Plains Indian 4 State Trip 2016: Little Bighorn: Victory Turned Into Defeat

Little Bighorn was the Indian Nations biggest victory in the wars that engulfed the Plains during the 3^rd quarter of the 19^th century. But it was also a turning point. It was really their last stand, not Custer’s. It was a last gasp effort to defend their land as the Black Hills gold rush in the mid-70s overran sacred portions of Sioux territory and destroyed any remaining Indian treaty rights (if they ever really had any). After Custer’s defeat in 1876 the government and army was relentless and overpowered Indian resistance. Within a short time, most of the resisting Indians were back on the reservations or at the BIA Indian agencies, in either case under the control of the invaders. Others, like Crazy Horse, were killed, or like Sitting Bull, fled to Canada. The result remains with us today: “The Indians were no longer a proud, free roaming people, but starving ragtag refugees and prisoners in their own land.”

Visiting the eerily beautiful Little Bighorn battlefield, now a National Monument, and seeing all the gravestones, memorials (including a new and beautifully done memorial to the Indian warriors) and imagining the horrific 2-day battle (June 25-26, 1876) is a somber experience. There were really multiple battles that took place as the Lakota and Cheyenne, fresh from a victory the previous week at Rosebud, were besieged by the U.S. Calvary. Their villages were under attack, and that meant the warriors’ wives, children, parents were at grave risk. They could do nothing else but protect them by counterattacking.

The Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn was only approved due to pressure from Indians and a public protest at the site by the American Indian Movement in 1988. It commemorates the sacrifices there of the five Indian Nations that participated in the battles to protect their families, values and traditional way of life. It is the only memorial to the Native American experience mandated by Congress and constructed with federal funds. Authorized by Congress in 1991, it was not finished till 2013.