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!
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!
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.
ReplyDeleteF.