LITTLE BIG HORN
North American settlers from England and other countries clashed with the native people on this continent, including the Great Plains’s Sioux and Cheyenne. Many tribes were forced to leave their homes to live on unfamiliar reservations. Those who had for hundreds of years migrated to follow herds of buffalo were most resistant to being moved off their land.
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the 7th Cavalry, and several other officers and regiments of soldiers were sent to map the Black Hills of South Dakota, where Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were thought to be leading rebellious hunting parties. The military men were encouraged to do battle with the Indians in order to force them to submit to the U.S. government.
Custer and the other U.S. leaders underestimated the numbers they encountered at Little Big Horn: Custer had about 200 men; as many as 3,000 Native Americans fought them. In less than an hour of battle, all of Custer’s group—including Custer—were dead. So were hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
Some Native Americans who live near the Little Big Horn National Monument today call the Stone House park rangers “ghost herders.” As the rangers lower the American flag at sunset, legend says the ghosts appear to haunt the battlefield. Chief historian John Doerner admits the basement of the Stone House once housed the bodies of the dead as they waited to be buried in the battlefield cemetery. But he says most ghostly sightings come from visitors or part-time employees.
Author Debra Munn collects those stories. According to Munn, one caretaker moved into the house in 1894. He awoke to discover the tattered body of a warrior sitting on his bed—and the torso of a soldier without a head or legs drifting across the room. Others have seen lights turn on and off without explanation or have heard voices whispering in other rooms.
“I never saw anything or heard anything that didn’t have an explanation for it,” said park superintendent, Neil Mangum. “I’m not against ghosts. I just haven’t seen any.”
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
756 Battlefield Tour Rd.
Crow Agency, MT 59022
http://www.nps.gov/libi/historyculture/index.htm
North American settlers from England and other countries clashed with the native people on this continent, including the Great Plains’s Sioux and Cheyenne. Many tribes were forced to leave their homes to live on unfamiliar reservations. Those who had for hundreds of years migrated to follow herds of buffalo were most resistant to being moved off their land.
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the 7th Cavalry, and several other officers and regiments of soldiers were sent to map the Black Hills of South Dakota, where Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were thought to be leading rebellious hunting parties. The military men were encouraged to do battle with the Indians in order to force them to submit to the U.S. government.
Custer and the other U.S. leaders underestimated the numbers they encountered at Little Big Horn: Custer had about 200 men; as many as 3,000 Native Americans fought them. In less than an hour of battle, all of Custer’s group—including Custer—were dead. So were hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
Some Native Americans who live near the Little Big Horn National Monument today call the Stone House park rangers “ghost herders.” As the rangers lower the American flag at sunset, legend says the ghosts appear to haunt the battlefield. Chief historian John Doerner admits the basement of the Stone House once housed the bodies of the dead as they waited to be buried in the battlefield cemetery. But he says most ghostly sightings come from visitors or part-time employees.
Author Debra Munn collects those stories. According to Munn, one caretaker moved into the house in 1894. He awoke to discover the tattered body of a warrior sitting on his bed—and the torso of a soldier without a head or legs drifting across the room. Others have seen lights turn on and off without explanation or have heard voices whispering in other rooms.
“I never saw anything or heard anything that didn’t have an explanation for it,” said park superintendent, Neil Mangum. “I’m not against ghosts. I just haven’t seen any.”
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
756 Battlefield Tour Rd.
Crow Agency, MT 59022
http://www.nps.gov/libi/historyculture/index.htm