In 1876, General George Custer met his end at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The armies of the Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho left no survivors among the US 7th Cavalry Regiment. It was days before the rest of the army knew what had happened, when a Crow scout who worked for Custer named Curley was found traumatized and broke the news. Curley became quite famous for surviving the battle, and later after the turn of the 20th century would travel from town to town in the West, telling the story of the Battle of Little Big Horn and Custer's dying words. As soon as his identity was known, the mayor and other prominent citizens would hurry to make him feel welcome. Curley also made deals that enabled white townspeople to buy fertile tracts of land on the reservation in Montana.
But that kind of activity couldn't last, especially since some of Curley's appearances made the papers. There were those who knew that Curley didn't speak English, and that he rarely ventured from the Montana reservation. Why, this guy, whose name was also Ben McIntosh, didn't even look like Curley the Crow! That was a particular shock for those who bought land and then went to Montana to claim it from Curley. Read the story of the real Curley and the fake Curley at CrimeReads. -via Damn Interesting