Native Sun News Today: Little Bighorn remains a big draw 143 years later

Tuesday, June 4, 2019  

The Little Big Horn Battlefield, on the Crow Reservation, is in southeastern Montana, right outside of Crow Agency, right off Highway 212, the Warrior Trail.

It is only about sixty miles from Billings, Montana, or Sheridan, Wyoming, and a few hundred from Rapid City, South Dakota. The second largest tourism haunt in Montana annually attracts several hundred thousand visitors. One of the most popular days is the annual anniversary of the battle, Tuesday, June 25, 2019, the 143rd.

On June 25, 1876, a large contingent of Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, a few Arapaho, Mandan-Hidatsa, Arikara and one sole Southern Ute were hunting on the Little Big Horn in Montana. They were considered the “hold-outs” by the U.S. Army, because they did not want to surrender a free, beloved way of life and move onto reservations.

In times of great trouble, the Northern Cheyenne appealed to their Sioux allies and brothers and the winter of 1875 had been very harsh for them, as the Army, in a “winter campaign”, attacked, burned and destroyed their horses, clothing, food and many of the people. The survivors made their way to Crazy Horse’s camp; he sustained through the winter and promised to help them get resupplied in the spring at the “greasy grass”, the Little Big Horn, a very rich and nutritious valley for wildlife, especially the essential buffalo.

And although those tribal people were aware of menace, experiencing the Battle of the Rosebud earlier in June, they were not seeking a fight, hoping to avoid the whites. Custer and the 7th Calvary, however, were hot on the trail of the renegades, the golden-haired general with an eye to victory and fame, bound to bring them in or “wipe them out” them in the process.

Before, Custer in his “victories” over the Cheyenne had the advantage of early morning surprise upon mostly women and children, he with superior arms and numbers. But, not on that fateful day.

They say it was a huge encampment, stretching for miles. The Crow scouts for Custer tried to advise him of that, but as we all know, “Yellow-Hair” did not listen.

A sacred vision had earlier come to Sitting Bull, at the Medicine Rocks, also in southeastern Montana in a ceremony which yielded a vision of “soldiers falling from the sky”. They did not fall from the sky; they were quickly and carefully picked off by the warriors “like a hive of angry bees”, seeking satisfaction for the many helpless ones who had earlier been massacred (murdered) by the 7th, during many other encounters. It was a sweet, but fleeting victory, which infuriated the American public and military. Shortly, the Tribes were overwhelmed and placed on reservations.

For much time, the site was named “Custer’s Last Stand,” including a neat and orderly array of white markers commemorating the 7th and other veterans, as it is still a great military honor be interred there. But, in the 1990’s, the native people organized to get a name change, finding a spokesperson in U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, one of the Cheyenne traditional 44 Chiefs and a Veteran.

That was another long and controversial battle, as Custer, like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull also gained a place in plains history and, a loyal following. Yet, in 1991, Congress authorized the name change, a tribal monument, and generally encouraged a wider recognition of the tribal history associated with that event.

Though it took ten years to complete, today, you will see a beautiful wrought iron monument of warriors gracing the greasy grass skyline, visit a memorial carved into the hillside, displaying the names and depictions of warriors who fell there.

Clara Caufield can be reached @acheyennevoice.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today