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, No ...

, 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 B ...

, 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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. 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 clas ...

's 7th Cavalry and a combined Lakota-

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 ...

force. Custer National Cemetery, on the battlefield, is part of the

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

. The site of a related military action led by

Marcus Reno Marcus Albert Reno (November 15, 1834 – March 30, 1889) was a United States career military officer who served in the American Civil War where he was a combatant in a number of major battles, and later under George Armstrong Custer in the Gre ...

and

Frederick Benteen Frederick William Benteen (August 24, 1834 – June 22, 1898) was a military officer who first fought during the American Civil War. He was appointed to commanding ranks during the Indian Campaigns and Great Sioux War against the Lakota an ...

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 earl ...

. * 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 List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

* 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 artist ...

. * 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 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 George Kaiser Sanderson (September 9, 1844 – February 2, 1893) was a career U.S. Army officer. Having enlisted as a Private he was later commissioned and twice breveted for gallant and meritorious service during the American Civil War. San ...

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 Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by ...

, 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 Lame White Man, or ''Vé'ho'énȯhnéhe'' (c. 1837 or 1839–1876), was a Cheyenne battle chief who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876, and was killed there. He was the only Cheyenne chief to die in the battle. He was al ...

and

Noisy Walking Noisy is the name or part of the name of six communes of France: *Noisy-le-Grand in the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département'' *Noisy-le-Roi in the Yvelines ''département'' *Noisy-le-Sec in the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département'' *Noisy-Rudignon in the ...

. 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 Colleen Cutschall, (born 1951) also known as Sister Wolf, is an Oglala- Sicangu Lakota artist from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, who works in Manitoba. Biography Colleen Cutschall is a Lakota artist, art historian, educator, writer, activist, and c ...

(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 ...

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 The Miniconjou (Lakota: Mnikowoju, Hokwoju – ‘Plants by the Water’) are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota people, who formerly inhabited an area in western present-day South Dakota from the Black Hills i ...

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 i ...

historian and author

Stanley Vestal Stanley Vestal (August 15, 1887 – December 25, 1957) was an American writer, poet, biographer, and historian, perhaps best known for his books on the American Old West, including ''Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux''. Biography Vestal was bo ...

, 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 The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

External links

* Official NPS website
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield
*

*

*

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 Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United Stat ...

's ''

American Writers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

'' {{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