Doug Scott, project archaeologist at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, tells how he is working with a crew to search along two oxbows of the Little Bighorn River which are quickly eroding away. (James Woodcock/Billings Gazette)

“We needed to find out if there was anything there before it’s gone,” Kate Hammond, National Park Service superintendent at the 1876 battlefield, tells Lorna Thackeray of the Billings Gazette, here.

So [Hammond] called in archaeologist Douglas Scott, an old battlefield hand who has supervised most of the archaeology projects here since the early 1980s. Scott, who is retired from the Park Service, and a team of archaeologists and volunteers scoured the endangered oxbow and two others Monday through Wednesday to determine whether the sites played a role in the clash between the 7th U.S. Cavalry and an alliance of Sioux and Cheyenne.

So far, the finds include two 1960s-era beer cans, a couple of quarters from the 1980s and a handful of .22 cartridges.

“Mostly what we’ve found is modern trash,” Scott said Tuesday. “Nothing battle-related.”

Among other things, they’re looking for clues to the so-called “Lost Company,” described in Indian accounts as survivors of the battle who fled into a ravine, only to be killed by warriors who found them there.

No one has ever found their remains.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 7th Cavalry, buffalo post, Cheyenne Tribe, Gwen Florio, Little Bighorn National Battlefield, Little Bighorn River, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, National Park Service, Native American history, Native American news, Sioux

Crow tribal members portraying Sioux and Cheyenne warriors cross the Little Bighorn River with the American and 7th Cavalry flags after defeating Gen. Custer in the Real Bird Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment Friday. (Casey Riffe/Billings Gazette)

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is known around the world.

On Friday afternoon, about 500 people from as far away as England came to the Real Bird Ranch, adjacent to the Little Bighorn Battle Monument, north of Garryowen, to see the battle for themselves. The Real Birds, members of the Crow Tribe, have put on the re-enactment for about 17 years.

Visitors sat in bleachers overlooking the Medicine Trail Coulee, near where Lt. Col. George Custer and the 7th Cavalry met decisive defeat on June 25, 1876. The brown Bighorn River drifted along lazily in the background.http://buffalopost.net/wp-admin/post-new.php

Authenticity is critical to the success of the re-enactment of the battle, said Ken Real Bird. Members of the cavalry wear uniforms and use firearms similar to the ones fired in the battle.

Those who portray the Cheyenne and Sioux warriors are only permitted to wear breechcloths and moccasins. Most paint themselves and their horses with symbols of red, white, yellow and black.

Between 70 and 80 people re-enact the roles of the soldiers, the warriors and tribal members. Friday’s presentatoin of the battle was choreographed by retired Lt. Col. Bobby Jolley, from Fort Lewis, Wash.

Steve Alexander, from Monroe, Mich., portrayed Custer. Frank Knows His Gun, a member of the Ogallala Sioux Tribe, portrayed Crazy Horse.

Want more? There’s a whole photo array, a schedule of events, and of course the rest of this most excellent story. Click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 7th Cavalry, Apsaalooke, Battle of the Little Bighorn, Bighorn River, buffalo post, Cheyenne Tribe, Crazy Horse, Crow Tribe, Garryowen, Gwen Florio, Little Bighorn Battle re-enactment, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Medicine Traile Coulee, Native American history, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Real Bird Ranch

Today’s Rapid City Journal has this piece by Jim Kent of Hot Springs, S.D. Here it is in full:

The only thing worse than poor communication is no communication. That’s what happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation this weekend at Wounded Knee – where, perhaps, the greatest miscommunication and, unquestionably, one of the greatest tragedies in American history occurred.

As Saturday’s noon hour approached, so did three Colorado Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters. Their destination – Wounded Knee.

Most local residents had heard about their arrival via the moccasin trail – which now includes the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook. Due to the history behind the massacre, as well as the military occupation of the area by federal forces in 1973, the Wounded Knee community was livid.

I fully understand the seriousness of the history involved. Twenty-five years ago, I sent a medal I’d received in the Marine Corps to the White House in protest of the Medals of Honor awarded to the 7th Cavalry after the massacre.

