Quick Notes from a Road Trip West: Montana Battles

Our visit to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument took longer and was far more informative and moving than I'd anticipated. There was much to see and more to learn, and I sensed being immersed in both the glory and the shame of our national identity. I thought we'd spend an hour or so at most; we were at the monument nearly four hours.

If you'd asked me before today the difference between the Battle of Little Bighorn and Custer's Last Stand, I'd have had no idea. I always pretty much thought they were the same thing, but now I know the Last Stand was only a part of a larger and longer battle. But the Last Stand became the determinative factor in the outcome. Although the Native Americans won, their victory and our nation's political and economic pressures pushed the federal government to "solve the Indian problem" once and for all. Within a few years of 1876 all tribes were on reservations.  History is always far more complex than our memories make it seem to have been.

Long stretches of semi-arid grassland, then spectacular mountains surrounding green fields, with relatively small (by Eastern standards) cities built upon industrial and agricultural might widely spaced along the way. Montana feels vast in every way. Big Sky and big everything else. But people live and breathe the little things, as the headline in the Livingston MT paper reminded me: "Dog Recovering from Rattlesnake Bite."  The fight for life never ends.