Little Big Horn - reenactment - Montana 2026

 Salvete Omnes or Hoka Hey,

Image copyright @ MC Lonesome Dove Western Photography 

just a short post about the celebration and  reenactment in Montana that took place last weekend-  close to the Crow Reservation, on the property of Real Bird family near  Garryowen, Mt.
 American aficionados of history, reenactors, tribal people of the Plains et al  reenacted the famous Little Big Horn/Greasy Grass battle.

Montana media from Billings KTVQ offers free articles & videos on the reenactment of the battle and participants of this event, including one about the tribal leaders preparations for the event in early June. Also another article on the hundreds of riders who had come to Montana for the June 26, 2026 celebration and reenactment. And their gallery of photos from the reenactment. 

Rosebud Sioux Tribe from South Dakota did a lifestream from the Celebration. 

American Battlefield Trust had a special episode with Custer expert Dan Davis et al on the battle. 

image copyright MC Lonesome Dove Western Photography 

valete

Hoka Hey! - 150th anniversary of the battle of Little Big Horn

 Salvete Omnes,

Hoka Hey! - Lakota (Oglala, Hunkpapa, Miniconjoy, Brile etc), Cheynne and some Santee Dakota and Arapaho warriors defeated the 7th Cavalry regiment supported by the Arikara, Sioux and Crow scouts 150 years ago .

Rain in the Face

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Crazy Horse - blotahunka of the Oglala and Cheyennes 

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White Bull of the Miniconjou, who might have killed Custer

Siobhan Fallon (Yt channel on the Custer's Last Stand and Seventh Cavalry)  has two part video( one & two) on the White Bull's authobiography and Stanley Vestal's biography of this big man of the Miniconjou.

Wooden Leg - Cheyenne 

Little Wolf/Coyote & Morning Star/Dull Knife - Cheyennes 

Two Moons - Cheyenne

Comanche - Captain Keogh's horse 

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Ledger art - so called Maffet Ledger from the MET via Wiki Commons. 

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three Crow scouts at the battlefield cemetery all those years after - Pacem Aeternam

Valete

Curley or Curly - warrior who survived Custer's defeat

 Salvete Omnes,

in the spirit of the 150th anniversary of the Little Big Horn battle - today another Crow scout in historic scenery,  this time in photos.

 

7th Cavalry scout Curley or Curly (circa 1856-1923) -  the Absaroke/Crow warrior who was probably 19 years old at the time of the battle, also a relatives of White Swan. 
He said he captured a pony and a Winchester rifle from a Sioux warrior during the Custer's command battle.

He was the sole survivor of the Custer's Valley of Death. But according to the several statements given to the American researchers (Camp etc) post-1900 he had left before the Lakota and Northern Cheyennes killed all American officers, soldiers (5 companies), interpreters & scouts (note that  three Crow scouts run away before the Custer's command advance into the battlefield started) and thus the only eyewitness from the American side, and who lived to tell his tale.

 Curley provided perhaps the earliest account of the defeat to Helena Daily Herald in July 1876. In order to communicate with the authorities he made a drawing to show the battle. 

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. In 1920 Curley, then living on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, received a US pension for his service.

Valete

White Swan, Absaroka warrior, his war deeds and art & Little Big Horn

 Salvete Omnes,

June 2026 is the 150th anniversary of the Centennial campaign of the US army against the Lakota Sioux and their Northern Cheyenne allies (with some Arapahos).

Frank Rinehart took this photo of White Swan 

So, naturally, it is the 150th anniversary  of the Little Big Horn battle, fought on 25th (Reno Valley and Custer Last Stand, & 26th (M. Reno and F. Benteen's fight) of June 1876.

While operating on the Great Plains US Army - both cavalry and infantry units - used native 'wolves' or scouts who upon enlistment would act as the 'eyes and ears' of the American military commands. 

For the 7th Cavalry operating against the 'hostile' Lakota and Northern Cheyenne that late spring and early summer 1876 the goverment officials authorized various Indian scouts from friendly nations.
   The  Absaroka/Apsalooke//Crow nation held council and authorized 25 scouts for the US Army in April 1876. These warriors, and also Arikara/Ree and friendly Sioux warrior were to be spread  out between various commands during the campaign. 
White Swan was one of 6 Crow warriors   handpicked and assigned to scout for the famous 7th Cavalry regiment. Crows together with friendly Sioux and Rees  made up the 35 scout-strong unit under the command of Lieutenant Charles Varnum, called Peaked Face by the Arikara scouts, aided by French Canadian-Santee Sioux interpreter   Mitch Bouyer & famous frontiersman, Civil War veteran, guide and hunter  Charlie Reynolds. 
 White Swan fought along  his scout companions, the soldiers and officers of Major Marcus Reno command, and miraculously  survived the two day battle, much wounded from gunshots and  lance thrusts and cuts. 
During the battle White Swan counted coup on the enemy warriors in the true Plains warrior fashion.

Photo by Fred Miller - Montana Historical Society 

After the din of battle passed White Swan's made drawings of his exploits in the battle, pictographs drawn and colored in the tradition of Plains peoples, showing his battle experience during the major Reno's advance and retreat during the first phase of the battle of Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass River). 

Denver Art Museum has this war record made by White Swan, painted circa 1890.

Gilcrease Museum has this war record of the LBH battle by White Swan.

White Swan healed from his many wounds and reenlisted with the US Army for the winter campaign, and served as a scout until March 1881, among his exploits was the campaign against the Nez Perce. White Swan died in 1904, known for his role at the battle, his fine art depicting warfare and recollections about the conflict on the high  prairies. 

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Portrait by Joseph Henry Sharp circa 1900

White Swan's tombstone 

Valete

Frank Henderson Ledger - Arapaho fame and honor

Salvete Omnes,

the glyph of a rider and horse in the top part of the page gives out the identity of the artist portraying himself astride his war horse

a quick trip to the Great Plains via some free available drawings by an Arapaho artist 'Frank Henderson'(1862-1885) [and his friends] in the collection of Metropolitan Museum.. American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber was the researcher who spent years observing the Arapaho tribe, and observed that the tribal warriors, warrior societies and their families sought martial exploits in war as the means to obtain fame and honor.

As the Nicelle Beauchenne Gallery biography states:  the true Arapaho identity of this artist is unknown, that he came from Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Agency, Darlington Indian Territory. It was most likely done during the period of post 1874-5 war in the Southern Plains, where US Army units defeated the tribal warriors and forced all the belligerents into the Indian Territory, where they were to create a new reality for themselves, no longer free hunters of bison and horse-cutting raiders, under the goverment agents and their might. 

The researchers concluded that the Henderson Ledger contained drawings by many artists, became a gift for his former teacher, Martha Ker Underwood. The ledger was exhibited in NY (Acevedo Gallery) in 1988, researched, unbound and pages sold off. The Hood Museum at Dartmouth College (Dartmouth, MA) and MET. 

The page 172 from the ledger graces the cover of this book. 
 

the researchers uncovered that at least one of the artists who created images within the Henderson Ledger can be found in Vincent Price Ledger.

Valete