Hardin — Gate to the Crow Indian Reservation
Hardin 15 miles west of Little Bighorn (Custer) Battlefield, organizes the Custer’s Last Stand Reenactment.
The Custer’s Last Stand Reenactment, the fourth weekend in June, sponsored by the Hardin
Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, also features scenes from Lewis & Clark’s famous journey, the first forays of white mountain men and settlers into the
Montana Territories, and Sitting Bull’s legendary Sun Dance, which presaged the warriors’ victory over Custer at the Little Bighorn.
In a script written from notes by Crow Tribal Historian Joe Medicine Crow, the
Reenactment tells the tale of the Battle of the Little Bighorn from the Indian
perspective.
Group ticket rates are available. For more information, call toll-free (888)
450-3577, or order tickets online at www.custerslaststand.org.
Videos detailing the historic battle are also on sale at the Hardin Chamber
office, 665-1672.
Little Bighorn Days, the fourth weekend in June, is an event that surrounds the reenactment with a
parade, art shows and vendor booths. It features the Little Bighorn Symposium
and a military ball, and the Trial of Gen. George Custer.
The State Visitor Information Center at Exit 497 offers a beautiful park and picnic area, museum, and 20 historic
buildings.
Historic structures include a farmhouse, cabin, barn/ blacksmith shop, Camp
Custer Cabins, train depot, train cars, Campbell Farming Corporation buildings, schoolhouse, Dr’s building, church, country store and service station. Two exhibit buildings
house the museum’s restored automobiles, tractors, and horse-drawn wagons and equipment.
Country Fun Day is held the first Sunday in June at this site. The day includes
church services in the restored church, a “Pitch Fork Fondue” (steak), auction and tractor parade.
Hardin’s downtown holds attractions like the authentic Lammer’s Trading Post, Hardin Photo, JailHouse Gallery and historic depot.
Crow Agency, just 1 mile west of Little Bighorn Battlefield, is the location of the Crow
Fair, held annually the third weekend of August. A Powwow is held in
conjunction with the fair and rodeo. The authentic Indian event features
colorful costumes made with feathers, rawhide, and millions of beads. Parades,
dancing contests, racing events and pari-mutuel betting are featured daily.
Visitors are always welcome.
The Crow Indian Veteran's Memorial Park is dedicated to those who serve their
native land. Crow Agency has a new hospital designed with unique Indian
architecture. The Crow tribe has its own government.
The Crow Reservation, covering about 2,500,000 acres in Big Horn County,
encompasses Lodge Grass, St. Xavier, Crow Agency, Pryor and Fort Smith.
Custer Battlefield Museum at Garryowen, Montana, I-90 Exit 514, where the Battle of the Little Bighorn began, is open from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through the summer and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Labor Day through
Memorial Day. Enjoy a 20-minute film offered hourly. Entrance fees are $4 per
person and $3 for seniors. Children 12 and under are free. The museum is closed
on major holidays.
From Garryowen, visitors can view the Tomb of the Unknown soldier and the most
famous locations associated with the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Founded in 1995, the museum has been an additional tourism draw to the
battlefield area and features artifacts directly related to George Armstrong
Custer, Plains Indians, and one of the best western photography collections in
Montana.
Other highlights include the only photograph ever taken of Oglala Sioux Chief
Crazy Horse; Thomas Ward Custer's (George Custer's brother) revolver, a weapon
owned and used by one of only five soldiers in American history to be awarded
the Medal of Honor twice, George Custer's original West Point classroom roster,
and Elizabeth Custer's handwritten manuscript for her retrospective
autobiography, "Boots and Saddles."
Additionally, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is on the grounds, with sentinel
busts of Custer and Sitting Bull on either side of it. At this location, 50
years to the day after the battle, One Bull and General Edward S. Godfrey pledged peace between the formerly conflicting sides.
Contact the museum at 638-1876 or info@custermuseum.org.
Where the Battle of the Little Bighorn Began
By Tyler Baldwin
One hundred and twenty-nine years later, the land still yields up its
long-hidden secrets — a bead here, a button there, a flint, a piece of metal, a scrap of leather. One
hundred and twenty-nine years later, the tiny town of Garryowen honors those
who left these silent reminders on the battlefield at its feet.
In the summer of 1876, Garryowen, Montana, didn’t exist. That summer, the land along the Little Bighorn River served as a
temporary home to the largest Indian gathering ever recorded on the Northern
American continent — an enormous village of Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux, led by the great
warrior chief Sitting Bull and hunted by a determined General Custer.
Sitting Bull made his camp at the upper end of the Sioux Village, where
Garryowen stands today. It was there that the first skirmishes of the fateful
Battle of the Little Bighorn took place. For two days, Indian warriors and
soldiers clashed along the length of the valley, and when the dust finally
settled, General George Armstrong Custer and all the soldiers of the Seventh
Cavalry that accompanied him were dead. News of the Army’s great defeat would astound the world and its repercussions would forever
change the face of the West and the lives of those that lived there.
