5/1515 - Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

I5/1/15 - Little Bighorn Battlefield National  Monument, Garryowen, Montana 

Today we took a drive to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument otherwise known as Custer's Last Stand. 

A Clash of Cultures

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument memorializes one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life. Here in the valley of the Little Bighorn River on two hot June days in 1876, more than 260 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army met defeat and death at the hands of several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Among the dead were Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and every member of his immediate command.  Although the Indians won the battle, they subsequently lost the war against the military's efforts to end their independent, nomadic way of life. 

Here see some pictures of what we saw today. 

Graves of Indians & Soldiers those who were killed in this battle.  

Flag flying over the cemetery. 

Carp, among those who went before us. 

Paying our respects. 

Many graves of those who died during this battle and other battles. 

The following are headstones of a couple of Custer's Indian scouts. 

Two whistles was also a scout.

This memorial has the names of those who lost their lives. 

This black stone is where Custer actually died during the battle. 

Rattlesnake warnings were posted all around. 

Entrance to a memorial to the Indians who lost their lives in this battle. 

There was a circular area with this rot iron  

Depiction of of some Indians on horseback. 

Also around the circular area there were walks with information about the Indians. 

Depictions if Custer & Indian. 

There were even live horses along this five mile road that had signs explaining what happened during the battle. 

It was wonderful being in such a place where past generations walked & history was made back in 1876. 

A national cemetery on this site was established by General Orders No. 78 of 1879 to protect the graves of Seventh Cavalrymen who fell in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Later, as the frontier era came to a close, the role if the cemetery was expanded.  In 1886 executive to order by President Grover Cleveland defined and set aside a larger area 'for military purposes.'  The following decade saw the abandonment of numerous forts throught Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. The remains of military personnel and others, buried originally in various post cemeteries, were moved here. 

Custer was actually moved to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC.