Wednesday, September 5, 2018

PLANS
Today, we plan to visit Custer National Battlefield, then take the rig to Pierce RV Center in Billings, MT to check out our electrical issues. It was 45degrees at 6:00am.  Quite a beautiful place and site in Hardin, MT.  

Imagine 1,00-2,00 Sioux Warriors on horseback coming at
you over this ridge.

CUSTER and Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument and Indian Memorial
A wonderfully breezy but warm and comfortable day where we took in an excellent NPS lecture and film at the museum with excellent paintings and museum artifacts. We walked to the monument and battlefield (not Reno or Benteens battlefield which is 5 miles away), and walked the Cemetery too (a National cemetery similar to Arlington, VA, etc.). 

NOTES
Custer split his 7th Calvary troops to attack an Indian Village on the Little Big Horn River.  Unknown to him, his other Officers, Reno and Benteen were being attacked 5 miles away (he saw the smoke and heard the sounds of battle, but didn't know what was going on. 1,500-2,000 Cheyenne, and Lakota Sioux warriors attacked Custer on June 24,25,26, 1876. 42 men were with Custer on Last Stand Hill when he ordered his men to to shoot their horses and fight, to the death it turns out.  The Indians cut and mutilated the bodies in order to be sure that in the afterlife, these men would be left without these body parts could not ride horses.  This was an incredible victory for the Sioux who were defending their way of live.  

On June 27-28th, 1876, after Custer and 262 men were killed, he was buried in an 18inch deep grace while his soldiers were buried in very shallow graves.  The US Army had to get the other 60 wounded Soldiers to safety, of those 350 survivors from the same-day attack on Reno and Benteen. 1 year later, 1877, Custer was reburied at the Military Academy at West Point, NY and in 1881, 220 soldiers were re-interred in a mass grave under the monument.  Finally, in the 1890s, the white headstone markers were placed on the battlefield where they found fallen soldiers.  Quite the place.    

NPS FILM and LECTURE - Triumph and Tragedy
In the 1860s; Lakota, Nacota, and Dakota Sioux were a buffalo culture; 20,000 Lakota were living on the Plains then, but they then were joined by the Cheyenne to keep US Army out of their hunting and living grounds. 

Custer's body was found directly between
the Monument and Marker behind me.
The marker says
"The remains of about 220 soldiers, scouts and
civilians are buried around the base of this
Memorial. The white marble headstones scattered
over the battlefield denote where the slain troopers
were found and originally buried. In 1881 they were
re-interred in a single grave on this site. The officers remains
were removed in 1877 to various cemeteries throughout the
country. General Custer was buried at West Point."

In 1870, the population of the USA was 35Million, but what a difference in cultures.  The Americans were moving west into "open land"  The Indians believed you belong to the land, you don't own the land.  In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie, WY (negotiated with William T. Sherman) gave Sioux+ their Sacred Black Hills. But, The flash point was 1874 when gold was discovered in the Black Hills and whites ignored the treaty of 1874 and were streaming into Indian ceded land. Some Tribes decided NOT to sign the Treaty and go the Reservations the US provided (Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull). In 1875 the US tried to buy Black Hills but tribes said no, so America said they either needed to go to the reservations voluntarily or or be called "hostiles". 

So at Little Big Horn, Reno and Benteen were outnumbered and defeated and then retreated to bluffs across river. When news of Custer's defeat reached Washington DC in June 1876, the USA was 100 years old and all politicians and the Nation were celebrating in Philadelphia, PA and couldn't believe the news.

The United State's response was swift and brutal. In 1877, Chiefs Sitting Bull and Gall went to Canada to follow the buffalo as well as escape the US Army's pressure. They remained there for 5 years. But in 1881 Gall surrendered first and later Sitting Bull. (refer to my notes of Fort Buford where Sitting Bull surrendered in the dining room of the Sr. Officers home). So there was never again another battle like Little Big Horn, since the Indians were confined to reservations;  After Sitting Bull's death and shortly thereafter the Massacre at Wounded Knee, both in 1890, Plains Indian fighting ceased. Context here is that both the Plains Indians and the US Army were fighting for their right cause for their own right reasons. 

PIERCE RV REPAIR, Billings, MT
We were having problems with our Travel Trailer signal and running lights not working, a safety issue. After the Battlefield tour, we drove an hour and stopped at Pierce RV in Bozeman, MT.  The previous night, I checked the trailer fuses, cleaned and checked the trailer electrical plug to truck.  All looked good but the left directional still didn't work. Sooo.. I purchased a light bulb for $145. Yup, after the mechanic did his check-up, it was the bulb!  

Sign aside the monument at the Battlefield Cemetery talks
about the context of the Plains Indians and USA's fighting.

DRIVE
We crossed the Little Big Horn River by battlefield on the way out to Bozeman. Wilma saw Pronghorn Antelope in fields travelling along Rt90 with changes in the landscape from prairies to large buttes, then changing to small mountains with larger, gray, snow-capped mountains behind them. We traveled west through large mountains valleys, on the north side Yellowstone National Park, still following the Yellowstone River.  We traveled through the Bozeman Pass before the arriving at our Bear Canyon Campground at 3:45pm after an eventful day. We set up the trailer in record time.  A beautiful campsite and surrounds, although we continue to be nearby major railroad lines.

We went to check out Rivers Edge Fly Shop, Bozeman, MT, just before closing and inquired about a guided fishing trip on Yellowstone or one of the Big three (Jefferson, Madison or Gallitan). He suggested drifting on the Madison, but they were booked until Tuesday. He gave me the name of Fins and Feathers in town who guides as well. We saw so many guide boats on the Yellowstone River and he said fishing is good now. It is interesting to note counter guys really know their bugs and they don't tell you WHAT FISH are being caught, but only tell you WHAT BUGS or lure to use.  Ahh, fly guys!