Little Bighorn

From Wikipedia:

The Battle of the Little Bighorn (also known as Custer's Last Stand), was an armed engagement between a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle occurred on June 25th and 26th, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, near what is now Crow Agency, Montana.

From the Little Bighorn National Monument website:

This monument memorializes the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the last armed efforts to preserve the way of life of the Plains Indians. 263 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer, died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.



I have been wanting to visit the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn for quite a few years, and since my travel route was taking me that way I decided to take advantage of it and plan my travels so that I would have a couple of hours to visit the monument. I did a quick tour of the small museum and after a nice chat with the young Crow man that was working the contact desk I took a walk out to view the battle field. It was very surreal to be standing on the hillside, viewing the grave markers and to be imagining all the fighting that occurred there.





Above and below: Iron sculpture of warriors on horseback.



Easily the most powerful part of the memorial was the wall which listed the names of the different native warriors that lost their lives in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. After reading all of the names I left some tobacco and continued on my way.