Mo-nah-se-tah

Monaseetah (Moniseetan Verch, c.1851 - 1922), was the mistress of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876).

She was born in Texas although she was almost certainly Cheyenne by origin, and may have been among the Cheyenne bands at Sand Creek, who fled during and after the massacre there in 1864. She met Custer in about 1867, shortly after the American Civil War. Some researchers have postulated, albeit without any evidence, that she was in effect his captive, but others over the ages have decried this, pointing out that on 27 November 1868, she entered into a marriage ceremony with him, although he was actually bigamous as he had already married, on 9 February 1864, one Elizabeth Clift Bacon (1842–1933). In about 1869 Monaseetah gave Custer a son, Yellow Bird Custer, who was also born in Texas (See: The Controversial Life of George Armstrong Custer By: Jeffry D. Wert (1964))

She is known to have secretly accompanied him on military manoevres and the couple would frequently ride out from camp together on early morning jaunts. But very little is known of her. A tobacco pouch, made by her for her uncle, Chief Black Kettle, is now in the Kansas City Union Station Collection. White Cow Bull, a veteran of the Little Big Horn on the Native American side who afterwards set his sights on her, said, "One woman I wanted was a pretty young Shahiyela named Monahseetah [Mona Setah], or Meotxi as I called her. She was in her middle twenties but had never married any man of her tribe. Some of my Shahiyela friends said she was from the southern branch of their tribe, just visiting up north, and they said no Shahiyela could marry her because she had a seven-year-old son born out of wedlock and that tribal law forbade her getting married. They said the boy’s father had been a white soldier chief named Long Hair; he had killed her father (sic), Chief Black Kettle, in a battle in the south, the Battle of Washita River eight winters before, they said, and captured her. He had told her he wanted to make her his second wife, and so he had her. But after a while his first wife, a white woman, found her out and made him let her go. I saw him often around the Shahiyela camp. He was named Yellow Bird [sometimes Yellowbird or Yellowtail] and he had light streaks in his hair. He was always with his mother in the daytime, so I would have to wait until night to try to talk to her alone. She knew I wanted to walk with her under a courting blanket and make her my wife. But she would only talk with me through the tepee cover and never came outside". (-- "Echoes of the Little Bighorn", by David Humphreys Miller, with an Epilogue by Robert Utley, American Heritage Magazine, June 1971, Vol 22, Issue 4).

Thus after Custer was killed at the Little Big Horn on 25 June 1876, Monaseetah apparently chose to live a quiet life, spurning others and keeping away from the hustle of the popular interest in her husband. She died in 1922.

References

LDS Family Archives:

(AFN:1DQS-2WC) Custer, Yellow B.

(AFN:1DQS-2V5), Custer, Monaseetah, Mrs.

Rootsweb, Ref: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~quick/d0135/g0000055.html#I068531 http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/custer/george.html (Orlene Ehlers Custer)

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dantrogers/pafg2768.htm#55319

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=annak1&id=I7015

http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tdowling&id=I01264

"The Controversial Life of George Armstrong Custer", by Jeffry D. Wert (1964)

"Echoes of the Little Bighorn", by David Humphreys Miller, with an Epilogue by Robert M. Utley, American Heritage Magazine, June 1971, Vol 22, Issue 4).