Monday, September 3, 2018Labor Day

September 3, 2018 is Labor Day USA. At 7:15am was 53degrees in Minot, ND. We left 9:30 and slowly watched some trees changing from green to yellow/gold. While travelling it was, SHOCK, windy at 18mph and 66degrees. From Minot, ND north and west there were "prairie pot holes" by the hundreds (standing depressions of water from the size of a cow pond to a large lake) from northern IA to ND where we've been seeing gulls, ducks and pelicans either residents or on migration. We noted the windsocks blowing out level, south winds today at steady 20mph with gusts to 28mph. Riding west saw many oil derricks, holding tanks, oil tractors and flare stacks. We arrived 4 Seasons Campground and RV Park in Sidney, MT and walked to DQ.  The main street had 5 "casinos" on it.

Today's Plans
We Intended today to leave from Minot, ND, visit the 3 Tribes Museum in New Town, ND, then drive to Williston, ND to visit the Confluence Area Interpretation Center of North Dakota (where the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers meet L&C). Time permitting, visit Fort Buford and Fort Union (not a fort but major trading center for 50 years).  

3 Tribes Museum, New Town, ND
When we arrived to 3 Tribes Museum at 11:15 and it was closed, even though the signs on the door said open. Reviews said the place was poorly run and rather sketchy.  Time changed when we crossed the ND to MT border to 3:00 from 4:00pm. No wi-fi at Four Seasons RV and Trailer Park, Sidney, MT and all the hookups were backwards. 

Confluence Area Interpretation Center of North Dakota, Williston, ND
Where the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers meet.  Lewis and Clark went westward from Fort Clatsop, OR and decided at Traveler's Rest, ID to separate with Lewis and a small group of men to find source of Marias River, a Sergeant would take the boats down the rivers Northeast, and Clark south along the Yellowstone River. They agreed to meet a month later where the two rivers meet. Astoundingly, they did.

Fort Buford, National Historic Site, Williston, ND
Ft. Buford is named after a hero of mine, Maj.General John Buford, born 1826, KY and died 1863, age 37 typhoid fever. A great leader of men and the man who met Col. Heath at Gettysburg on Day1, July 1, 1863 and positioned his soldiers on high ground and holding off Confederate attacks, thus saving the Union Army for the next day's fight.

Fort Bufort was main supply and depot fort for the "Sioux Dakota" wars; a  "very important fort," said Major General Phil Sheridan. The location was considered "splendid isolation" not far away from where the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers meet. Fort Union (not a military fort) was already there 20 years earlier than Buford as John Jacob Astor's trading post for fur trade with the Indian tribes. 

Fort Buford was significant for North Dakota and the United States because the Indian Wars ended at the Fort with the surrender of Sitting Bull. (Remember Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, born in Monroe, MI and his soldiers were killed in June 1876. Custer was 36 years old). Crazy Horse, Gall and Sitting Bull were part of that battle to wipe out General Custer and his 7th Cavalry. (Custer's 2 brothers, brother-in-law and nephew were killed too). The Indian Wars were from 1876-1881 when Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were fighting the US Army Cavalry all over the northern plains. Indian leaders detained as prisoners of war at Ft. Buford included Nez Perce Chief Joseph, Gall, Crow King and Sitting Bull.

In the parlor of the post's Sr. Officer's home, Chief Sitting Bull surrendered his Winchester 44/60 lever-action Carbine and effectively said "we're starving and have no other choice but to surrender." In that actual dining room we heard an excellent, engaging lecture about the Fort and what happened in that very room. 

Fort Buford (a Military outpost Fort for 29 years) was 30 miles square, built in 1866 built for 1 company of soldiers, eventually constructing up to 100 buildings, enough to hold up to six companies of infantry and cavalry, up to 1,000 people.  Soldiers at that time enlisted for 5 years and this Fort was a terribly lonely place. As many as 5-10% were in the guardhouse at one time due to desertion and drinking and other infractions. Scurvy a big problem here and since they couldn't drink the water from the Missouri River (dysentery), many died. The Fort the cemetery gravestones show name, rank, death date and reason for death; most died from disease or suicide, not Indian arrows.

After the rout of the US Army at Little Big Horn (Fort Buford's surgeon was killed there too), Sitting Bull and Gall and up to 3,700 others and thousands of horses moved to Canada to get away from the US and to follow buffalo. They lived there for 5 years. (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba).  years later, buffalo weren't as plentiful and there were 10,000 US Army troops on the Northern plains. The buffalo migrated annually south, but the tribes were starving, so in 1880 Lakota Chief Gall surrendered at Ft Buford (Gall's actual Winchester Rifle is in the Confluence Interpretive Center museum). Sitting Bull held out longer, but was the last Chief to surrender at Ft Buford July 18 1881 (in the dining room we were standing in to hear the lecture). Sitting Bull came to Fort Buford with 187 people and 15 horses. Sitting Bull and his Indians actually camped in the parking lot at the Confluence Center we had just parked our trailer on.   

This room and the wall here were the "parlor to the right" in the records. Sitting Bull was in this room (15ft X15ft) with 32 Sioux warriors and 4 US Army Officers and 4 civilians. 40 men in this room on a hot, humid, dead calm no wind, sunny July day.  Sitting Bull's son, Crow Foot, 6 years old handed his father the 1866 Winchester Lever action carbine to give over to Major David Brotherton.  Sitting Bull's world had changed and he was the last to surrender. His actual Winchester rifle is at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

This space in this building was a great piece of American history.  In 1895 Fort Buford was decommissioned and the new owner told to clear contents and buildings, but the man kept the building and stored grain in it!  In 1960 men from Williston, ND reconstructed it as a museum and stuffed it with artifacts.

NOTE Reflect that Sitting Bull surrendered on July 20, 1881.  88 years later to the day, July 20, 1969, Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong stood on the moon. History went from rifle, horses, and buffalo to Saturn 5 and Apollo11. 
,