Posted on 06/22/2003 6:39:13 AM PDT by wallcrawlr
LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT, Mont. - The words were angry, ugly. But to Tim Lame Woman, they were truth, and they nagged at him to be spoken whenever he passed the grassy battlefield where Lt. Col. George Custer became a legend.
On a June day in 1988, Lame Woman marched with other members of the American Indian Movement to the monument to the 7th Cavalry atop Last Stand Hill. They placed at its base a crudely engraved plaque honoring the "Indian patriots who fought and defeated the U.S. Cavalry in order to save our women and children from mass murder."
"To me, that was a continued insult, to see Custer idolized and his monument," Lame Woman recalled from his home on the nearby Northern Cheyenne reservation. "We wanted America to recognize our contributions. But nothing was up there, and it hurt."
Wednesday, the 127th anniversary of Custer's defeat, formal recognition is coming to the Indian warriors who prevailed that hot day, June 25, 1876.
Sharing the honor
The granite obelisk and white headstones of the cavalry dead now share the battlefield with a sunken stone circle - a sacred symbol to many tribes - and an open-air space for tribal ceremonies.
Walls feature "interpretive panels" explaining the roles of the tribes that took part in the battle. And most strikingly, wiry sculptures of three warriors on horseback and a woman on foot beside them stand guard.
The dedication of the new monument Wednesday is a proud moment for Ernie LaPointe, who claims the Sioux leader Sitting Bull as his great-grandfather.
"To me," he said, "it's a long overdue memorial to the victors."
For most Indians, it is an honor. Some even consider it an apology of sorts for whites' treatment of Indians during the early settlement of the West. Others say it simply provides an important historical balance to the 400,000 tourists who visit each year.
Not everyone's pleased
But even among Indian tribes, there is not complete satisfaction in the memorial's design - particularly its inclusion of the Arikara and Crow, who scouted for Custer and were enemies of the Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne.
Battlefield Superintendent Darrell Cook said he expected disagreement, even though tribal representatives helped pick out the design. The memorial, like any art, is subjective, he said.
William C. Hair, a Northern Arapahoe, said the memorial is difficult to interpret and doesn't reflect "the Indian society of yesterday, today and probably tomorrow." Still, he said, he's happy there's finally something recognizing the Indians' role.
"This memorial here is the closest acknowledgment or apology that we'll get from the people of the United States through their government for the atrocities and treatment of the Indians in the early settlement of the American West," he said.
History of the battlefield
June 25, 1876, Custer attacked an Indian village along the Little Bighorn River, apparently miscalculating the resistance that he and his men with the 7th Cavalry would encounter. By some estimates, as many as 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors fought back.
About 260 men, including Custer and Indian scouts with the cavalry, were killed in the battle. The Indians are estimated to have lost fewer than 100.
Within months of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the military renewed its campaign against the Indians and began forcing them onto reservations.
In 1881, the U.S. government built a granite obelisk to honor the military dead.
Barbara Sutteer, who was named superintendent of the battlefield only a year after the 1988 AIM march there, recalls the firestorm the march set off. It prompted the National Park Service to begin considering the idea of a memorial for the Indians.
In 1991, Congress authorized a memorial to the battle's "Indian participants," in a bill that also changed the battlefield's name from Custer Battlefield National Monument. But it was not until 10 years later that lawmakers finally approved the $2.3 million needed to build the memorial.
"People say it was just done because it was politically correct, but I don't think so," Sutteer said. "It goes back to timing and thinking at the time and the people wanted to see something done."
John Doerner, the battlefield's chief historian, said the Indian memorial is more than just a monument to their participation.
"We often think of it as Custer's last stand. But how many of us think of it as Sitting Bull's last stand, or the Indians' last stand?" Doerner said. "Custer gained an immortality in death that he probably wouldn't have gained in life, if he lived. The irony is, Sitting Bull's people won the battle but they lost the war."
Healing an old wound
Clifford Long Sioux said he hopes the memorial will mark a turning point in relationships both among tribes and between Indians and whites.
"It's time for healing, and this is part of the healing process, by finally honoring the Indians," he said. "Some people still have somewhat resentful feelings and are angry. Why? We need to start a reconciliation."
Lame Woman said he plans to walk to the ridge top again Wednesday - this time, he says, out of reverence, not frustration.
"On Memorial Day, you can take flowers to a loved one's grave to remember them. There's something there," he said. "We finally have something, a place for our children to go and see, and it's long overdue."
It is a special reverance that ultra-left wing liberals insist that all of us pay to what they believe are superior spiritual beings who the rest us us know are inept and lazy and not very bright savages who were simply in the way.
So the US wouldn't pay their extortion or give them booze or guns. They sold us land that they later said they still owned. They got here a couple of hundred years before Custer did and took the land from whoever was holding it them. They and their sacred Indian ancestors continue to elect Dashole to office.
When is the left going to stop forcing the rest of us to pay attention to their efforts to destroy America by building up minority issues at the cost of the core culture?
Healing = "FINALLY" honoring the Indians.... I could have sworn Custer and the 7th has been villified in nearly a thousand motion pictures and made for tv "docu" dramas over the last 100 yrs... Build a casino there...more honor in the thousands of those claiming to be "indians"... The Earth belongs to it's creator not one single man woman or child who dwell upon it.. In the end God will settle the score There is nothing sacred about pagan ideology or ceremony
Sand Creek was in 1864. Custer was fighting the Civil War. John Chivington's men attacked the Sand Creek Village.
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