Day 42 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Tuesday 8/7/18

Today we car caravanned 100 miles to see the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

Along the way we saw outstanding landscapes, it is amazing how different they can look as we travel along.

Traveling on I-90 West, even though it turns north. We passed by Lake Desmet. Lake Desmet occupies a natural undrained basin on the divide between Piney Creek, and one of its tributaries, Boxelder Creek. It is one of several basins in the Buffalo area that were formed by coal seam fires. After the coal deposits burned, the clinker and other sediments collapsed into the space vacated by the burned coal forming a natural basin.

In the early years, Lake Desmet was a highly salty lake capable of supporting only limited types of aquatic life. However, during a period of higher precipitation from 1880 to 1915 the salinity of the lake dropped because of additional runoff from local creeks. In 1917, Levi Leiter a Chicago millionaire built an irrigation ditch from Piney Creek to Lake Desmet, and impounded additional water with a small dam. In 1957, Reynolds Mining bought the lake, replaced the ditch with a tunnel and replaced the dam with a higher dam. In 1976, Texaco bought Lake Desmet from Reynolds Mining and they raised the dam again. The original natural lake was about 1500 acres in size, but the various dams have increased the size of the lake to about 3600 acres today.

The Bozeman Trail which was active from 1863 to 1868 passed about a mile west of Lake Desmet along the length of the lake. About a half dozen emigrant diaries mention the lake, and some of the travelers mistakenly called it Smith or Smith's Lake. Over the years, Lake Desmet has been alleged to be inhabited by a sea monster. These legends and recent sightings have persisted to the present day. Although Father De Smet spelled his name differently, the preferred spelling of the name of the lake is Lake Desmet.

Before we got to the battlefield, this is what I knew … The Army's 7th Cavalry and the Native Americans fought and it is where Custer died. What I know now, is soooooooo much more! 

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry and a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force. Custer National Cemetery, on the battlefield, is part of the national monument. The site of a related military action led by Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen is also part of the national monument, but is about 3 miles southeast of the Little Bighorn battlefield.

The white tombstones of Custer National Cemetery lie adjacent to the visitor center and museum. Pay your respects at the gravesites of more than 4,000 men and women who died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as well as in both world wars and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

We took an Apsaalooke Tour along the 4.5 mile road to Reno - Benteen defense site. Our guided tour was about 1 hour long and was narrated by members of the Crow Tribe. Our guide was amazing, it was like we were on the battlefield! 

On Sunday, June 25, 1876, the battered remnants of Major Marcus A. Reno's three companies reached these bluffs following their disastrous attack in the valley. The warriors who had pursued Reno's retreating command left the pursuit and went downstream. Reno was soon joined by Captain Frederick W. Benteen's battalion of three companies, about 120 men, and the pack train with its escort of 130 men. About this time gunfire was reported to the north, in the direction of Custer's probable advance.

Elements of Rene's force, in an attempt to open communication with Custer, proceeded to Weir Point, about one mile north. Confronted there by an overwhelming number of Sioux and Cheyenne, the cavalry was forced back to this site. Here Reno and Benteen established a defense perimeter that evening at which time, the warriors began firing a hail of bullets into the soldier's position.

They arrived at this sight, as a result of Reno's Retreat, although he called it a “charge,” even though it was away from the enemy.

Looking down the ravines toward the Little Bighorn River, you can see where Major Marcus Reno led Companies A, G, and M back across the river in retreat from where he earlier attacked the upstream end of the Indian encampment. Hundreds of warriors had attacked and flanked Reno's men, forcing them to take a defensive position in the timber. The retreat to the bluffs followed. The defense line at this position was occupied by Capt. Thomas H. French's M Company. McDougall's B Company defended this area on June 26, when French was summoned to support Benteen.

Warriors took up positions close to the side of the defense area during the night of June 25 and the early morning of June 26. Caption Frederick W. Benteen asked for more men, so Caption French brought M Company over to reinforce this segment of the line. Warriors with rifles were in positions behind the hills and ridges to the west of this site. The only surviving doctor, Assistant Surgeon Henry R. Porter, collected the wounded and set up an improvised field hospital in the site marked in the depression south of Reno-Benteen Memorial. Many of Reno's men had been wounded in the valley fight and retreat, and warrior firearms were taking their toll as other men were hit along the line.

photo credit: NPS

There is a simple stone pile to mark the position named Sharpshooter Ridge. A sharpshooter on the ridge 500 yards made life extremely hazardous for the troopers lying along this portion of the line. No one knows who this sharpshooter was, but their role was critical in the attack. Sioux and Cheyenne warriors occupied vantage points all around the Reno-Benteen position. The warriors were armed with a variety of different weapons.

On the evening of June 26, the Lakota and Cheyenne broke camp and moved off toward the Bighorn Mountains, seen in the distance to the south. The men on Reno Hill were relieved but hesitant to let their guard down. Unsure of why the Indians had suddenly department, many soldiers suspected a trick, and spent another night on the bluffs. Early the next morning, the nearly exhausted soldiers spied a large dust cloud in the river valley to the north, and soon learned that General Terry, with Colonel Gibbon's infantry and cavalry column, was marching up the river. I could go on forever, but will stop now ... there is so much about each portion of the battle.

We attended the "Battle Talk" program given by Jim Addelson, the Park Ranger. He was so knowledgeable, intriguing and passionate that the 45 minute talk flew by. He is the self-appointed "Mic Jagger" of the Battlefield.

