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MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2003

"It was a little more than 10 years ago, I believe, when I paid a visit to the Little Big Horn National Monument in southeastern Montana. I was with a group of teammates from the UNITY Indian basketball team. We were playing in the national tournament in Billings and after a first-round win we decided to take a road trip during our one afternoon off.

Being all from Oklahoma, we decided to experience a slice of American history. As we approached the upper Little Big Horn valley, the rental van turned from locker-room chatter to quiet reverence among the spirits of the most famous battle of the West.

We saw a sign for 'Last Stand Hill' and the memorial of white headstones dedicated to the U.S. 7th Cavalry, paid for and installed by, I assume, the National Park Service. Our Chickasaw center, Big Dan, bellowed out "where's the (bleepin') monument for the ones who won? Who fought for their homelands and kicked (bleep)."

Little did we know that Congress had authorized an Indian memorial just a few months earlier, after years of demands by Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho descendants of warriors who fought and died and came out victorious that day, June 25, 1876, at the Little Big Horn."

Get the Story:
Harlan McKosato: How About a Frybread Stand at the Little Big Horn (The Santa Fe New Mexican 3/9)

Relevant Links:
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - http://www.nps.gov/libi

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