Bloody Knife is often remembered simply as "Custer's favorite scout." His real life was far more complicated.

Born to a Hunkpapa Lakota father and an Arikara mother, Bloody Knife grew up between two peoples with a long history of conflict. He became an accomplished Army scout, developed a close working relationship with George Armstrong Custer, and ultimately rode into the Battle of the Little Bighorn—where an old enemy from his past, Gall, was fighting on the opposite side.

In Episode 2 of History Was Human, Brian R. Smith follows Bloody Knife's life beyond the famous photograph and the Custer legend: his divided childhood, his reasons for becoming a scout, his experiences on the northern plains, and the complicated personal history that led him to the Little Bighorn.

Bloody Knife's story fascinated Brian enough that he later wrote the historical novel Bloody Knife, because the man himself proved far more interesting than the supporting role history usually gave him.

Support the show

• Original podcast music composed and performed by Ken Burns.
• Hosted by author Brian R. Smith.
• Learn more: authorbrianrsmith.com
• https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBrianRSmith

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At seventeen, Belle Boyd shot a Union soldier in her family home. Soon afterward, she began listening to the soldiers assigned to watch her—and passing what she learned to the Confederacy.

In the first episode of History Was Human, Brian R. Smith explores the life of one of the Civil War’s most famous female spies: her wartime intelligence work, arrests, celebrity, contradictions, and the cause she chose to serve.

This is not a story about turning Belle Boyd into a hero or a villain. It is about looking past the legend and finding the complicated human being behind it.

Support the show

• Original podcast music composed and performed by Ken Burns.
• Hosted by author Brian R. Smith.
• Learn more: authorbrianrsmith.com
• https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBrianRSmith