Speaker will bring Battle of Little Bighorn to life at Temecula Valley Historical Society meeting

Dr. Mark S. Bellnap will speak to the Temecula Valley Historical Society on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a subject he has studied for about 25 years at 6 p.m., Monday, July 25.

Bellnap will tell about the little-known secondary fight, the Battle on Reno-Beenten Hill, which took place on the same day. He will give a background on the two fights and will examine whether or not General Custer and others may have disobeyed orders by initiating the battles.

The program will not be political in nature and will not analyze whether the U.S. Government or Native American people were right or wrong in their views toward the U.S. policies, a spokesperson said.

Bellnap attended the U.S. Cavalry School near the battle site, where he learned about cavalry tactics and weapons of that time period. He has ridden the Custer trails on horseback and served as an re-enactor during annual re-enactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, including the 146th anniversary reenactment in June 2022.

Bellnap gives scholarly presentations at professional conferences; and had a peer-reviewed paper published on the subject by the National Social Science Association.

The public is invited to attend the live presentation, which will take place at the Little Temecula History Center, the red barn next to Kohls in south Temecula. There is no charge for the meeting. It also will be live-streamed on the Temecula Valley Historical Society's Facebook page.