Little Bighorn Battlefield Memorials
The resting place of warriors
Some 131 years after the fall of George Armstrong Custer, the site of his defeat has been made a national monument. Located near Crow Agency, Montana, the monument was built in memory of the Lakota / Cheyenne natives and Custer’s 7th Cavalry. The most visible part of the monument is the Custer National Cemetery, located on the same grounds as the battle.
Custer National Cemetery
Originally called the National Cemetery of Custer’s Battlefield Reservation, the name was shortened before the turn of the 20th century. Although many visitors to the cemetery arrive out of interest in the commander’s failed “Last Stand,” the landmark also commemorates other nearby campaigns launched during the “Indian Wars.” These include the actions of Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, both key figures in their own campaigns and on June 25, 1876.
Despite the name emblazoned across the memorial, Custer is no longer buried on the premises. Instead, his body was re-interred to the historical and famous West Point Cemetery at the United States Military Academy in New York.
The First Memorial
The site was initially memorialized by Captain George Sanderson some three years after Custer fell. Sanderson, accompanied by his 11th Infantry, separated the remaining human bones from those left by decayed animals, laying to rest some four or five different soldiers. Sanderson then crafted a simple wooden grave four feet above the ground along a high point to the rear of where Custer’s force was brought down.
A few years after this, Lieutenant Charles F. Roe and his 2nd Cavalry constructed a granite memorial, moving the bodies of soldiers to this new site. However, stakes were left to show where many of these soldiers died (these markers were later replaced with marble).
The Indian Memorial
It’s common for both sides of a national battlefield to be commemorated, thus an Indian Memorial was crafted and erected near Last Stand Hill. In recent years, those markers indicating where U.S. soldiers fell during the battle have been reinforced by similar markers denoting the presence of famous Native warriors, including Crazy Horse, Lame White Man and Noisy Walking.
As recently as the 2003 anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, an unknown Lakota fighter was buried at Wooden Leg Hill.
