Photographs: Stone markers where the men fell in battle (the black one marks where Custor fell), looking out over the battlefield, part of the memorial to the Indians, the large memorial to the U.S. Cavalry soldiers (listing their names and placed over the mass grave).
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument marks the location of the Battle of Little Bighorn between U.S. Cavalry forces and a coalition of Indian tribes. This battle, which lasted only about three hours, took place on June 25, 1876.
One of the things that was so interesting to me as I followed the Mormon Trail west and visited sites for the Mormon, California and Oregon Trails in Casper, Wyoming was the role the Native Americans (who prefer to be called Indians in our part of the country) played in the westward migration of the white people. It was the Indian trails which formed the basis for the emigrant trails. It was Indian guides who helped the trappers and early explorers find a way through the mountains to the west coast. It was Indians who traded with the white people, allowed them safe passage through their (the Indians') hunting grounds and even stopped to help the handcart pioneers pull their carts up steep slopes.
I grew up hearing stories of Indian attacks and often had nightmares as a child that included graphic visions of painted Braves stampeding their horses down Michigan Avenue while I hid behind the chair in the corner of the living room. The truth is that the westward bound white settlers were in more danger from marauding white men and accidents along the trail than they were from Indian attacks. Of course, there were exceptions. There were numerous Indian Tribes, many who warred against each other, and there were those who attacked white settlements and random westward travelers. However, even when the thousands of westward travelers depleted grazing land and fresh water springs and killed off much of the wild game, including the buffalo, the major Indian leaders agreed to treaties that allowed safe passage (and settlement in some areas) for the white people.
In some of these treaties, the Indians were given settlement lands and hunting grounds in northern Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. When some white men tried to go into Montana by way of what was known as the Bozeman Trail (through the mountains from Casper to what is now Bozeman, Montana), they were turned back by the Indians and the United States honored the treaty. However, when gold was discovered in Montana and the Dakotas, the U.S. Army was unsuccessful at keeping the white prospectors out of Indian Territory and all-out war ensued. Thus the battle of the Little Bighorn (named after the Little Bighorn River).
I'm not going to give a detailed account of this battle. Anyone who is interested can find the information online. Suffice it to say that Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 210 cavalry men didn't have a chance against the 2000 Indian warriors who surrounded them. Custer and all of his men were killed in the battle. Two other groups of Cavalry soldiers were on the periphery of the battleground, however, and were able to document much of what happened and also come in (after the Indians had left with their dead) and bury the men who fell in battle, including several Indian guides. When they did so, they left a marker where each man fell. Some time later, the Cavalry came back, reburied all the bodies in a mass grave (except the officers, whose bodies were taken east; Custer's remains are buried at West Point) and put permanent stone markers where the men fell throughout the battlefield. These markers remain today. A large memorial to the Indians has also been erected and smaller markers (in red stone) for some of the Braves.
This national monument sits in the middle of the Crow Indian Reservation. Included on the property is a (current) Veterans' Administration Cemetery that has no link to the Battle of Little Bighorn, but is, nonetheless, a beautiful and solemn place. The entire area is covered with walking and driving trails and preserves a peace befitting of the events that happened here over 130 years ago.
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