There are other reasons to call Custer names. In 1868 he and his troops massacred over 100 peaceful Cheyenne men, women, and children. Custer was under the apparently erroneous impression that a raiding party had come from that camp. He started the 1876 war by following Sheridan's illegal orders to enter the Dakota reservation in the Black Hills (which was protected by treaty), and while he was there he encouraged prospecting for gold, which led to the gold rush that caused most of the reservation to be taken away. (Incidentally, he started the battle of Little Big Horn by a surprise attack on a camp, but that time, as Alice notes, he miscalculated and never got to the women and children.)