One hundred and twenty-nine years later, that battle still shapes the land and
the lives of those that live nearby. Just ask Chris Kortlander.
Kortlander’s Dream
Having spent many years as a young man in Montana, Kortlander’s interest was always drawn to stories and artifacts of Western Americana, and
in particular to items related to the Seventh Cavalry and the Battle of the
Little Bighorn. Over the years, he began to collect such artifacts when he came
across them — tobacco bags and beaded moccasins, original photographs taken by famed Western
photographs, handwritten letters and official military documents, pipes,
weapons, clothing, blankets and baskets. Eventually, his collection became so
large he began selling, trading and auctioning his holdings as a professional
dealer, but the collector in him still lived and today his treasured Western
Americana collection contains more unique and exciting articles than it ever
did in the past.
What do you do when you’ve got a lot of really neat stuff to display? Why, you open a museum!
That’s what Kortlander did, anyway. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. Kortlander had kept his eye on the Garryowen property for
some time, and when it finally went up for sale in 1993, Kortlander purchased
it. But how did Garryowen come to be in the first place?
The Birth of Garryowen
In 1895, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroads established a tiny station
on the Little Bighorn River, where water was taken on and US Army troops,
supplies and mail were off-loaded for delivery to nearby forts and homesteads.
The station was called Garryowen, after the marching song of George Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. Myles Keogh, one of Custer’s officers, carried the tune and words from Ireland where it had been the
marching song for the Royal Lancers, a famous British unit, of which Keogh’s father was an officer at Garryowen, Ireland.
When the Crow Reservation lands were created in 1868, Garryowen became part of
the Crow’s holdings, but the land was later sold by the tribe and the Federal government
to private citizens. By 1926, the “town” of Garryowen was in private hands, but still consisted of little more than a
small market.
It was at this time, just a month before the 50th Anniversary of the Battle,
that work was being done on an irrigation ditch just east of Garryowen — along Reno’s line of retreat. Much to their surprise, work crews uncovered a nearly
complete set of skeletal remains (no skull was ever found), accompanied by
several bullets and buttons, clearly indicating that this had been a Seventh
Cavalry soldier. Because 14 of Reno and Benteen’s men were never accounted for following the battle, accurate identification of
the remains was impossible. However, with planning for the celebration’s events in full swing, The Custer Memorial Association decided a memorial
service, with full military honors, was due this long-lost Unknown Soldier.
The body was to be entombed in a special monument in the battlefield cemetery
following a “Burying of the Hatchet” ceremony at Garryowen, in which US government and Indian representatives would
smoke a peace pipe and place a tomahawk in the base of the monument.
Honors Little Bighorn Last Stand Tribes
Completion of the Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn Battlefield National
Monument is the result of years of work. It was formally dedicated at the Peace
Through Unity ceremonies at the battlefield June 25, 2001.
In 1988, descendants of Indian battle participants protested the lack of an
Indian Memorial at the national monument. Congress authorized the memorial, and
President George Bush approved it in 1991. Public Law 102-201 renamed Custer
Battlefield as Little Bighorn Battlefield and called for construction and
maintenance of a memorial to recognize Indians who participated in the Battle
of the Little Bighorn.
Location of the memorial at an appropriate site on the battlefield involved
tribal elders Enos Poor Bear Sr., Oglala Sioux, and Austin Two Moons, Northern
Cheyenne. Design was by competition. From 554 designs, the committee selected
Colleen Cutschall’s outline of The Spirit Warriors. A 2002 Congressional Appropriations Bill
funded the memorial.
Dedication events were hosted by the National Park Service and tribes
historically affiliated with the world-famous Battle of the Little Bighorn — Fort Peck Sioux Tribe of Montana, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes of South Dakota,
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota,
Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota,
Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana, Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming, Southern
Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and Three Affiliated Tribes of North
Dakota, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa.
The public was invited to the dedication events. Tribal spiritual and ceremonial
leaders conducted a private site dedication from sunrise until 9 a.m. The
official program, open to the public, ran from 10 a.m. until noon. Former
battlefield superintendents and tribal representatives opened the ceremonies.
Crow Tribe Chairman Carl Venne gave the opening address, along with Montana
Governor Judy Martz. Keynote speakers were U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
of (D) Colorado, and former Montana Congressman Pat Williams (D).
Refreshments and lunch were provided. An open forum with speakers and
presentations was held from 1 p.m. to sunset. Events were free and entrance
fees were waived for June 24-26.
Crow Tribal Chairman Venne hosted a reception at 6 p.m. at the tribal complex,
and the tribe held a rodeo, horse races, and a powwow.
