Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

 On  Friday July 15th 2022 we toured The Little Bighorn Battlefield. I have toured many battlefields in this country and this battlefield was the last on my bucket list. It is in Montana and the scenery is gorgeous. If you want an in depth interpretation of the battle you will need to go somewhere else but I think that I understand where Custer went wrong and ended up dying with over 200 of his men, along with two brothers, a brother-in-law and a nephew. The Fort Laramie treaty of 1868 promised the Black Hill's of South Dakota to the Sioux Indians for perpetuity. This area was considered a very sacred area for them. In the early 1870's the US government offered to buy this land from the Sioux but they staunchly refused to sell. This prompted the government to pursue a policy that would provoke the Indians into a war that would force them out of the Black Hills. This is why they sent Custer on an expedition into the Black Hill's in 1874. He took along reporters, miners and s...

  On the night of Wednesday July 13, 2022 we decided to spend the day in Keystone South Dakota and see the sights the following day . Although Keystone was where we were staying, we really hadn't had an opportunity to see the town. The original plan was go to the Presidential Wax Museum on the morning of the 14th and then drive over to the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana, which would not give us very long to see the battlefield since it closed at 5:00 PM. So we decided to change our plans by staying in Keystone to see a few things, drive to Billings Montana that afternoon and get up early on Friday the 15th and then have all day to see the battlefield. This would cause us to backtrack an hour to see the battlefield but it would turn out to be the best decision. Russell wanted to see the Presidential Wax Museum but my expectations were low. I have seen many wax museums in my life. Madame Tussauds was probably the best but actually I was impressed with the quality of the figure...