Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876,

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

, near

Crow Agency, Montana Crow Agency ( cro, awaasúuchia) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States and is near the actual location for the Little Bighorn National Monument and re-enactment produced by the Real Bird family known as Ba ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle:

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

's 7th Cavalry and a combined

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

Northern Cheyenne The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation ( chy, Tsėhéstáno; formerly named the Tongue River) is the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe. Located in southeastern Montana, the reservation is approximately ...

and

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

force. Custer National Cemetery, on the battlefield, is part of the national monument. The site of a related military action led by Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen is also part of the national monument, but is about 3 miles (4.83 km) southeast of the Little Bighorn battlefield.

History of site

* 25 and 26 June 1876:

* 1877: Custer, who had been buried there, was reinterred in

West Point Cemetery West Point Cemetery is a historic cemetery in the eastern United States, on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. It overlooks the Hudson River, and served as a burial ground for Revolutionary War soldiers and ear ...

. * 29 January 1879: The

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

first preserved the site as a U.S. National Cemetery, to protect graves of the 7th Cavalry troopers buried there. * 7 December 1886: The site was proclaimed ''National Cemetery of Custer's Battlefield Reservation'' to include burials of other campaigns and wars. The name has been shortened to "Custer National Cemetery." * 5 November 1887: Battle of Crow Agency, three miles north of Custer battlefield * 14 April 1926: Reno-Benteen Battlefield was added * 1 July 1940: The site was transferred from the

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, ...

to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

* 22 March 1946: The site was redesignated "Custer Battlefield National Monument." * 15 October 1966: The site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. * 1976, The American Indian Movement (AIM) protested the centennial commemoration of the site, arguing that the site revered Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn as a part of a heroic saga of American history and expansion into the American West while those who revered it had been truly "celebrating an act of genocide." * 11 August 1983: A

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

destroyed dense

thorn scrub Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this h ...

which over the years had seeded itself about and covered the site. This allowed archaeologists access to the site. * 1984, 1985: Archaeological digging on site. * 10 December 1991: The site was renamed ''Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument'' by a law signed by President George H. W. Bush.

Memorials

The first memorial on the site was assembled by Captain George K. Sanderson and the 11th Infantry. They buried soldiers' bodies where they were found and removed animal bones. In his official report dated April 7, 1879, Sanderson wrote:

I accordingly built a mound out of cord wood filled in the center with all the horse bones I could find on the field. In the center of the mound I dug a grave and interred all the human bones that could be found, in all, parts of four or five different bodies. This grave was then built up with wood for four feet above ground. The mound is ten feet square and about eleven feet high; is built on the highest point immediately in rear of where Gen'l Custer's body was found ...

Lieutenant Charles F. Roe and the 2nd Cavalry built the granite memorial in July 1881 that stands today on the top of Last Stand Hill. They also reinterred soldiers' remains near the new memorial, but left stakes in the ground to mark where they had fallen. In 1890 these stakes were replaced with marble markers. The bill that changed the name of the national monument also called for an "Indian Memorial" to be built near Last Stand Hill. Markers honoring the Indians who fought at Little Big Horn, including Crazy Horse, have been added to those of the U.S. troops. On

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

, 1999, the first of five red granite markers denoting where warriors fell during the battle were placed on the battlefield for Cheyenne warriors Lame White Man and Noisy Walking. The Indian Memorial (2001-2003) was designed by John R. Collins and Alison J. Towers, who won a national competition in 1997 set out by Congress. Constructed of sandstone, it takes the form of a circular low wall that is topped with sculptor Colleen Cutschall (Oglala and Sicangu)’s bronze figure procession ''Spirit Warriors''. Then-Colorado Senator

Ben Nighthorse Campbell Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born April 13, 1933) is an American Cheyenne politician who represented Colorado's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1993, and as a United States Senator from Colorado f ...

spoke at the dedication of the monument: “ ..Come back sometime early in the morning after a rain when the fog is laying in the valleys and things are quiet and the moon is waning, and perhaps all you can hear is the sounds of nature. If you’re here by yourself during that time, I know you’ll feel like Indian people feel when they’re here.” Nighthorse Campbell is descended from one of the Cheyenne leaders who fought General Custer. The warriors' red speckled granite memorial markers dot the ravines and hillsides, just as do the white marble markers representing where soldiers fell. Since then, markers have been added for the

Sans Arc The Sans Arc, or Itázipčho (''Itazipcola'', ''Hazipco'' - ‘Those who hunt without bows’) in Lakota, are a subdivision of the Lakota people. Sans Arc is the French translation of the Lakota name which means, "Without bows." The translator ...

Lakota warrior Long Road and the Minniconjou Lakota Dog's Back Bone. On June 25, 2003, an "unknown Lakota warrior marker" was placed on Wooden Leg Hill, east of Last Stand Hill to honor a warrior who was killed during the battle, as witnessed and reported by the Northern Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg. The battlefield is the final resting place of the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

historian and author Stanley Vestal, a professor at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

Gallery

File:Little Bighorn Superintendent Lodge.jpg, Superintendent's Lodge, built 1894 CheyenneStone.JPG, Cheyenne combatant marker stone on the battlefield File:little-bighorn-memorial-sculpture-2.jpg, Indian Memorial File:Casualty Marker Battle of the Little Bighorn.jpg, US Casualty Marker Battle of the Little Bighorn File:Custer National Cemetery 2.jpg, Custer National Cemetery, looking east Where custer fell little big horn.jpg, Black face marking the spot where Custer fell File:Little Bighorn Battlefield at Sunset.jpg, The battlefield at sunset

References

* ''The National Parks: Index 2001-2003''. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

External links

* Official NPS website
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield
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*

*

Custer National Cemetery register

Find A Grave: Custer National Cemetery

* ttp://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/165060-1 "Writings of Black Elk", broadcast from Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monumentfrom C-SPAN's '' American Writers'' {{Authority control Battlefields of the wars between the United States and Native Americans 1879 establishments in Montana Territory Protected areas of Big Horn County, Montana National Park Service National Monuments in Montana Great Sioux War of 1876 Federal lands in Montana Archaeological sites in Montana Protected areas established in 1879 Conflict sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Battle of the Little Bighorn National Register of Historic Places in Big Horn County, Montana

History of site

Memorials

Gallery

See also

References

External links