After the calm pastures of Livingston, Montana, we traveled southeast towards South Dakota through wide stretches of grassland bordered by magnificent mountains. Summer storm clouds billowed on the horizon as we approached Buffalo, Wyoming and delivered lightning and a thundering rainstorm just as we got into our campground - what a welcome!
When the skies cleared we explored the town of Buffalo which is located about halfway between Glacier and Yellowstone at the base of the Big Horn Mountains. A city of about 4,500 people now, it started in 1879 as a stopover for settlers moving west, some of whom stayed and built homes and ranches. Over the years, Buffalo saw conflict between homesteaders and the cattle barons and had its share of cowboys and infamous outlaws.
The Occidental Hotel is one of the historic landmarks in Buffalo. Established in 1880, the hotel has a colorful past, providing shelter for many famous people of the old west. Among its prior guests were Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt, Calamity Jane, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The week we visited Buffalo the hotel hosted riders of a different variety - motorcyclists bunking here for a night - on their way to the annual Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. Whether they were catching up on some shut-eye or stopping in at the saloon, their faithful mounts waited outside for them to saddle up once again.
Outside of town, the rolling hills provided grazing for cattle, lazing under a solitary shade tree.
Curious about the history of this region, we took a day trip to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the site of Custer's last stand, about 100 miles north of Buffalo.
Looking out over the quiet landscape, it seems a difficult place to wage a battle with wide open grassland, rolling hills and canyons sloping down to the wooded banks of the Little Bighorn River. The battle occurred over two days on June 25th and 26th, 1876, between the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army and the combined forces of Northern Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. I tried to imagine the chaos of cavalry soldiers and Indian warriors fighting on foot and on horseback over such uneven ground.
This fight was rooted in the ongoing conflict between the migratory Plains Indians living off the land, and the U.S. Government wanting to move them to reservations so they could take the land and develop it for an expanding economy. The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 created a large reservation for the Lakota and included the Black Hills in South Dakota, a region sacred to the Lakota. The treaty required the Indians to stay within the the reservation boundaries. However, tribal leaders Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and others were not at the signing and did not agree to being confined to the reservation. They continued to roam and hunt as they always had, which caused conflict with settlers, ranchers and other enemy tribes.
In 1874, Lt. Col. George Custer was sent to explore the Black Hills as a site for a future army post. During his expedition gold was discovered in the Black Hills, attracting many miners and businessmen, and violating the treaty. The government tried to purchase the Black Hills but the Indians refused to sell. In 1875 the government issued an order for all migratory Indians to move to the reservation by January 31, 1876 or be considered "hostiles". The Indians ignored the order, and in the spring, several bands gathered along the LIttle Big Horn River for the traditional ceremony of the Sun Dance, and to follow Chief Sitting Bull in resisting the government's direction. Custer's orders were to engage the Indians and force them onto the reservation. He greatly underestimated the size of the Indian forces, and in the battle that ensued both Custer and his entire battalion of 210 men were killed by Sitting Bull's force of 800 to 1,000 warriors. Indian losses were estimated at 50 to 100 warriors. While the Indians had won the most decisive victory of the Indian Wars, Custer's defeat brought intensified efforts by the government and military to force all remaining tribes onto the reservation. Ultimately, the Indians were forced to cede their lands to the government to keep supplies coming to the reservation, to avoid starvation.
Following the battle, bodies of the soldiers were buried and their graves marked with poles. In 1877, Custer was reinterred at West Point. In 1888, soldiers remains were moved to a mass grave and a large granite marker was erected. The white marble markers in the fields were added by the U.S. Army in 1890 and placed at locations where soldiers had died.
The Indians carried their dead away from the battlefield to be buried but marked the places where warriors died with stone cairns. Formal markers for Indian warriors were not added until many years later. The first marker was placed in 1958, due to the work of historian Don Richey Jr. and Cheyenne historian John Stands in Timber.
The cemetary at this location also includes the graves of other soldiers who fought in the Indian Wars and the Civil War.
This quote from Black Elk (1863-1950) is memorialized at the site . He was a Lakota holy man, warrior, and witness to the Battle of Little Bighorn. He was 13 years old at the time, and is one of several Indian sources who provided an accounting of the battle.
