The Albatross
Thursday 11 April 2024
Today was a driving day, we need to make some distance. There was a long way around through the one open road in Yellowstone NP, but that would add 4 hours to the trip and only skirt the outside of the park. Instead, we took the interstate, sat just below 80mph and cruised on a simply gorgeous sunny day with changing pretty scenery.
The one stop of the day was Little Big Horn and Custer’s Last Stand, where the Lakota and Cheyenne Indian warriors kicked Custer's butt defending their land and families when he tried to attack their camp. Without a cohesive plan he sent troops to attack one side of the camp, where they dismounted and formed a line, not a great move against well-armed warriors on horseback that just out flanked them.
Meanwhile, Custer rode on splitting his troops again to launch another attack down a ravine. The Indians having despatched the first mob pretty much ignored this and went and gave Custer a hell of a shock. He had tried to circle around the back and seize fleeing woman and children (what a hero) and instead had a bunch of really pissed of warriors in the face. Again, splitting his troops whilst the Indians stayed cohesive, they mopped them up with ease.
Of course, this victory didn’t go unpunished and within a year the local Indians were shoved back on the reservation (now 6 much smaller ones). So, the usual tale of occupation.
History lesson over, we actually spent a lot longer here than expected. We watched a short film explaining the background to the battle, the event and the repercussions. There is then a 9-mile drive which takes you to a site overlooking the first attack, then a slow drive back following the path of the battle. Along the way are markers indicating where the soldiers fell. White marble of the US troops, brown for the Indians, with information boards explaining what was happening, finally arriving back where it ended.
The disturbing thing was that the markers of the local graves were only put in recently, and the memorial to the Indian warriors near the last stand memorial was put in in 2003. The US troops had their memorial a year after the battle in 1876.
Anyway, into the rather lovely town of Sheridan, Wyoming for a cleansing ale before check in.
