s/y Nine of Cups
Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument - Montana
June 2012
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument memorializes a major battle fought on June
25, 1876, between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians against the US Army.
These tribes were fighting to preserve their traditional way of life as nomadic buffalo
hunters. The US Army was carrying out the Grant Administration's instructions to
remove the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne peoples to the great Sioux Reservation in
Dakota Territory. This battle is known as Custer's Last Stand.
Sitting Bull was a political and spiritual
leader of the Lakotas. Lt. Col. George
Armstrong Custer was sent to comply
with orders to move the Indians to a
reservation. Custer Battlefield National
Monument was designated in 1940 and
had its name changed in 1991 to reflect
Native American participation in the
battle and a better understanding of what
they were fighting for.
No memorial honored the Native Americans who struggled to preserve and defend their
homeland and traditional way of life until this striking one was erected in the park in 1997.
The Custer Battlefield Trading Post across
the street from the national monument
entrance offered Custer and Native
American souvenirs.
A memorial to the horses
Little Bighorn is also a National Cemetery, one of 146
nationally important cemeteries generally designated as
a military cemeteries containing the graves of U.S.
military personnel, veterans and their spouses.
On the knoll known as Last Stand Hill, Custer and 41 of his men fought to the death. A total of 253 US soldiers and an estimated 100 Indians
were killed during the battle. The soldier's remains were placed at the base of the monument on the top of the hill and individual grave markers
were placed where the soldiers were thought to have fallen, including George Custer.
This caught our attention.
We spotted a Boisduval Blue butterfly
fluttering among the gravestones.
The visit here was informative and
sad.  It serves as a reminder of
promises made and broken, of
man's inhumanity to man, of duty
and honor.
Check out:
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Next up...Pompey's Pillar National
Monument ... on the Lewis & Clark Trail.
Begrudgingly we allow you to

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