Travel Guide Little Bighorn Battlefield

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument honors one of the greatest battles of the Indian wars and the most famous war of the Black Hills War. Dubbed "Custer's Last Stand" ("the ultimate resistance of Custer"), the battle opposed the 647 men of the 7 th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer to a coalition of Cheyennes and Sioux Lakotas, held by Chief Sitting Bull (who was not However not present during the battle) and made up of great warriors such as Crazy Horse, Chief Gall or Blade White Man. She ran on 25 and 26 June 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in the eastern part of Montana. The battle stands in the middle of the Black Hills War. Native tribes were then at war against the US government, which violated the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. This treaty included the Black Hills region in the Sikota Grand Reserve belonging to the Lakota and other native tribes, but the discovery of gold suddenly revived the state's interest in the region. After a failed attempt to buy it for a buoy of bread, the government has embraced the Amerindians who, unable to find alternative alternatives to save their lands, entered the so-called Black Hills War.The battle of Little Bighorn is the most famous episode and epilog. This is an overwhelming defeat of the US army: it left almost no survivors on the side of American soldiers. But the victory did not, in the long term, undermine that of the Amerindians, who, forced to flee the reprisals of the army, were eventually forced, through famine, to travel a few months later.Three years after the Little Bighorn Battle, the State Secretary of War made the battlefield a national cemetery to protect the graves of soldiers buried on the ground. The bones of soldiers originally buried on the Last Stand Hill were then re-buried near the memorial of the 7 th US Cavalry. Meanwhile, the site became the Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1946. However, the name and treatment of the history he proposed did not seem to provide a very impartial view of the conflict, forgetting all the damage to American native Americans. At the end of the twentieth century, the need to rename the site was forced and the park was renamed in 1991 Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. An Indian memorial was also built to illustrate the courage of the various native ethnic groups fighting for their lands and freedom.Today, the site hosts several memorials that trace the battle and welcome the bodies of many soldiers killed in combat. Contrary to his name, the Custer National Cemetery is not the last Custer home whose remains were transferred to the United States Military Academy Cemetery in West Point, New York State. Do not miss the huge national cemetery, the Custer Battlefield Museum, and in summer the guided tours of Apsaalooke Tours from the Visitor Center.