Thursday marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Greasy Grass, known to many as the Battle of Little Bighorn. For Native American tribes, it’s a time to commemorate one of the most famous and symbolically charged events in American history.
Commemorating the Past
Allied tribes came together on that hot day in June 1876 near the banks of the Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana to hand the U.S. Army a rare defeat as they fought to preserve their way of life in the face of westward expansion. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 of his troops were killed.
The quiet wind-swept prairie of rolling hills and grassy ridges is coming alive again this week as the battle will be reenacted. Horse riders from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and elsewhere are traveling hundreds of miles to the Crow Agency area in Montana to mark the occasion.
Preserving Heritage
A sunrise pipe ceremony was planned Thursday and families are being encouraged to share their oral histories. At the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, horse races and traditional songs and dances are planned.
Gathering at the battlefield area in Montana means “we’re still here,” said William Good Bird, a traditional singer from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota who woke up the camp where hundreds of people were gathered from numerous tribes with a song and drumming.
“Today I am celebrating the victory of our people, celebrating my life as a human being and my spot on this earth,” he said.
Historical Significance
Native warriors overpowered divided U.S. Army forces, and the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota by a Custer expedition just years earlier spurred a military campaign against Great Plains tribes that aimed to push them onto reservations.
The federal government accelerated efforts to subdue resistance, bringing years of hardship and upheaval for Native Americans. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, and starvation brought about the surrender of others in 1881.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