The following day we explored the rolling hills around Buffalo, where we found miles of grassland, dotted with farms and ranches. Pastures provided peaceful grazing for horses, sheep and the beautiful pronghorn antelope.
This pair of antelope meandered through a fenced pasture. They were a long way away, but were definitely aware of us.
Don't Fence Me In! No problem sailing right over the fence - nailed the perfect landing!
A beautiful palomino swished her tail at us -
The landscape here was stunning with velvety hills seemingly layered into each other, and a herd of horses seeking some shelter from the wind.
And this pair, having their morning chat.
Loved these Alpacas with their curly heads - very curious about the visitors on their road!
...and this little guy who appeared to be some kind of hungry!
Sheep huddled together grazing in a hollow.
We bid farewell to Buffalo and headed to the rugged territory and the Black Hills of South Dakota. At last we were on our way to Mount Rushmore for a long anticipated visit to see this amazing monument!
Murphy and Alan in front of the Avenue of Flags. Dogs are not allowed in the park, so Murphy got a view from here, and made friends with visitors passing by, while Alan and I took turns touring the monument.
The Avenue of Flags - with lots of people looking for their home state flag.
The Ranger giving a talk about the sculptor John Gutzon Borglum and the artist's studio that is located on a lower level of the park.
The artist's studio is a shady walk on the Presidential Trail down...and back up....422 stairs! The benefit - a view of an inital model of the sculpture and a workout at the same time! The model fills the room from floor to ceiling but is dwarfed by the faces on the mountain - each one is approximately 60 feet tall. I could not decide which face I Iiked best, each one is uniquely beautiful. Lincoln is probably my favorite for the deep expression in his eyes.
The faces on the mountain were chosen by Borglum. He selected these four because he believed they "represented the most important events in the history of the United States". Borglum felt that Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln represented the birth, growth, development and preservation of America. Fourteen years in the carving, and involving nearly 400 workers, it is a truly remarkable memorial to these amazing men.
We also visited the Crazy Horse memorial, which is about 17 miles from Mt. Rushmore. Begun in 1948, it is a massive sculpture to honor Crazy Horse and the North American Indians. A work still in progress, it's design is for a likeness of Crazy Horse, riding his horse, and pointing to his native lands. When completed, at a height of 563 feet, it will be much larger than Mt. Rushmore.
The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota chief and highly respected elder in the Native American community. He initially sought to have the likeness of Crazy Horse included with the heads of the presidents at Mt. Rushmore. His older brother wrote to Borglum to suggest that Crazy Horse be included, but received no response. For several years Standing Bear tried to get Borglum to carve the Crazy Horse memorial but to no avail. Finally he hired sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who had worked on Mt. Rushmore with Borglum. Standing Bear also contributed 900 acres of his own land to the government in exchange for the Thunderhead Mountain as the site of the monument. Work began in 1948, and is still in progress today. Ziolkowski estimated the timeline for completion to be 30 years and worked on the mountain until his death in 1982.
Unlike Mt. Rushmore, which received federal, state and private donations of nearly
$990,000 to fund its creation, the Crazy Horse Memorial is funded entirely by private donations and admission fees. Its creators have long refused any government funding. The lack of funds has slowed the completion of this work.
The face of Crazy Horse is 87 feet tall, and his extended arm is 263 feet long. By comparison, the faces of Mt. Rushmore are 60 feet tall, and the width of the four faces together is 183 feet. Finished width of Crazy Horse is planned to be 641 feet.
This large model of the planned memorial design gives a sense of how much more of the mountain is yet to be carved.
We saw a demonstration of tribal dances, including the Hoop Dance. The dancers use multiple hoops to create symbolic representations of different animals such as Eagles, Butterflies, Snakes, Horses, and others.
The park had many interesting artifacts, as well as pieces of art, jewelry, blankets and clothing for sale, made by Native Americans.
Murphy met a Dalmation friend who also was visiting the memorial.
We enjoyed our time at these two special monuments and marveled at these timeless faces enshrined for generations to come,
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