Blogs from Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana, United States, North America

"As long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow". Sometimes quoted as "and the rivers shall run", this clause appears nowhere in the the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868, but is often quoted as the sense of how long the treaties should be valid. The treaties "gave" the Sioux Indians their sacred Black Hills in perpetuity in exchange for peace. Like most treaties between the white man and the Indians, these treaties did not survive first contact of white men with valuable resources found on Indian Lands. On July 2, 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a force of some 1200 men out of Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory (now Bismarck, ND) to the Black Hills for the purposes of finding a site for a fort, finding a route ... read more

Thank goodness we were able to sleep late this morning and no one came knockin' on the door to kick us out. That drive last night was exhausting and we were so tired and the extra sleep this morning was great. We eventually got out of bed and began our daily routine. Soon we were ready to leave the rest area in Crown Springs, Montana and head over to the Chico Hot Springs in a small town called Pray. On the drive over to Pray, Tim spotted a little coffee drive-thru so we pulled in to get him a cup of joe. As we were walking over to Poppy's Coffee Barn we spotted a place called the Old Saloon and thought we would check it out. The nice lady at Poppy's told us how incredible the ... read more

Day 7. Sunday September 6, 2009 Well, here we are in Hardin, yet. This is our last day of avoiding the holiday weekend traffic, which didn’t really materialize. Yesterday afternoon, two big rigs from Texas pulled in with a show of dust and Midland accent. They weren’t the type to cook out doors like we do. So they went into town for supper while we enjoyed grillin’ fare. Yesterday, we went to see the Little Bighorn Battlefield which is about fifteen miles from our campground. It serves as a National Monument and a National cemetery. There is a little bit of everbody buried there. The story of the Battlefield serves as a good reminder of the difficulty native North Americans had with illegal immigrants encroaching on tribal lands. Back in 1868, the Fort Laramie treaty designated ... read more

Not much to say today. Spent most of it driving across Montana back towards Wyoming. Went via cowboy town of Billings and ended up at Little Big Horn. Saw where those nasty redskins massacred those poor cavalry boys and General Custer. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and the gang picked them off over two days, until they got Custer at his last stand on top of the hill where the monument is. Still chilly and snow about the place. It is a pain really, all nuisance value as there isn’t enough to ski in or hire a snowmobile, which are for hire everywhere. ... read more

From Red Lodge Jeff and I parted ways (If you don't know what I'm talking about see the previous entry about the Beartooth Highway), he headed back west towards Bozeman and I continued on my way to the Crow Indian Reservation for Crow Fair (the tribes yearly summer pow-wow). Once I was on the "rez" I was supposed to meet my very good friend Cheryl and her girlfriend Lisa. Unfortunately I took a wrong turn and ended up going for a very long drive through the Crow Reservation to Bisby, which is in the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. So I stopped called Cheryl and found out she was running late as well. She suggested I go and visit Little Bighorn Battlefield and taking her advice I turned around and headed back to Crow Agency. On the way ... read more