Cowboys and Indians

Saturday 30^th

Another fine day as we took the 1 hour journey to the site of the Battle the Little Big Horn/Custer’s last stand. It was an interesting place, and more interesting was the different perspective put on the battle by the Indian people compared to what was in popular culture. Growing up, when we played “cowboys and Indians”, the cowboys/cavalry were always the goodies, while the redskins were the Baddies. It turns out it wasn’t quite like that – Custer was a bit of a mean guy and self-proclaimed “indian fighter”, who didn’t mind knocking off a few women and children to intimidate the enemy. So, when they attacked here, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Co. weren’t prepared to let that happen – hence the defeat of the 7^th Cavalry and the demise of General George Armstrong Custer. Another interesting thing I learned is that there is no such Indian tribe as the Sioux. That name isn’t even a word in any language but was made up as a result of miscommunication between the French trappers and the Chippewa people. Later the US Government found it convenient to use it for the Indians in the Great Plains area, who were actually, the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribes - It was the Lakota (and their Cheyenne allies) that wupped Custer. Another thing I learned is that the 7^th Cavalry weren’t all American born – about 40% were foreigners, mainly Irish and Germans. Also they weren’t all wiped out – about 350 survived and it was they who buried the dead over the next few days. There are marble markers all over the fields that show where the soldiers (and a few indian warriors) fell, but all the bodies were later exhumed (1881) and buried under the monument on top of the hill – except for the officers whose bodies were exhumed earlier (1877) and buried throughout the country. Custer is buried at West Point (been past there in a boat!). A lot of horses were shot by their riders at the bitter end and used as cover, and there is a separate burial ground for them at the top of the hill – which I thought was kind of nice.

Unfortunately, the LBH site was interesting enough to put us 1 ½ hours behind schedule, so we didn’t reach Devils Tower until 3.30pm. Fortunately, though, Devils Tower is Devils Tower – a big hunk of rock visible from miles around and you don’t need to get up close and personal (besides, everyone has seen “Close encounters of the third kind”, haven’t they?). So we just stopped by the roadside, and at the Trading Post (and had a beer) and took the pics

Then on to Deadwood, where we arrived around 5pm. By now we had figured the 6 hour drive back to Denver on Monday was going to be a long day, without taking into account a stop at the Crazy Horse memorial. So we decided that we would try and fit in both Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial in the one day, tomorrow, since they were only about an hour away from Deadwood. We had allowed tomorrow morning to sightsee around the “rustic old frontier town” of Deadwood, but it turned out to be everything but. In fact Deadwood is a microcosmic Las Vegas and was jammed full of young adults partying. We went to a famous old hotel/casino for dinner and ended up waiting over 2 hours to get a table. The only real bonus was that there is a $1 per ride trolley bus that does a circuit of the hotels into town every 15 minutes of so, which is great because you can’t get parking in town anyway. The Alaskan crab legs at the buffet were plentiful and yummy, but their prime rib was less than ordinary – I think I will give up on it in the USA. It used to be one of the things I lusted after over here, but cannot remember when I last had a “memorable” prime rib (other than when I cook it myself).

The streets don’t look that full, but that’s because everyone’s in the casinos. BTW I won $3 on the pokies – Carolyn lost 20.

Sunday 1^st July

Since it was only an hour to our next destination, Keystone, we decided to have a lay in until 9am (we had seen enough of Deadwood, anyway). Once over there, we decided to go to the monuments straight away as we couldn’t check in to our motel until 3pm. First we went to Mt Rushmore and found ourselves in a mile long queue to the entrance. Now Mt Rushmore is a bit like Devils Tower, in that it’s just a bit of rock carved to look like US Presidents, so we pulled over to the side of the road, took some pix, and headed off for the Crazy Horse memorial.

Originally we had planned to spend 2 hours here on our way back to Denver tomorrow. However, we arrived at 11.30 am and left just before 4pm. It really is a fantastic place and we were so pleased to have changed our itinerary. Apart from the monument and the museum, we were also entertained by traditional Indian singing and dancing, and a performance by Brule, a band that plays a fusion of native American and modern music. The memorial is a mountain carving (like Mt Rushmore) of Crazy Horse on his horse, and was started in 1948. Rather than try and describe it all here, I suggest you take a look at: https://crazyhorsememorial.org/the-mountain.html

Keystone was a bit like we expected Deadwood to be, but still very touristy. Tomorrow is a big drive day – 6 hours to Denver – but we have decided also to take a slightly different route and come back via Nebraska.

Monday 2^nd July

We left Keystone at 8am in 15C (60F) temperature, and arrived at our hotel in Denver at 4.30pm in 35C (96F). We had stopped at a few spots in Nebraska to check out the shops (Walmart, Kmart and Shopko) and definitely not have been able to spend the time at Crazy Horse we would have liked so, again, were very pleased we changed our schedule. 

We have traveled 1800 miles in the past week and visited 5 new states; Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Sth Dakota and Nebraska (we had been to Colorado before – though just passing through). Tomorrow is a rest day (and maybe some shopping) and rearranging the luggage for the flight to LA on July 4^th. Then some more last minute shopping and home

And we have already decided that we will take the Blount cruise next year from Savannah to Baltimore and effectively finish the Great Loop.