Custers Last Stand Re-enactment

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This was not just a re-enactment of what happened, but this was a history of what lead up to the battle. But before they started anything - they started with a flag ceremony on horses. All there were respectful. My granddaughter got her first lesson in flag etiquette. She is only 3, but also stood at attention with her hand over her heart until the flag was passed. (I also had to remind my 22 year old son to remove his hat, a mother's work is never done.)

This history starts with Lewis and Clark coming out to this area and their dealings with Indians. They introduced the different characters from the Core of Discovery that were with them. Sacajawea actually gave birth during the trip not too far from here. Now giving birth is tough enough, but to do it in the middle of some field with no other women around, not to mention no doctor - the woman had guts!

Fr. De Smitt

Fr De Smitt was brought out and shown how he worked with the different tribes. He is a favorite person in history of mine. And the was he was presented here was very good - only he had blond hair. Something they did not mention. This priest could walk, unarmed into any camp of any tribe. Other Indians could not do that. They spoke about how the missionaries worked with the tribes. That it was through his mild nature that he won them over. This is a favorite person in history for me. I love the story about his meeting with one medicine man. The medicine man saw him strike a match and thought that was pretty amazing. He asked him for some of these fire sticks as they could be used to show great medicine. Fr gave him a whole box of matches - pretty generous considering how far it was to the nearest general store. But the medicine man decided that he should try out each of the fire sticks before doing it in front of anyone else. Needless to say they did not light a second time.

Settlers

They presented the other side of the settlers well. Nothing really bad about them, just that they were not able to eat with the settlers taking more than they needed to hunt. The buffalo were becoming to sparse because of the settlers coming through and so the attacks were in self defense. The way they did it was great! It was like watching a live action western. Although for safety reasons there were no arrows flying, but there were blanks being shot off. The conflicting ideas of land ownership was also addressed.











Costumes
The costumes were great on both sides for this. This is a shot after wards. I did not get any good shots of the battle it's self. My granddaughter had climbed into my lap and we were discussing what was happening. And keeping the attention of a 3 year old is tough at times. But it was well done and quite exciting to watch the actual fighting.

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