Little Bighorn River

There isn't too much choice.

But I remember that Monroe is half Indian—Arapaho, isn't it, Monroe? And I'm hoping blood will tell.' "'Only trouble, Colonel,' Monroe said slowly as he rose, "'is that I'm one fourth Indian.' And even that, didn't I tell you that my great-grandfather was the only Arapaho scout who was with Custer at the Little Bighorn? He'd been positive Sitting Bull was miles away.

However, I'll do my best.

And if I heroically don't come back, would you please persuade the security office of our section to clear my name for use in the history books? Under the circumstances, I think it's the least he could do." I promised to do my best, of course.

Yeah, we were north of us.

Yeah, and I was on 212 coming back because you go from Little Bighorn all the way to Belfouche.

I guarantee that's where you were speeding to.

Okay, Lord.

I was there.

I hit it at 2.30.

Went from Interstate 90 at Little Bighorn.

I hit 2.12 at 2.30.

Yeah.

How did Custer feel right before, uh, Little Bighorn or Neville Chamberlain, 1938? Sort of feels like that kind of moment.

Custer's band.

Yeah, it doesn't seem great to have a president in the pocket of the companies who want no regulation and a Congress who doesn't know how to use or maybe even spell AI.

The portrait was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

That summer, like everyone else in the country, Jim Bridger heard the news of Custer's disaster on the Little Bighorn River, or Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull's success, depending on how you looked at it.

The most famous battle of the American West happened just 30 miles from Fort C.F. Smith, where Jim Bridger's presence had been enough to protect soldiers from the Sioux and Cheyenne ten years before Custer led his men into a doomed fight.

That same year, Bridger's son Felix died of a bacterial infection.

An attempt was made by means of military camps to establish control and force all the Indians upon reservations, and another commission was sent to negotiate their removal to Indian territory, but met with an absolute refusal.

After much guerrilla warfare, an important military campaign against the Sioux was set on foot in 1876, ending in Custer's signal defeat upon the Little Bighorn.

In this notable battle, Red Cloud did not participate in person, nor in the earlier one with Crook upon the Little Rosebud, but he had a son in both fights.

He was now a counselor rather than a warrior, but his young men were constantly in the field, while Spotted Tail had definitely surrendered and was in close touch with representatives of the government.

Undoubtedly, these early contests had their influence upon our hero's career.

It was his habit to appear most opportunely in a crisis, and in a striking and dramatic manner to take command of the situation.

The best-known example of this is his entrance on the scene of confusion when Reno surprised the Sioux on the Little Bighorn.

Many of the excitable youths, almost unarmed, rushed madly and blindly to meet the intruder, and the scene might have unnerved even an experienced warrior.

When somebody come into Crow Fair, usually we say, "Ichigdaalone," meaning, "It's good that you came."

Every August in Montana, a city of roughly 1,500 tipis rises along the banks in the Little Bighorn River for the Crow Fair and Rodeo, also known as the Tipi Capital of the World.

For more than 100 years, it's been one of the largest gatherings of Native Americans in North America, bringing thousands of tribal members, vendors, and visitors together on the Crow Reservation outside of Billings, Montana.

There are powwows filled with singing and dancing, parades, rodeos, and horse racing, plus Native American artists and food vendors throughout the fairgrounds.

I was waiting for a train home.

And in the newsagents, there was a paperback book, which was the life story of an American Indian by the name of Woodenleg, who's a Northern Cheyenne, and he was in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

So I read all about that, and I've read that book, and I've got three copies of the book, you know, including a more, you know, like a 21st century Amazon large format version.

Right.

But anyway, so then I went with my partner, Nancy, and we went... we actually went in the summer of 1969 to all of these really important sites, you know, like the Badlands, you know, that's the wrong terminology according to Dennis Banks, but the Badlands, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and then we have off at the side Mount Rushmore, and then the Battle of the Little Bighorn site in Montana, which should be known as the Greasy Grass River, and then you can end up on this bit with...

Wounded Knee, which is where the massacre of Wounded Knee took place at the end of December 1890.

And so at the time when I was a student, a young person, I never felt that anybody, or wrongly, you know, I imagined rather, I should say, that nobody would have the slightest interest in these topics.

Yeah.