Today is the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Little Big Horn. News traveled slow in those days, and most Americans didn't learn of the battle until early July, just as our nation was celebrating the centennial.
About 6,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors killed 263 soldiers from Custer's 7th Cavalry, including Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
The battle is also known as "Custer's Last Stand," but it was also the last stand of these tribes--within a few months, they had been defeated.
I visited the battlefield site in 2001, the photograph is from my personal collection. The inscription on the marker reads "U.S. Soldier 7th Cavalry Fell Here, June 25, 1876."
The Little Big Horn National Monument and Cemetery is located just a mile or so off of Interstate 90. If you're driving on this lonely stretch of America's longest interstate, you must visit the battlefield and visitor's center.
UPDATE June 27: The plains of Montana were a battlefield again. Well, not really, butt there was a reenactment of the famous battle on Thursday--2,000 people took part.
Related posts:
Gravesite of a veteran of Custer's 7th Cavalry
My Kansas Kronikles: Council Grove and the Santa Fe Trail
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