Bill Groethe

Who is Bill Groethe?

Bill Groethe is the photographer who took the famous picture on September 2, 1948 of the last eight survivors of the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.

In the picture are: Little Warrior, Pemican, Little Soldier, Dewey Beard, John Sitting Bull, High Eagle, Iron Hawk and Comes Again. The picture hangs in the Smithsonian, and Bill still sells autographed copies from his store in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Groethe resides in Rapid City, South Dakota. Over many decades, beginning in the 1930s, he took photographs of the construction of the Mount Rushmore National Monument, the South Dakota Badlands, the Lakota prophet Black Elk, and the Native American survivors of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Bill Groethe's pictures are displayed at the Rapid City Airport, the Smithsonian Institute, Mount Rushmore, Custer Battlefield Monument Visitor Center, a theme park in Imachi City, Japan, and many other museums and private collections.

On August 17, 2009, Bill was honored by the City of Rapid City and the State of South Dakota. Both entities have declared September 2, 2009 as William M. Groethe Day in honor of the 61st anniversary of the Little Bighorn photo.