Little Big Horn

En route to Helena, we stopped at Little Big Horn, the site of the historic battle of the Great Sioux War known as Custer's Last Stand. This national park site memorializes the major battle fought on June 25, 1876 between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians against the US Army. The Indians, led by Sitting Bull, were fighting to preserve their traditional way of life as semi-nomadic buffalo hunters. The Army, led by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and Maj. Marcus Reno, was carrying out the Grant administration's instructions to relocate the Indians to reservations. More than 300 soldiers and some 100 Indian warriors died on the battlefield that day.

My great grand-father Jacob Joseph Simon served in the Ninth Infantry, Company K, in the Indian Wars, and supported the troops that fought here. Family lore tells the story that Jacob was supposed to be at Little Big Horn, but he arrived late. Not exactly true -- his company was stationed at Camp Robinson in Nebraska at this time -- but this historic site still gives me a glimpse into my family's history.

Here's a US Army uniform similar to that which Jacob Simon wore during his service from 1873-1878. Jacob Simon would have worn this uniform when he participated in the Second Powder River Expedition that raided a Sioux Village on the Powder River in 1876. It's a sobering legacy of national strife worth remembering.

Part of the memorial to the Native Americans who fought and died for their freedom.

The names of the soldiers who died here are engraved in this memorial on the top of Last Stand Hill. The bodies are buried beneath it in a mass grave.