Cool Stop #32: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Little Bighorn National Monument

Just off Interstate 90 in Montana (around where it splits from Interstate 94) is a pretty neat slice of history. There, on the high plains where the ground rolls like a Buffalo with an itchy back, General Custer led over two hundred Calvary soldiers and attached civilians to their death. Littered about the former battlefield are headstones indicating where men, both Calvary and Native American, fell. The one trail we took led to a ravine where possibly twenty eight soldiers met their fate (there are no markers here, however, as the first efforts at marking the battlefield looked over this site). A lot of the National Monument also focuses on the Native Americans who were essentially defending their land and their way of life. After the battle, the victorious Sitting Bull fled to Canada where he remained until 1881 when he returned south to surrender. Later he was killed by Indian police on a reservation in South Dakota. The west was won and we all lost more than a little something in the process. Noel 8/9/13

Memorial to Native American Warriors

Calvary Marker

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