We have elected to do this blog, not Millie, because it is one of conflicting human emotions and we are not sure that Millie, bright as she is, fully understands this place.

After we arrived from the fairly short run (by American standards) from Cody to the 7^th Ranch RV Park, in Garryowen, we decided to leave the sightseeing until the next day and chilled out with the wine and beer – we are getting quite good at it!

Next morning we set off, first to the nearby town of Garryowen, which is the name of the 7^th Cavalry Marching tune and also the place where the Battle of the Little Bighorn actually began.

But, as we walked around the museum, dedicated to both the US Army and the Sioux Indians, we became more and more saddened by the story unfolding.

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This was a story of the treaty of 1868 broken, which ceded most of the land of present day Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota to the Indians.

Broken because gold had been found in Indian land in 1874.

It is the story of the removal of a people’s livelihood, by the wholesale slaughter of countless Buffalo (just for their hides) and the destruction of an ancient and free way of life, by the ultimate defeat of the Indian tribes.

After we had traversed the ridge where the battle unfolded, we went from there to the site of the actual last stand of Custer’s men and looked at the memorials to both Custer’s men and the Indian Warriors who died at this place,

As we drove through the beautiful area around the Little Bighorn battle site, we were cheered up seeing the ‘wild’ horses roaming free around the high plains that surround the area, plains that are now in the Crow Indian Tribe Reservation;

Although we had booked on the RV site for 3 nights, after one day looking around the area and in the several battlefield museums, we had seen enough and we decided to cut our stay short and set off one day early to continue the trip.

Perhaps these may sum the story up;

Are we glad we came? – Absolutely, we would not have missed the experience for anything.

Right that is enough melancholy, onwards and upwards, we are off to the Mount Rushmore area now in South Dakota, to see the rock carvings of the Presidents and Crazy Horse and to see the famous Black Hills.

We are going to sing the ‘famous’ song on the way and see if we can teach it to Millie, then if she can learn it in time, perhaps all her four legged friends can sing along with her in the next blog!

“Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota, to that Beautiful Indian Country that I love ……………..…….