Cowboys and Indians

We're leave Cody today and head up to Big Sky Country - Montana - to Crow Agency, Montana site of the Little Bighorn National Monument.  Its about a 2 1/2 hour drive of 169 miles.

Marker on Last Stand Hill

Custer

Little Bighorn is the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn also known as Custer's Last Stand and to the Indians as the Battle of Greasy Grass.  It was a battle between Native Americans of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and the 7th calvalry led by George Armstrong Custer.  The battle occurred on June 25 and 26, 1876 ending in a major victory for the Indians. 268 members of the 7th calvary were killed that day.  Most of the story has been passed down by the surviving Indians since so many of Custer's troops were killed.  Click on the links to learn more about this battle and the people involved or if you decide to come here I recommend The Last Stand.

The story actually begins a few years earlier when Gen. Custer was on an expedition in the Black Hills of South Dakota and discovered gold.  This area was sacred to several Indian tribes and the U.S. government signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 giving the Black Hills to the Lakota.  Once gold was discovered, the government broke the treaty and the Indians were pushed westward into Wyoming.  By 1876, the government was pushing to force all of the Indians onto reservations, but many chose to follow Sitting Bull as he refused to develop any dependence on the white man by living on a reservation.

Custer led one group of forces towards the area where Sitting Bull was reported to be camped and he was supposed to wait for the other column led by Colonel Terry once he got there.  However, Custer chose to attack on his own and then further divided his troops into three battalions when he got there.  His scouts had underestimated the size of the encampment and they were outnumbered by three to one. The group led by Custer himself were virtually annihilated within an hour with none of them surviving.  The other battalions led by Major Reno and Captain Benteen fought into the next day and the surviving members were eventually able to retreat. 

News of the massacre reached the East Coast as America was celebrating the centennial in Philadelphia.  Although the Indians won this battle it led to efforts to force Indians onto reservations. 

The soldiers were first buried where they died and markers appear throughout the battlefield giving you a feel for the battle.  The graves were later relocated around Last Stand Hill but the markers remain, now joined by Indian markers as well.  Since this is in a remote part of Montana, it looks much the same as it did in 1876.  Reading the book, its amazing how brutal both sides were to each other in these battles.  We always heard of Indians scalping, but it was common for both sides to mutilate the bodies of the dead.

Today the area is part of the Crow Nation, one of the country's largest Indian reservations.

We have another 105 miles to cover today traveling back into Wyoming and beginning our eastward trek through the state.  Most of this journey will be on I-90, the longest and most northern interstate highway running 3,100 miles from Seattle to Boston. 

Main Street in Sheridan

Sheridan Inn

We'll pass through Sheridan, Wyoming, a cute little western town with a historic main street.  The Sheridan Inn with 69 gables is a historic inn and restaurant built in the 1890s and once owned by Buffalo Bill. 

Buffalo is the site of the Occidental Hotel which dates back to the late 1800s.  Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill stayed here.  So have Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.  But its not good enough for the Magee's so we are stay at a Holiday Inn.  However, we hope to take in a meal at the hotel's famous Virginian restaurant. 

I hope you are keeping track of all the presidential references because there is going to be a test.

And you thought they were the same thing!