Little Bighorn Battlefield

A very few shots from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (it used to be called the Custer Battlefield National Monument; its name was changed under the first President Bush). One cool thing about this country: its bones are the same, and they're close to the surface. You can easily identify the terrain from the pictures and graphics, and you can see how things unfolded. The pictures show green grass and flowers, while this summer is hot and dry, but the land is the same. There used to be thorn bushes everywhere, but they burned off in the late 1980s, allowing archaeologists access to the land. That's how we know where the combatants fell...



Warning about snakes - we didn't see one.



The marker on Last Stand Hill, and the one where Custer fell





One of the markers for the warriors, and part of the big memorial for the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arickara, and Crow who fought here - the flowers were left last weekend at the anniversary. I really like the way you can see the land through the sculpture







This is looking down to the Little Bighorn, where the Sioux and Cheyenne camp was - Reno and his detachment's survivors scrambled up this coulee retreating from the first part of the battle



Much of the battlefield is privately owned - the owner permits you to drive on the paved road between the main site (Last Stand Hill) and the Reno site. Here are some horses grazing where the battle raged.






This is Medicine Trail coulee, where another part of the battle was fought, before Custer retreated to his last stand



And here's the graphic - compare it with the photo:



Part of the battlefield, with markers.


This quote adorns the walls of the visitor center. wowasake kin slolyapo wowahwala he e Hehaka Sapa - Know the power that is peace - Black Elk