15 miles down the road from Hardin is the battlefield of The Little Bighorn. A vast and haunting place, now part of the Crow Indian Reservation. Memorials abound. The first for Custer and the 7th Cavalry built in 1881, the second for the horses of the 7th Cavalry, and in 2003, 122 years later, a third memorial is dedicated to the Native Americans who died in battle.
The Indians memorialise the horse, not with stone, but with honor songs. The story has it that the horse of one Arickara scout returned alone to the camp hundreds of miles away with arrows still in his body. And that was the first they knew of this epic battle that would change the lives of Native Americans forever.
The view from the former trenches of the 7th Cavalry, looking south over the memorial stone of Hehaka Wankata Najin (Elk Stands On Top), a Sans Arc Lakota Warrier. Soundtrack: My Enemy I Come After Your Good White Horse (Arikara Tribe) from War Dances and Honor Songs, Everest Records.
