Between Devils Tower and Bozeman, MT, we stopped at this national monument in Montana, where the famous “Custer’s Last Stand” happened. It is pretty surreal to look at the landscape of this bloody and somewhat controversial fight for land.
Alex and I find ourselves talking a lot about the US government’s “Manifest Destiny” approach, and the unfortunate results of one culture wanting to dominate the use of land in a way that is different from an incumbent culture. At this national monument, you can see Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s grave, along with the headstones of other identified and unidentified soldiers, whose bodies were apparently recovered a couple days later and buried on site. It wasn’t until decades later that the US added memorial features and headstones to this monument for the Native American participants, who actually won this particular battle.
The Rose Dixon Expedition 