Little Bighorn

We camped in Douglas Wyoming last night at Deer Park RV, an older campground with lots of shade and an ice cream social every night ($1.50 for two scoops, bring your own bowl). We headed West on I-90 to Little Bighorn Battlefield, renamed from Custer Battlefield in 1991. Based on our experience in Gettysburg we decided to take the bus tour of the battlefield to get a better feel for the battle. Our guide was a Crow Indian, who at the time were scouts for Custer’s forces.

Site of Custer's Last Stand

 In 1868, a treaty had been signed with the Indians designating most of Eastern Wyoming as a permanent Indian reservation. But in 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills and the negotiations to buy the Black Hills from Sitting Bull (the Lakota leader) failed. Sitting Bull and his tribe left the reservation after the influx of the gold seekers. They encroached on Crow land, which is why the Crows helped Custer against Sitting Bull. Here at Little Bighorn, the Indians formed an encampment of 5000-7000 Indians (about a quarter of them warriors). Because of the lay of the land, only the southern tip of this encampment was visible to Custer and his scouts, so he didn’t realize his 600 men were outnumbered. He divided his forces and attacked the Indian encampment. The rest, as they say, is history. About 210 men under Custer’s command were killed during a fairly short battle. Reno’s men who had been split off, lost 53 men, and then retreated. If Custer had waited a day, he would have been reinforced by General Terry coming from the North and perhaps the battle might have a different ending. Unfortunately, for the Indians this was the beginning of the end. The federal government sent more troops to control the Indians and this was the last battle won by the Indians. Eventually, they returned to much smaller reservations in the Dakota’s, Wyoming, and Montana.

Indian Memorial added in 2003

We continued on to Lewiston, MT through country that alternated between beautiful and barren. Lewiston itself is near an area with trees and rolling hills. We finally have gotten north of the haze coming from numerous fires in Idaho and Oregon.