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Tags: 7th Cavalry, Colorado National Guard, Gwen Florio, Indian Wars, Marine Corps, Medal of Honor, Native American history, Native American news, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Theresa Two Bulls, Wounded Knee

Heidi Bell Gease of the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal wrote a good summary of incident this past weekend in which protesters rebuffed three Colorado National Guard helicopters trying to land at Wounded Knee. In this story, in its entirety below, Gease lays it all out:

Oglala Sioux Tribal President Theresa Two Bulls apologized to tribal members Monday for giving permission for three Colorado Army National Guard helicopters to land near the Wounded Knee Massacre site Saturday as part of an educational program.

“I did not intend to be disrespectful,” she said during an Oglala Sioux Tribal Council meeting in Pine Ridge. “I just wanted to open the door, to start communication, and I apologize that there’s a lack of communication.”

But descendants of massacre victims and survivors, many of whom protested the Black Hawk helicopters’ arrival Saturday, said the way the visit was handled was “disrespectful and appalling.”

“That’s a sacred site,” said Phyllis Hollow Horn, president of the Wounded Knee community. “Blood was spilled there by our relatives, by the United States 7th Cavalry.”

That was the story Guardsmen came to hear. According to a news release from Two Bulls’ office, the Colorado National Guard requested permission about two weeks ago to visit Wounded Knee. At the site, massacre descendant Marie Fox Belly was to tell the Guardsmen how U.S. soldiers killed nearly 300 Native Americans there on Dec. 29, 1890.

“The opportunity to hear the true stories from the descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre would enable the National Guard members to realize the consequences of weak leadership,” the news release states.

Two Bulls said she informed Wounded Knee District tribal council representatives Garfield Little Dog and Philip Jumping Eagle of the visit but received no response. She also informed the local Community Action Program (CAP) office and spoke on KILI radio about the Guard’s visit.

Somehow, though, Wounded Knee residents didn’t get the message until Friday or Saturday. For them, seeing three Black Hawk helicopters descending over the mass grave site where their ancestors lie buried touched off deep-seated fears and emotions.

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Tags: buffalo post, Colorado National Guard, Gwen Florio, Native American history, Native American news, Oglala Lakota Tribe, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Theresa Two Bulls, Wounded Knee

Elaine Hale, Yellowstone National Park archaeologist, helps Montana-Yellowstone Archaeological Project students Andrew Bowen of Kent State University and Ryan Sherburne of the University of Montana excavate a feature at the Fishing Bridge Point Site. The large volcanic boulder was likely used as a table or work area about 3,000 years ago. ( DOUGLAS H. MacDONALD photo )

“It’s always been a destination resort,” Hale, park archaeologist, tells Brett French of the Billings Gazette, here. “For at least 10,000 years people have been using the lake area.”

Adds Douglas MacDonald, a University of Montana archaeology professor, “The lake may have served as a crossroads of sorts for Native Americans from multiple regions.”

MacDonald and 13 graduate and undergrad students at UM are excavating parts of Yellowstone as part of the university’s Montana-Yellowstone Archaeological Project.

“The lake area was clearly an important warm-weather hunting and gathering grounds for Native Americans from all over the northwestern Great Plains, northern Great Basin and northern Rocky Mountains,” MacDonald tells French.

They’ve discovered, among other things, 5,800-year-old Early Archaic hearth and an area where people quarried obsidian for spear points traded as far east as present-day Ohio.

Gwen Floro

Tags: archaeology, buffalo post, Early Archaic period, Gwen Florio, Montana-Yellowstone Archaeological Project, Native American history, Native American news, University of Montana, Yellowstone National Park

The release of a new Johnny Cash album (American VI: Ain’t No Grave) this week on what would have been his 78th birthday has renewed a push by his relatives and Cash scholars for a re-release of a little-known Cash album lamenting the nation’s treatment of Native Americans.

Very few people even known about the 1964 album, “Bitter Tears,” Billboard writes here“:

Leading the campaign is Antonino D’Ambrosio, author of the book “A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears” (Nation Books, 2009). D’Ambrosio, who wrote about the intersections of music and politics in his book “Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer,” [whose band after The Clash was The Mescaleros] discovered “Bitter Tears” while digging around the Bowling Green State University Sound Recordings Archives. He describes himself as a passionate Cash fan, but this was the first time he’d heard the album.

“It would have been very easy for Johnny Cash to make a civil rights record at that time,” he says. “He didn’t. He chose to focus on the very real struggle of another group, and the album is relevant to this day.”

