The past two days, June 23rd 24th, we have driven about 300 miles each day stopping only a couple of times to visit one national battlefield and one state park. We spent last night in another My Place Hotel in Billings, MT, and liked just as much as the first one we tried in North Dakota.
I have been sleeping in my home (crate) that we brought with us a few more times. It is nice to have something that I used in my old home in Honeoye Falls, NY so I don't feel so displaced.
We drove an extra 60 miles South on June 24th so Dad could visit the Little Bighorn National Battlefield Memorial in the Crow Indian Reservation in South East Montana. Mom and I had to stay in the parking lot because again, cute puppies like me are not allowed to leave the parking lot. Dad was very nice about not keeping us in the hot sun too long while he toured the battlefield (Last Stand Hill) and attended a ranger talk about the battle which resulted in the deaths of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and about 210 troopers of the US 7th cavalry along with seven Indian scouts and several civilians that traveled with Custer and his command (including his brother and brother in law).
Custer made the mistake of splitting his 600 man command, hoping to surprise and defeat the Indian warriors from a camp along the Little Bighorn River after receiving orders from his commanding general to forcibly bring in a band of Indians who had left the reservation in North Dakota. Unfortunately for him and the members of the 7th cavalry that accompanied him, he became cut off from the remainder of his troops and was forced to make a stand against overwhelming odds (210 US soldiers against 1,500 to 2,000 mostly Sioux and Cheyenne warriors armed with rifles, bows and arrows and war clubs). He didn't stand a chance of winning against such overwhelming odds.
What Custer didn't know was that warriors from six different Indian nations had banded together to fight "the white man's army".
The Indian tribes were eventually defeated after newspapers in the East got word of the massacre of Custer and his men, and Congress appropriated enough money to raise a huge army to be sent West and put down the plains Indian tribes once and for all. The final chapter of this shameful organized annihilation of these once proud people, was a massacre of more than 300 women, children and old people a Wounded Knee, South Dakota, effectively ending "The Great Sioux Indian War", as it was called.
Today, June 25th, we drove from Billings Montana to Bozeman,. On the way, we stopped at Big Timber to pick up some brochures and a map at a visitor's center along route US 90 (where the speed limit is 80 MPH). There we saw a statue of the famous painter Charles Russell, known for his authentic Western art.
In Bozeman, we had lunch at a Chipotle restaurant in the center of the city, where I met a Bobcat and tried to make friends with him. It didn't work, and then Mom told me it was a statue, so I guess that's why.
From there we drove to Three Forks, Montana, where we are staying tonight. Then went to the nearby Missouri Headwaters State Park, where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers all converge to create the mighty Missouri River, which flows into the mighty Mississippi River, ending at the Gulf of Mexico. This was the terminus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as far as water travel in 1805. From here they were forced to continue on foot over the high Rocky mountains lead by a young Indian woman named Sacajawea to the Columbia River and onto the Pacific coast.
Tomorrow we are heading to Missoula, Montana where we are going to visit a ghost town and a state park with waterfalls. See you there😌.
We drove an extra 60 miles South on June 24th so Dad could visit the Little Bighorn National Battlefield Memorial in the Crow Indian Reservation in South East Montana. Mom and I had to stay in the parking lot because again, cute puppies like me are not allowed to leave the parking lot. Dad was very nice about not keeping us in the hot sun too long while he toured the battlefield (Last Stand Hill) and attended a ranger talk about the battle which resulted in the deaths of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and about 210 troopers of the US 7th cavalry along with seven Indian scouts and several civilians that traveled with Custer and his command (including his brother and brother in law).
Custer made the mistake of splitting his 600 man command, hoping to surprise and defeat the Indian warriors from a camp along the Little Bighorn River after receiving orders from his commanding general to forcibly bring in a band of Indians who had left the reservation in North Dakota. Unfortunately for him and the members of the 7th cavalry that accompanied him, he became cut off from the remainder of his troops and was forced to make a stand against overwhelming odds (210 US soldiers against 1,500 to 2,000 mostly Sioux and Cheyenne warriors armed with rifles, bows and arrows and war clubs). He didn't stand a chance of winning against such overwhelming odds.
What Custer didn't know was that warriors from six different Indian nations had banded together to fight "the white man's army".
The Indian tribes were eventually defeated after newspapers in the East got word of the massacre of Custer and his men, and Congress appropriated enough money to raise a huge army to be sent West and put down the plains Indian tribes once and for all. The final chapter of this shameful organized annihilation of these once proud people, was a massacre of more than 300 women, children and old people a Wounded Knee, South Dakota, effectively ending "The Great Sioux Indian War", as it was called.
Today, June 25th, we drove from Billings Montana to Bozeman,. On the way, we stopped at Big Timber to pick up some brochures and a map at a visitor's center along route US 90 (where the speed limit is 80 MPH). There we saw a statue of the famous painter Charles Russell, known for his authentic Western art.
In Bozeman, we had lunch at a Chipotle restaurant in the center of the city, where I met a Bobcat and tried to make friends with him. It didn't work, and then Mom told me it was a statue, so I guess that's why.
From there we drove to Three Forks, Montana, where we are staying tonight. Then went to the nearby Missouri Headwaters State Park, where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers all converge to create the mighty Missouri River, which flows into the mighty Mississippi River, ending at the Gulf of Mexico. This was the terminus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as far as water travel in 1805. From here they were forced to continue on foot over the high Rocky mountains lead by a young Indian woman named Sacajawea to the Columbia River and onto the Pacific coast.
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