American Notes Montana

Last week, 110 years after Lieut. Colonel George Custer made his infamous last stand, Plains Indians and the 7th Cavalry Regiment met again at Little Bighorn. Their purpose: to rebury the bones of 34 of Custer's men discovered during a two-year archaeological survey. Early in the morning, descendants of the Cheyenne held a prayer service; in the afternoon, cavalrymen and Indians, many of them veterans of America's past three wars, carried out a military internment ceremony.

The remains, many apparently buried in unmarked graves shortly after the battle, were discovered after a fire burned off the underbrush in 1983. Subsequent studies of uncovered bullets and shell casings indicated that Custer's 210 troopers were overwhelmed not just by numbers, as is usually thought, but also by superior firepower. Many of the thousands of Indians were equipped with Winchester and Henry repeating rifles, while the 7th Cavalry fought with outdated single-shot Springfields.