Combine Tour


Today we visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument.  Most people will have heard of the battle in June of 1876 when the 7th Cavalry led by Lt. Col. George Custer got their ‘asses kicked’ by a combination of Lakota and Cheyenne Warriors.  It was a total defeat and eventual slaughter of the US Army forces.  Custer and his entire company of over 200 men were killed.

The National Monument is well done.  There is a military graveyard that you can walk through and then you go up to the Memorial for the fallen US Cavalrymen.  Over the hill there is now a well-done Memorial to the fallen Lakota and Cheyenne warriors…problem is this Memorial was only added in 2013.  One of the quotes from a native survivor of the battle pretty much sums up how the US Government misunderstood or did not care about why the Natives did not want to be confined to Reservations.  “We did not want their land or any part of their civilization.  We were just trying to preserve our ancestral way of life.”  The irony today is that the very land that the Memorial is on is Native land!

As we were traveling today, we saw upwards of 50 combines/grain buggies/grain trucks being transported down the highway.  We suspect that these were ‘custom cutters’ or as our nephew Eric calls it ‘The Combine Tour”.  Eric should know as 2 or 3 summers ago, he was part of the ‘combine tour’ working for a Canadian company that harvested crops throughout the US.

We are staying in the Spearfish South Dakota KOA.  Today we traveled through 3 States starting in Montana, traveling through the corner of Wyoming and ending the day in South Dakota.

Distance Traveled = 444 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Canada Geese, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Avocet, Red-winged Blackbird, Meadow Lark, Deer, Pronghorns.

P.S.  Happy Birthday Helen!


Combine Tour...John Deere style


Combine Tour...again John Deere style


Combine Tour...just for good measure Case IH


National Military Cemetery


Memorial to the Natives at Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument


Leaving Big Sky Montana behind!

Comments

  1. Unknown28 July 2019 at 19:06

    We spent the day with the ghosts of the Lakota, other Plains Indians and the 7th Calvary on a scorching day several years ago. Maybe it was the heat or the searing sunlight but it was easy to imagine warriors on horseback along the ridge gazing down on us as we wandered the Greasy Grass.

    F.

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