7/2 - Little Bighorn Battlefield

I sent yesterday’s email earlier than usual so the sunset hadn’t happened yet. 

I can’t get used to the sun setting so late here (9:03 today) and rising so early (5:26).  I almost missed the sunsets both last night and tonight.  It will be even later when we get to Glacier on Wednesday when we’ll have a 9:40 sunset.

It was another scorching day…..95 degrees…..but we made good use of the air conditioned truck, visitor center and tour bus.

The visitor center was very crowded this morning, not surprising for a holiday weekend.  We escaped from it as soon as we’d watched the park service’s video which was good as always.  The park consists of an out-and-back road of around five miles which covers the view of the battlefield in addition to the important monuments to both sides.

Monument on Last Stand Hill to the 7^th Cavalry, Indian scouts and civilians who died in the battle.

The memorial to the Indians is bigger and cannot be captured in one picture.  It’s across the road and slightly downhill from the 7^th Cavalry monument.

Jim in front of two of the many panels in the Indian memorial’s circle.  The Indian allies were Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho who just wanted to continue living their nomadic lifestyle and keep from being forced onto a reservation.  They had joined together in a huge village of approximately 8000 people, thinking that by combining forces they would discourage the army from attacking them.  They were camped on the Little Bighorn River as they moved north towards a large herd of antelope their scouts had recently spotted.  The buffalo were nearly gone by 1876 and the Plains Indians were struggling to find enough food.  The army had been sent out to round them up and deal with the Indian problem.

In front of the memorial markers for the soldiers who died on Last Stand Hill.  Custer’s marker is the one with the black front.  It marks the general location of where he died.  His remains were reburied at West Point two years after the battle. 

Part of the battlefield looking to the west.  The Little Bighorn river runs through the trees in the mid-distance.  The Indians’ camp was along the river.  The battle covered about five miles in length and maybe a mile in width.  It’s wide open country but it’s tough terrain with a lot of hills, valleys and dry gullies, and it had a running creek at the time of the battle which contributed to the soldiers’ difficulties.  

Last Stand Hill in the afternoon when thunderstorms were all around.

We did the self-guided tour this morning, driving to the end of the battlefield and back.  By then it was lunchtime so we went back to the RV to eat.  We returned to the battlefield in mid-afternoon to see more of the museum and take the bus tour.  By that time there were far fewer people.  The tour consisted of doing the same out-and-back route again but with a Crow Indian tour guide talking for an hour which added to our understanding of what took place.  His first language was Crow and he translated a number of words for us.  It sounds like a difficult language…..hard for English-speakers to even pick out words, let alone say them.  He said the name of his tribe means “people of the large-beaked bird” but that it was incorrectly translated as “Crow.”  The bird was actually like a raven but much bigger.

The 140^th anniversary of the battle was last weekend.  Even after all this time books are still being written about the battle and about Custer.  It was a much more complicated situation than is generally known.  In 1983 a fire burned a section of the battlefield and uncovered thousands of artifacts.  After they were studied by scientists it was finally determined that the accounts of the battle given by Indians were correct.  The Indians’ reports were not believed for many years but the records uncovered by the fire finally proved they were right. 

Another beautiful sunset tonight.  And, once again, I almost missed it!

I won’t be writing tomorrow night unless something comes up to write about.  Covering the battlefield takes only one day and there’s nothing else around here to see or do.  We’ll be moving 300 miles up to Great Falls on Monday, keeping our fingers crossed that the 4^th of July noise will mostly occur tomorrow while we’re still in this nice quiet spot.