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Several individuals claimed responsibility for killing Custer, including [[White Bull]] of the [[Miniconjou]]s, [[Rain-in-the-Face]], Flat Lip, and Brave Bear.<ref>Dee Brown, ''Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee'', Vintage, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-09-952640-7}}, p.296-297.</ref> In June 2005, at a public meeting, Northern Cheyenne storytellers said that according to their oral tradition, [[Buffalo Calf Road Woman]], a Northern Cheyenne [[heroine]] of the [[Battle of the Rosebud]], struck the final blow against Custer, which knocked him off his horse before he died. She hit him with a club-like instrument.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/502013/retrobituaries-buffalo-calf-road-woman-custers-final-foe|title=Retrobituaries: Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Custer's Final Foe|date=2017-06-22|website=mentalfloss.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_fcf44c96-cfb6-56f4-9c57-062e944350ce.html|first=Martin J. |last=Kidston|title=Northern Cheyenne break vow of silence|publisher=Helenair.com|date=June 28, 2005|access-date=October 23, 2009}}</ref>
A contrasting version of Custer's death is suggested by the testimony of an Oglala named Joseph White Cow Bull, according to novelist and Custer biographer Evan Connell. He says that Joseph White Bull stated he had shot a rider wearing a buckskin jacket and big hat at the riverside when the soldiers first approached the village from the east. The initial force facing the soldiers, according to this version, was quite small (possibly as few as four warriors) yet challenged Custer's command. The rider who was hit had shouted orders that prompted the soldiers to attack and was next to a rider who bore a flag, but when the buckskin-clad rider fell off his horse after being shot, many of the attackers reined up. The allegation that the buckskin-clad officer was Custer, if accurate, might explain the supposed rapid disintegration of Custer's forces.<ref>Connell (1984), pp. 413–414.</ref> However, several other officers of the Seventh, including [[William W. Cooke|William Cooke]], [[Thomas Custer|Tom Custer]] and William Sturgis, were also dressed in buckskin on the day of the battle, and the fact that each of the non-mutilation wounds to George Custer's body (a bullet wound below the heart and a shot to the left temple) would have been instantly fatal casts doubt on his being wounded or killed at the ford, more than a mile from where his body was found.<ref>Wert, 1996, p. 355.</ref> The circumstances are, however, consistent with [[David Humphreys Miller]]'s suggestion that Custer's
During the 1920s, two elderly Cheyenne women spoke briefly with oral historians about their having recognized Custer's body on the battlefield and said that they had stopped a Sioux warrior from desecrating the body. The women were relatives of [[Mo-nah-se-tah]], who was alleged to have been Custer's lover in late 1868 and through 1869, and borne two children by him. Mo-nah-se-tah was among 53 Cheyenne women and children taken captive by the 7th Cavalry after the [[Battle of Washita River]] in 1868, in which Custer commanded an attack on the camp of Chief [[Black Kettle]]. Mo-nah-se-tah's father, [[Little Rock (Cheyenne chief)|Cheyenne chief Little Rock]], was killed in the battle.<ref name="greene-169">Greene 2004, p. 169.</ref>
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