Bones of a human forearm and hand overlooked by the 1881 reburial party, and discovered during the excavations.

Bone was the major class of artifact found in the excavations. Despite the fact that the men were reburied in a mass grave in 1881 it was not unusual to find small bits of human bone around a marker.

Dr. Clyde Snow and Dr. P. Willey, physical anthropologists who interpreted the bones found at the battlefield, say this is typical of a modern crime scene where bone has been gathered by untrained lay people. Small bones, such as hand and feet bones, are either not recognized as human or overlooked and left behind. Indeed, these were the majority of the bones found.

In the excavations where skull fragments were uncovered, they were all just that, fragments. They had been broken while the bone was green indicating what is called "perimortem blunt instrument trauma". An Indian warrior, Black Elk, recounted the final moments of the battle, describing how the Indians used hatchets and clubs to finish off the surviving soldiers. The evidence of trauma on the recovered human bone supports these recollections

While some of the trauma was undoubtedly induced at the time of death, other trauma, such as cut marks and crushed skulls, may have occurred after death. The mutilation of the dead was a normal cultural expression of victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne in battle. This battle was no exception, but to the soldiers who buried Custer's dead on June 28, 1876 the field was a scene of ghastly and sickening horror.