Day 7 - June 27th 2007

Early that morning, we went to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Little Bighorn Battlefield lies within the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. We stopped at the Custer Battlefield Visitor Center where we took some information flyers. Through large speakers visitors were invited to listen to a lecture held by a crow indian woman. You maybe now expect one of the normal boring lectures, no, this crow indian lectured in a very special, moving, colorful and intensive way. She even was crying a bit when she talked about the former Crow way of life. The lecture lasted about half an hour but we all, even the kids that were there, were so fascinated, we really hung on the crow indian's lips.

In the background of the picture above you can see the Last Stand Hill. On this knoll Custer and approx. 41 men shot their horses for breastworks and made a stand. Approx. 10 men, including Custer, his brother Tom and Lt. William Cooke, are found in the vicinity of the present 7th Cavalry memorial. Other soldiers are found within the enclosure area below the knoll. When the Crow woman ended her lecture we talked with her about her speech and her emotions and how she and her family are now practice the traditional indian way of life.

Then Oliver and I walked along the trail around the Battlefield.

I really don't remember why Oliver is laughing on this pic, maybe I just had a monkey sitting on my shoulder?;-)

At the end it was abundantly clear: Custer was a big stinker!!!
Back in the car we headed over to Crow Agency where we had lunch and went shopping in the Post Office, where we've seen that shirt. They had so many beautiful indian jewelry, wonderful shirts, stickers, buttons, books ...
After a recreative pause with talking about our impressions, we went to Billings, Montana, where we had the next stop. We were just eating and drinking a bit and then we went over to the City of Red Lodge to stay there over Night.

Red Lodge is a small but beautiful city full of life and after a nice Dinner with Pat and Maureen, Oliver and I walked a bit along the main street. Suddenly Oliver detected a horse drawn vehicle and before we could read the plate on the side of the vehicle, the young woman with the rein asked us if we would like to go on a free wagon ride - sure!

The funny thing was that we had a short stop at the parking lot of our Motel, where Pat and Maureen stayed to rest. Pat already went to bed but Maureen was outside at the car and so she took that picture of us. We had a fun evening and went to bed very late.