Battle of the Little Bighorn reenactment

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Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment is a reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Since the 1990s there have been two events conducted annually close to the anniversary of the battle in late June, although in 2015 only one event was scheduled to take place. [1]

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Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment

Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment 2013 Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment 2013 (Crow Agency, Montana) 001.jpg
Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment 2013

The Real Bird family has conducted the Battle of Little Bighorn Reenactment since 1995 on the banks of the Little Bighorn River off East Frontage Road between Crow Agency and Garryowen, Montana. The site of the reenactment is on the edge of the Little Bighorn river opposite from Medicine Tail Coulee, where fighting may have taken place. [2]

Custer's Last Stand Reenactment

Custer's Last Stand Reenactment 2013 Custer's Last Stand Reenactment 2013 (Hardin, Montana) 001.jpg
Custer's Last Stand Reenactment 2013

The Hardin Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture has annually conducted the Custer's Last Stand Reenactment performed 6 miles outside of Hardin, Montana on Old U.S. Highway 87. Joe Medicine Crow wrote the script for the narrative in 1965, which recounts the significant events leading up to the battle. Although the reenactment had been held annually since the early 1990s, the 2015 event was canceled due to costs, [3] and the 2020 reenactment was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, a reenactment was scheduled for 2021. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke, also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation located in the south-central part of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Little Bighorn</span> 1876 battle of the Great Sioux War

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow Agency, Montana</span> Census designated place in Montana, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardin, Montana</span> City in Montana, United States

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The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately 461 miles (742 km) long, in the states of Wyoming and Montana in the western United States. The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the bighorn sheep he saw along its banks as he explored the Yellowstone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Bighorn River</span> River in Montana and Wyoming, United States

The Little Bighorn River is a 138-mile-long (222 km) tributary of the Bighorn River in the United States in the states of Montana and Wyoming. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was fought on its banks on June 25–26, 1876, as well as the Battle of Crow Agency in 1887.

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Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana, in the United States. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry and a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force. Custer National Cemetery, on the battlefield, is part of the national monument. The site of a related military action led by Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen is also part of the national monument, but is about 3 miles (4.83 km) southeast of the Little Bighorn battlefield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curly (scout)</span>

Ashishishe, known as Curly and Bull Half White, was a Crow scout in the United States Army during the Sioux Wars, best known for having been one of the few survivors on the United States side at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He did not fight in the battle, but watched from a distance, and was the first to report the defeat of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Afterward a legend grew that he had been an active participant and managed to escape, leading to conflicting accounts of Curly's involvement in the historical record.

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Joseph Medicine Crow was a Native American writer, historian and war chief of the Crow Nation. His writings on Native American history and reservation culture are considered seminal works, but he is best known for his writings and lectures concerning the Battle of the Little Bighorn of 1876.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow King</span>

Crow King, also known as Medicine Bag That Burns, Burns The Medicine Bag or simply Medicine Bag; was a Hunkpapa Sioux war chief at the time of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Crow King was one of Sitting Bull's war chiefs at the battle, he led eighty warriors against Custer's men on Calhoun Hill and Finley Ridge. For the duration of the battle of Little Bighorn, Crow King and his band of eighty warriors attacked Custer from the south, allowing Crazy Horse and Gall to surround the 7th Cavalry. Crow King died April 5, 1884; according to the April 11, 1884, Bismarck Tribune, he died of "quick consumption" from a long-lasting cold and received the rites and sacraments of the Catholic Church. The location of his burial is unknown.

Garryowen is a private town in Big Horn County, Montana, United States. It is located at the southernmost edge of the land where Sitting Bull's camp was sited just prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the opening gunshots of the battle were fired only a few hundred yards from where Garryowen's structures stand today.

<i>Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer</i> Book by Wooden Leg and Thomas Bailey Marquis

Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer is a 1931 book by Thomas Bailey Marquis about the life of a Northern Cheyenne Indian, Wooden Leg, who fought in several historic battles between United States forces and the Plains Indians, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he faced the troops of George Armstrong Custer. The book is of great value to historians, not only for its eyewitness accounts of battles, but also for its detailed description of the way of life of 19th-century Plains Indians.

Fort Custer was established during the Indian wars in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army to subjugate the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow Indians near present-day Hardin, Montana. The post was named for General George Armstrong Custer who died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The Wolf Mountains, el. 4,842 feet (1,476 m), sometimes referred to by local people as the Rosebud Mountains, and also known to the Crow Native Americans as the Wolf Teeth Mountains, are a mountain range east of Lodge Grass, Montana in Big Horn County, Montana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Bailey Marquis</span> Author and physician

Thomas Bailey Marquis was an American self-taught historian and ethnographer who wrote about the Plains Indians and other subjects of the American frontier. He had a special interest in the destruction of George Armstrong Custer's battalion at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which became his lifelong obsession. Marquis' body of work is valued by historians for his recording of the life stories of several Plains Indians and his writing on their way of life, particularly those involved in the Custer fight, notably Wooden Leg in A Warrior Who Fought Custer. Marquis carried out this research at a time when few were interested in the Indian version of events, even though no American soldiers survived the Custer fight. Marquis' work is thus both unique and unrepeatable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow scouts</span> Military unit

Crow Scouts worked with the United States Army in several conflicts, the first in 1876 during the Great Sioux War. Because the Crow Nation was at that time at peace with the United States, the army was able to enlist Crow warriors to help them in their encroachment against the Native Americans with whom they were at war. In 1873, the Crow called for U.S. military actions against the Lakota people they reported were trespassing into the newly designated Crow reservation territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Swan</span> Native American who served in the U.S. Army

White Swan (c.1850—1904), or Mee-nah-tsee-us in the Crow language, was one of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation, White Swan went with Major Reno's detachment, and fought alongside the soldiers at the south end of the village. Of the six Crow scouts at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, White Swan stands out because he aggressively sought combat with multiple Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, and he was the only Crow Scout to be wounded in action, suffering severe wounds to his hand/wrist and leg/foot. After being disabled by his wounds, he was taken to Reno's hill entrenchments by Half Yellow Face, the pipe-bearer (leader) of the Crow scouts, which no doubt saved his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Half Yellow Face</span> Crow leader

Half Yellow Face was the leader of the six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. Half Yellow Face led the six Crow scouts as Custer advanced up the Rosebud valley and crossed the divide to the Little Bighorn valley, and then as Custer made the fateful decision to attack the large Sioux-Cheyenne camp which precipitated the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. At this time, the other Crow Scouts witnessed a conversation between Custer and Half Yellow Face. Half Yellow Face made a statement to Custer that was poetically prophetic, at least for Custer: "You and I are going home today by a road we do not know".

References

  1. Cioffi, Chris (Nov 9, 2014). "Little Bighorn Days will not have Custer's Last Stand reenactment in 2015". Archived from the original on 2014-11-13.
  2. littlebighornreenactment.com http://www.littlebighornreenactment.com/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. custerslaststand.org http://www.custerslaststand.org/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "Home". littlebighornreenactment.com.