Montana: Bozeman and the Little Big Norn Battlefield - September 21, 2015

 Since I had a free day, and I am in Sheridan near the border of Montana, I made a trip across the Montana Mountains to Bozeman, where I  met my former confirmation mentee, Brian Moses. I worked with Brian years ago at our church in Lebanon. Always an adventurous lad, he choose to go to college at the University of Montana in Missoula, and, after graduation, he stayed there. It was a pleasure to see him almost in his home habitat. (Bozeman is the site of arch-rival Montana Sate University, but it it was a more convenient meeting place.)

On the way back from Bozeman to Sheridan, I was able  to stop for a while at the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. Over 250 men of the US 7th Cavalry, led by Lt. George A. Custer, died there in a two day battle in June 1876, when they were surprised by a massive coalition of tribes (Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota and others) who were camped near by. Many stories have emerged about exactly what happened there and why. Amid the sad confusion is the fact that the Indians were resisting the reservation system being imposed upon them by the US government, which, despite the treaty of 1868, had resulted  in more and more of their hunting ground being confiscated. This was one  of the climactic battles of the long conflict. Fueled in part by anger about Custer's defeat, the US Army pulled out all the  stops, and  the  final battle of the conflict, forcing the Indians onto diminished and permanent reservations, was fought at Wounded Knee in 1880.

Here is a picture looking up the hill to the monument that marks the site of "Custer's last stand" The stone markers (and this is only a small portion) indicate where soldiers died. Few Indians died there, but red stone makers have  been added indicating their place of fall. The remains of all the soldiers were later interred at the site of the monument, except for Custer's, which were taken to West Point. The horses, which the soldiers killed to use as a futile barricade, were buried behind the monument. It is a very sad and poignant place.