Outside of Billings, Montana

This is the site of the Little Big Horn battlefield outside of Billings in Montana. This trip to the US was a long strange journey involving six separate plane flights! Anyway the battlefield tour was a side trip for another meeting. I didn't really see the point of a battlefield tour, until I heard the story from the National Park Service guide. He put it all in perspective. The Battle, AKA "Custer's Last Stand," was a turning point in US history, because it was a victory for the Indians, who then lost the bigger battle for the right to travel away from the newly created reservation. It came to take up such a large part in the American Psyche because news of the battle reached the eastern US on the same week as the Centenary celebration in 1876. Imagine the stir that must have caused.

The battlefield itself, was stark and rolling hills with markers where the American Army men fell. The interesting bit is the second picture, which is the VERY recent monument to the Indian dead. Once I figured out the story, this memorial became even more moving. You enter a circular space, with the stories of the Indian tribes on the walls and one side of the circle is open (away from the monuments of the US Army) and this sculpture is silhouetted against the rolling hills.

Perhaps its because of the current war, but this set of dueling memorials really made me think about what we do to each other. I bet both sides thought they were righteous.