Some of the tour group watched the 25 minute DVD presentation of "Triumph & Tragedy Along the Little Bighorn". Others of us took a walk down the Deep Ravine trail; visited Custer's Last Stand Hill / 7th Cavalry Monument and Indian Memorial.

I’ll talk about the “Peace Through Unity” memorial that commemorates Native Americans who battled at Little Bighorn. If you look at it only from the road, you are missing the best of the memorial. The somber Indian Memorial features metal castings of “Spirit Warriors,” commemorating the Native American fighters and tribal women involved in the battle. For decades, Native Americans sought to have their story recognized at the national monument. In 2003 the Indian Memorial was unveiled. Sixty Native Americans are documented to have died in the battle, but the exact toll is not known. When you enter the Memorial, you enter another world -- somber, deep, retrospective, and sacred.

The circular earth and stone work is gently carved out of the plains. The Memorial is in the shape of a perfect circle. For many tribes, the circle is sacred and symbolic of the journey of life. In the center is a circle of red dirt. Around it is a circled stone walkway. On the inner walls sit panels for each tribe that fought in the battle (Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Arikara). Each tribe lists their dead and there are some pictographs.

You are immediately drawn to the Spirit Warriors standing high above you to the north. The area is wide open so the Montana prairie shines through. If you turn around from the Spirit Warriors you look through a gap in the mound called the Weeping Wall. It is here that water continually trickles down into a pool representing tears for the fallen warriors and soldiers. And, centered perfectly within the Weeping Wall can be seen the 7th Cavalry Monument. This Spirit Gate welcomes the fallen soldiers to enter the Memorial and join the fallen warriors in friendship; “peace through unity.” Its symbolism is powerful in so many ways to say the least. It is peaceful in this place, within this circle.

The heart of Little Bighorn is Last Stand Hill, where the crux of the battle was fought and where visitors can view the tiny, crooked gravestones and markers indicating where Custer’s troops fell and were buried. This includes Custer, whose remains were eventually disinterred and now lie at West Point Cemetery in Highlands, New York. The 7th US Cavalry Memorial, a towering stone monolith built in 1881 and dedicated to the 263 troops and attached personnel who died in the battle.  

Throughout the Little Bighorn National Monument landscape, there are a variety of markers and memorials that indicate where combatants fell and that commemorate the battle: white marble markers for 7th Cavalry soldiers and warrior memorial stone cairns were added to the landscape shortly after the battle. Custer's marker is the only white marble marker with a black painted face. 

But nothing for the Native Americans. There is much speculation as to why, the most common theme is because the family came and took their loved ones back home for burial. They wanted to build a Native American Memorial, but needed to raise funds. Individual warrior markers could be an ideal memorial for the American Indian warrior as well as enhance interpretation at the battlefield. Such markers could be placed quickly and inexpensively.

The dream of seeing warrior markers materialize would finally come true, so they began the research wholeheartedly with assistance from Chief of Interpretation Ken Woody. Lame White Man and Noisy Walking as their first candidates because a lot of the work had already been conducted by Rickey and Stands In Timber. Mr. Eaglefeathers, Logan Curley, and Dolan Many Bad Horses acted as representatives of the Cheyenne tribes because there were no family members of the two warriors of whom anyone knew. 

They worked together to design and wording of the markers. Mr. Eaglefeathers translated the English names into their proper Cheyenne spelling, as can be seen on the markers today. They wanted the warrior markers to stand out from the soldiers’ white stark markers so he chose red granite so they could be more easily found.

Finally, after 123 years during a small ceremony on Memorial Day, May 31, 1999, unveiling the very first red granite markers for Indian warriors who fell in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Memorial Day is a US holiday that honors the men and women who died fighting for our country. Because countless American Indians have died for and continue to defend our country to this day, it was the perfect day to honor them. It was not a big affair, the whole event was small and private. 

After the markers were unveiled, the American Indian visitation has increased dramatically, and even more so since the Indian Memorial dedication. There is sometimes debate about whether the land that the Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought upon was Cheyenne or Crow land at the time. Needless to say, after Long Road’s marker was placed, the NPS changed the wording on all future markers to read, “O’Xasehe, Cut Belly, a Cheyenne warrior died here on June 25, 1876 while defending the Cheyenne way of life.” They continue the difficult work of researching future warrior makers. Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield has helped fund some of the warrior markers. 

I found this short time line of events rather interesting:

In January of 1879, the Secretary of War first preserved the site as a US National Cemetery, to protect graves of the 7th Cavalry troopers buried there.

In December of 1886, the site was proclaimed National Cemetery of Custer's Battlefield Reservation to include burials of other campaigns and wars. The name has been shortened to "Custer National Cemetery."

In 1940, the site was transferred from the United States Department of War to the National Park Service and in 1946, the site was redesignated "Custer Battlefield National Monument."

In 1966 it was add to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1976, The American Indian Movement (AIM) protested the centennial commemoration of the site, arguing that the site revered Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn as a part of a heroic saga of American history and expansion into the American West while those who revered it had been truly "celebrating an act of genocide."

Fifteen years later, in 1991, the site was renamed Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument by a law signed by then President George HW Bush.

We enjoyed lunch, as a group, at the Custer Battlefield Café. 

As always there was good food, fun, laughter and discussions about what we saw!

After lunch, some went back to the National Battlefield, some went shopping and others started the 100 mile journey back to the campers. People have always said, if Yankee RV has an optional tour take it … that is for sure!