Tumbleweed
Well-known member
Pprms post about the artist who did a painting of the survivor of the battle on the Little Big Horn started me looking for a picture I had cut out of the Rapid City paper a few years ago. It was a picture and story of the indian survivors taken in 1948 in the Black Hills at a reunion of some of the indians who were there. I also found a lot of pictures I took at a reinactment that the Crows put on at the battle field. The Sioux and Cheyenne are the ones that fought Custer and the Crows were helping the cavalry because they wanted them out of that country and weren't strong enough to drive them out. I guess they figured with the help of the cavalry they could. I thought it was kind of funny that the Crows were putting on the reinactment and asked one of them if any of the Sioux ever came over from South Dakota and helped them and he said..... " no them Sioux they don't like us much". When I got back home there were a couple of Sioux indians helping my neighbor and we were fixing a crick crossing that had washed out. I was telling one of them where I had been and he got a big grin on his face and laughed. He said....."The Crows they was helpin Custer". So I asked him if he thought any of the Sioux would like to go over and help them put it on and he said......"no them Crows they don't like us much and we could get in big trouble over there"!!!
Gary Carter and Hank Realbird are blood brothers and they invited me and Jinglebob to come over and camp with them when they put on the reinactment a few years ago. I don't know if they are still putting it on. I think there is a one at Hardin but I don't know if the Realbirds still do the one on the Little Big Horn where the battle was. So we went over and spent a couple of days and camped with them. They had cooked a buffalo to eat and there was plenty of other good food for the cavalry reinactors and the Crows that was helping. After we ate Jinglebob and I were invited to join them in the sweat lodge. Jinglebob chose to stay at the campfire and make music and tell stories. I thought it was an honor to be invited so I decided accept their offer. The sweat lodge is like an indian church where they prayed and talked about Old Man Coyote and things that he could teach you . The medicine man said Old Man Coyote is tricky and sometimes he teaches you things you didn't think you needed to learn. The sweat lodge is one of the hottest, steamiest places I've ever been in my life. When I got out of there I went down and soaked in the Little Big Horn River. It was the twenty third of June and the water was ice cold but I was so over heated that it was no shock to get in it. It just felt good! .
I think being in the place where the battle took place, the sound and smoke from those big rifles going off, war whoops, horses whinnying, the dust being stirred up with the sound of all those horses hooves hitting the ground and the beat of the drum in the background which is the beat off the heart is pretty exciting to watch. I was also impressed with how well the Crows rode their horses. They were riding around flat out like a bunch of wild indians with just a bridle and a breach cloth and I never saw any of them fall off there horses.
An old friend and neighbor who passed away a few years ago told me when he was little he used to stay with a couple of old indians quite often. They told him when they were little kids they were camped along the Little Big Horn with their families when Custer attacked their camp. They said they didn't remember much about the fighting but what did make a big impression on them was that after it was over there were lots of dead horses laying everywhere that got shot during the fight.
This is the picture I saved from the Rapid City Journal and a little of the story that went with it.
"They wish they could do it again, said six of the eight known survivors of the Custer massacre who are holding a reunion today in Custer State park.
The dignified old warriors, whose ages range from 98 to 78, are still proud of their people's triumph over the white general on June 25, 1876. They are only sorry the Sioux are not strong enough to chase the whites out of their hunting grounds and their Black Hills, where they believe the Great Spirit dwells".
Gary Carter and Hank Realbird are blood brothers and they invited me and Jinglebob to come over and camp with them when they put on the reinactment a few years ago. I don't know if they are still putting it on. I think there is a one at Hardin but I don't know if the Realbirds still do the one on the Little Big Horn where the battle was. So we went over and spent a couple of days and camped with them. They had cooked a buffalo to eat and there was plenty of other good food for the cavalry reinactors and the Crows that was helping. After we ate Jinglebob and I were invited to join them in the sweat lodge. Jinglebob chose to stay at the campfire and make music and tell stories. I thought it was an honor to be invited so I decided accept their offer. The sweat lodge is like an indian church where they prayed and talked about Old Man Coyote and things that he could teach you . The medicine man said Old Man Coyote is tricky and sometimes he teaches you things you didn't think you needed to learn. The sweat lodge is one of the hottest, steamiest places I've ever been in my life. When I got out of there I went down and soaked in the Little Big Horn River. It was the twenty third of June and the water was ice cold but I was so over heated that it was no shock to get in it. It just felt good! .
I think being in the place where the battle took place, the sound and smoke from those big rifles going off, war whoops, horses whinnying, the dust being stirred up with the sound of all those horses hooves hitting the ground and the beat of the drum in the background which is the beat off the heart is pretty exciting to watch. I was also impressed with how well the Crows rode their horses. They were riding around flat out like a bunch of wild indians with just a bridle and a breach cloth and I never saw any of them fall off there horses.
An old friend and neighbor who passed away a few years ago told me when he was little he used to stay with a couple of old indians quite often. They told him when they were little kids they were camped along the Little Big Horn with their families when Custer attacked their camp. They said they didn't remember much about the fighting but what did make a big impression on them was that after it was over there were lots of dead horses laying everywhere that got shot during the fight.
This is the picture I saved from the Rapid City Journal and a little of the story that went with it.
"They wish they could do it again, said six of the eight known survivors of the Custer massacre who are holding a reunion today in Custer State park.
The dignified old warriors, whose ages range from 98 to 78, are still proud of their people's triumph over the white general on June 25, 1876. They are only sorry the Sioux are not strong enough to chase the whites out of their hunting grounds and their Black Hills, where they believe the Great Spirit dwells".
