In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles now head to Montana to see the Little Bighorn National Monument. This is the busiest destination they have visited. The parking lot is full of cars and many tourists are exploring the battlefield and visitor’s center. Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles examine a pair of monuments: A relatively new monument to the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as well as a much older monument to the white soldiers who died here. The older monument is on Last Stand Hill, but Grandpa Nyles says there wasn’t really a “last stand” for the white soldiers, since most of them died before reaching the hill.

Grandpa Nyles begins telling the story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. In his story, many Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho come to the summons of the Lakota leader Sitting Bull to discuss encroachment from the white settlers. Together they compose an enormous village of around 10,000 people and 15,000 horses. This gathering occurs eight days after the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, in which Crazy Horse and 500 warriors defeated 1,000 Long Knives and a few hundred Shoshone and Crow, the Long Knives’ Indigenous allies.