Kingsley Bray is the author of Crazy Horse, A Lakota Life (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006). He is an independent scholar who lives in Manchester, England. He has spent decades researching Plains Indians, especially Lakota, history and ethnology. Crazy Horse was named Best Book of 2006 by the CBHMA, and won a Spur Award for Best Western Biography from the Western Writers of America.
Sandy Barnard is an independent scholar and author of numerous books on Custer and the Little Big Horn, including, I Go with Custer: The Life and Death of Reporter Mark Kellogg (1996), Photographing Custer’s Battlefield: The Images of Kenneth F. Roahen, and George Armstrong Custer, A Military Life (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2021).
Michael Donahue is the author of, Drawing Battle Lines: The Map Testimony of Custer’s Last Fight, and Where the Rivers Ran Red, the Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer. He is the longest serving faculty member at Temple College in Temple, Texas (43 years), and a nationally recognized artist with over 50 exhibitions to his credit. Michael has worked as a park ranger at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument for 33 summers.
David Harrington’s long career in the National Park Service included over thirty years as Deputy Comptroller and Budget Officer, and later service as acting superintendent at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
Paul Hedren is the author of scores of articles appearing in magazines and journals, and twelve books, nearly all pertaining to the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, including Rosebud, June 17, 1876: Prelude to the Little Big Horn (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019), and John Finerty Reports the Sioux War (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020). He retired from the National Park Service in 2007 after some thirty-seven years as a park historian and superintendent at such storied places as Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the Golden Spike Site in Utah, Fort Union in North Dakota, and the Niobrara Scenic River in Nebraska.
Tim Lehman is a professor of history at Rocky Mountain College. He is the author of Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010).
Neil Mangum is the author of Battle of the Rosebud: Prelude to the Little Big Horn (Upton & Sons, 1987), and one of the nation’s preeminent authorities on the American West. His long career with the National Park Service included stints as superintendent and historian at Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, Chiricahua National Monument, and Fort Bowie Historic Site in Arizona. He also served as regional historian at the NPS’s Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Bob Reece is the president of the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the official partner of the National Park Service affiliated with the National Monument. He long been an important catalyst for preservation and interpretation efforts related to the Little Bighorn, and has been a familiar volunteer at the battlefield for many years. Bob has photographed the battlefield for over forty years, producing a catalog of stunning and captivating images. Of this mesmerizing landscape, he says, "the sky and the light guide me to new and beautiful views."
Doug Scott is retired as supervisory archaeologist, Midwest Archeological Center, National Park Service. Widely known as an expert on military archaeology, he is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including They Died with Custer: Soldiers' Bones from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Uncovering History: Archaeological Investigations at the Little Bighorn, and Custer, Cody, and Grand Duke Alexis: Historical Archaeology of the Royal Buffalo Hunt.
Donovin Sprague, author of ten books, teaches history and political science at Sheridan College, including Wyoming Tribal History, American Indian History & Culture, Tribal Law, Treaties, & Government, and Plains Indian Art. He has served as Director of Education at the Crazy Horse Memorial, and instructor at Black Hills State University, and Oglala Lakota College. A member of the Hump and Crazy Horse families, he was born and raised on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and is an enrolled member of the Minnicoujou Lakota.
Rodney Thomas is the author of the acclaimed, Rubbing Out Long Hair (Pehin Hanska Kasota): The American Indian Story of the Little Big Horn in Art and Word (Elk Plain Press, 2009), and the newly released, Bíilaachia-White Swan: Crow Warrior, Custer Scout, American Artist (McFarland, 2022). Colonel Thomas is a retired 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army, a respected researcher of North American military history and Indigenous warrior biographic art, and the erstwhile editor of Greasy Grass, the journal of the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association.
Gregory J. W. Urwin, professor of history at Temple University and former president of the Society for Military History, has authored or edited nine books, including Custer Victorious: The Civil War Battles of General George Armstrong Custer, the prize-winning Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island, and Black Flag over Dixie: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War. He is now writing When Freedom Wore a Red Coat: The British Invasions of Virginia, 1781. He has also published more than 200 articles, essays, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. Urwin has appeared in many documentaries on the History Chanel and other venues, and he also worked as a historical consultant and extra on the 1989 Civil War epic, Glory.
Panel Participants: Neil Mangum, while superintendent, played a key role in creation of the Indian Memorial, and installation of warrior markers; David Harrington was the NPS’s Deputy Assistant Director/Budget Officer, a former board member of the Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee, and acting superintendent at LIBI when he obtained NPS approval for funding a new park General Management Plan and a conceptual agreement for a new visitor center; Barbara Johnson was Chief of Planning at the NPS Denver Service Center, and the acting superintendent during the summer of 2011.