That “Bitter Tears” has been lost to history isn’t a coincidence. Columbia “indulged” Cash and signed off on the project, D’Ambrosio says, “because he’d done so well for them with ‘Ring of Fire’ a year earlier.” The songs, written by Cash, Peter La Farge and Johnny Horton, are nuanced and deeply felt. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is particularly heartbreaking.

But almost no one promoted the album or played its music. Cash was so angry that he took out a full-page ad in Billboard – which didn’t even review it – on Aug, 22, 1964, that asked, “DJs – station managers – owners, etc., where are your guts?”

Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, says “Bitter Tears” is one of his favorites. It’s available on CD and at Amazon.com and iTunes, Billboad says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears", "American VI: Ain't No Grave", "Bitter Tears", "Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer:, "Ring of Fire", "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", Antonino D'Ambrosio, Billboard magazine, Bowling Green State University, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Native American history, Peter La Farge, The Clash

Thanks to Montana writer Mark Ratledge for this contribution:

Members of Blackfeet Nation give a 21-gun salute to the victims of the Baker Massacre. (Mark Ratledge)

Since 1987, faculty and students at Blackfeet Community College and Blackfeet tribal members have gathered near the Marias each Jan. 23 to commemorate the massacre and the survival of their relatives.

Two days before this years’ commemoration, Blackfeet Tribal member Bob Burns presented his PowerPoint at the college during a seminar about the massacre. His great- great-grandfather – Chief Heavy Runner – was killed during the massacre, and he is descended from Heavy Runner’s lone surviving wife.

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Tags: Baker Massacre, Blackfeet, Blackfeet Community College, buffalo post, Chief Heavy Runner, Gen. Philip Sheridan, Marias River, Native American history, Native American news, U.S. Cavalry

Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow after the Wounded Knee massacre.

The Portland Trail Blazers' Greg Oden after his knee injury. (KATU.com photo)

Lest folks come back at us with that “too sensitive” baloney, let’s consider some other plays on words:

“Oklahoma City bombs in final game.” “Columbine shoots for victory.”

OK, those are pretty lame. And we can’t imagine anyone would do anything like that.

But maybe because the massacre of about 300 Lakota people, most of them unarmed women and children, at Wounded Knee in South Dakota was so long ago – 119 years ago today – there’s a sense that a joking reference to it can’t possibly be objectionable any more.

Wrong.

For starters, the grandchildren of some the victims of Wounded Knee are still alive today, and the memories remain raw among members of those tribes. More to the point, it’s just unacceptable. “Don’t get cute with death,” is one of those Journalism 101 things, right up there with “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.”

The headline is, of course, a play on Dee Brown’s classic book, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” which recounts that massacre and the countless other tragedies perpetrated upon Indian people whose lands were subsumed by the new United States. The book, written 40 years ago, has just been re-released. (See previous post, here.)

Maybe we should send a copy to Willamette Week?

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee", buffalo post, Chief Big Foot, Dee Brown, Greg Oden, Miniconjou, Native American history, Native American news, Portland Trail Blazers, Willamette Week, Wounded Knee Massacre

Sitting Bull (Smithsonian Institute)

Just 18 months after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Sioux chief Sitting Bull told what happened that day to Martin Marty of Indiana, a Benedictine abbot who lived with the Sioux and spoke their language, the Missoulian’s Kim Briggeman reports here.

Martin followed Sitting Bull and his people to Canada after battle and stayed with them for eight days, and took down Sitting Bull’s story and then passed it along to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

As Briggeman writes:

The American accounts of the battle are all wrong, the Hunkpapa chief claims. The Indians had 11 days warning that the soldiers were coming. Lt. George Custer’s Seventh Cavalrymen were too tired to fight, the horses broken down by hard travel and no food. The soldiers “had been so long in the saddle that they were overcome by sleep,” Sitting Bull said.

There were not the massive numbers of Indians involved in the fight as most reports had it, but they still outnumbered Custer’s men six to one. The annihilation was over in a few minutes.

“Our powder was scarce, and we killed the soldiers with our war clubs,” the chief told Marty. “The soldiers … were killed so quick they did not have time to fight us.”

Sitting Bull said the Sioux did not recognize Custer in the fight, and they did not know him to call him “Long Hair.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Battle of the Little Bighorn, Benedictine, buffalo post, Hunkpapa Sioux, Native American history, Native American news, Sitting Bull