Of course the fictional Fort Clenendin is overrun on November 17 to 18, 1876, according to the narration at the beginning, and the Little Bighorn was on June 25-26, 1876.
Note the in the 19th century the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were allies. About 1840 if I remember the Cheyenne and Arapaho divided into northern and southern groups. The northern Cheyenne & northern Arapaho became allies of the Teton Sioux tribes, forming what I call the northern plains hostile alliance, while the southern Cheyenne and southern Arapaho were first enemies of the Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache, and later became their allies, forming what I call the southern plains hostile alliance.
Many of the northern Cheyenne fought with the Sioux at the Little Bighorn, but allegedly there were only five Arapaho warriors in the great Sioux camp at the Little Bighorn, who had been mistaken for Indian scouts at first and almost killed. It is said that one of those Arapahos then mistook Cheyenne chief Lame White Man for a scout at the Little Bighorn and killed and scalped him. With allies like that Arapaho, who needs enemies?
So in the fictional story of Chuka news of the Little Bighorn may have encouraged Hanu and the rest of the Arapaho to attack Fort Clenendin.
Actually the cavalry loses a lot more often, and more badly, in movies than in history. For example, Pillars of the Sky (1956) set in 1868, is based on a real army defeat in 1858, but vastly exaggerates the casualties. Fort Apache (1948) and The Glory Guys (1965) have fictional disasters based on the little Bighorn. And so on.
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