Wailing Wall at Little Big Horn

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Know the Power that is Peace -Black Elk

Native American Wailing Wall Memorial at the Little Big Horn Battleground

The microclimate of the Badlands and Black Hills became quite obvious as the wide blue sky throughout Wyoming and the great state of Montana opened before us. Black Elk's reference to "greasy grass" at the site of Custer's last stand was puzzling to me and I'm still unsure if this is the same as buffalo grass or sweet grass (as in smudge). I heard this Indian phrase used as a a colloquialism when a trucker cautioned us to drive safely on the greasy roads in SD, definitely a new term for a midwesterner.

Just north of the Wyoming/Montana state line, off I 90 to the right you can see the stretch of land that witnessed this famous battle where 221 troops of General Custer were defeated by the Sioux, the Crow, Cheyanne, even Arapahoe tribes who had banded together to stop this nonsense once and for all. Accounts say the expanse of greasy grass was darkened by all the people and horses that fought there. On the grounds now is a US military war memorial cemetary, (most of Custer's people were buried back East) and an architecturally stunning circle-shaped memorial that honors the four cardinal directions and the Native Americans who died defending their land and culture. (pictured above and below)

Evidently George H. Bush was the President who sanctified this memorial back in 1991 when officially the federal government starting softening their approach under pressure from more conscious citizens. Disturbingly, at the top of the hill, over-looking everything, is the mass horse grave, as Custer and his men circled their horses and shot them, using them as protection from the on-rush of Indians. The contrast in how the Indians and the whites each used the circle and their horses in battle speaks to their vastly different levels of consciousness and why they were destined to conflict.