Native tribes – As the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Greasy Grass approaches, Native communities across the Plains are gathering for horse races, dance, songs, reenactments, and ceremonies—treating the commemoration as proof of survival, not a distant page of history.
On the wind-swept prairie near the Little Bighorn battlefield national monument in Montana, the moment feels less like a reenactment and more like a homecoming.
Thursday marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Greasy Grass—known to many as the Battle of Little Bighorn. It was a June 1876 day near the banks of the Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana. when allied Native tribes came together to hand the U.S. Army a rare defeat while trying to preserve their way of life against westward expansion. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 of his troops were killed.
This week. the quiet hills and grassy ridges are “coming alive again. ” with horse riders traveling hundreds of miles to the Crow Agency area in Montana. Riders from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and elsewhere are among those making the journey for the battle’s reenactment. A sunrise pipe ceremony was planned Thursday, and families were encouraged to share their oral histories.
At the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, the commemoration includes horse races and traditional songs and dances.
In the camp near the battlefield. William Good Bird— a traditional singer from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota—described the feeling of the gathering in plain terms. “we’re still here. ” he said. as he woke up the camp where hundreds of people were gathered with a song and drumming. “Today I am celebrating the victory of our people. celebrating my life as a human being and my spot on this earth. ” he added.
The battle’s legacy remains inseparable from the story that followed. Historian Dakota Goodhouse said the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota by a Custer expedition several years earlier helped spur a military campaign against Great Plains tribes. aimed at pushing them onto reservations—then known as agencies.
Goodhouse noted there were bigger. longer battles and other Native victories between March 1876 and June 1877. but the Battle of Greasy Grass gained national recognition because the commanding officer was killed. Custer’s force was spread miles apart over the hilly terrain, and Native warriors quickly overwhelmed the men.
For many Americans, the news of Custer’s defeat came during a period when the country was celebrating its centennial. The federal government, in turn, accelerated efforts to subdue resistance, ushering in years of hardship and upheaval for Native Americans. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, and starvation contributed to others surrendering in 1881.
Jon Eagle Sr. a former Standing Rock tribal historic preservation officer from the Hunkpapa band of the Oceti Sakowin. pushed back on how the story is often told about Sitting Bull. Eagle said his people describe Sitting Bull looking at his son Crow Foot and saying: “My boy. if you live. you can never be a man in this world because you can never own a gun or a pony.” Eagle said he believes Sitting Bull understood what was coming for his children. grandchildren. and those not yet born.
Sitting Bull did not surrender as some history books tell it. He was killed in 1890 with about a dozen other people when Indian agency police attempted to arrest him.
Custer himself remains polarizing. Biographer T.J. Stiles described Custer as one of the most distinguished combat officers in the Army at the end of the Civil War. Stiles said the “Boy General. ” known for his long hair and flamboyant battlefield wardrobe. often bristled at the chain of command and did not take to the management side of leadership. “Custer was someone who whenever he got into the frying pan, he immediately started looking for the fire,” Stiles said.
The biography also places Custer in the years leading up to the battle: In 1873. he was assigned to lead the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln near what is now Bismarck. North Dakota. From there. he led military expeditions. including one that confirmed gold in the Black Hills. which are sacred to the Lakota.
For many Americans, Custer is remembered as a tragic hero and memorialized for military feats. But Goodhouse said he could also be seen as progressive even as the federal government tried to displace Native Americans and stamp out Native languages through boarding schools. Goodhouse said Custer learned to speak Arikara and Lakota and became fluent in Plains Indian sign language.
Even so, this week’s timing doesn’t erase the pain. With many Americans marking the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Crow tribal member and reenactment coordinator Jim Real Bird said it’s not a reason for Native celebration. “It’s just a mark to me of 250 years of injustice to the Native people,” he said.
Eagle agreed, saying that when people come together they repeat a message about survival: “That’s one of the things that we always tell our people when we come together, is they failed at their attempts to rub us out. We’re still here as ancient people deeply connected to our environment.”
For more than 30 years, reenactments featuring hundreds of warriors have marked the anniversary near the battlefield. The choreography is based on Northern Cheyenne oral history and highlights horsemanship and language preservation. Real Bird said: “All the other things that are Native American don’t mean nothing if you don’t know your language.”.
Thousands of people are expected to camp out over the course of a few days. The schedule includes prayer gatherings, relay races, horse rides, and parades. The National Park Service also is holding anniversary events at the battlefield national monument.
At Standing Rock, Eagle said the races honor the horse nation that carried their ancestors to victory 150 years ago. The commemoration also includes oskáte, a traditional celebration of oral histories, victory songs, and tribal dancing.
“It’s just an opportunity for us to share with the generations coming behind us that they’re descendants of a very powerful nation and ancient people that are still here despite everything that was done to us. ” Eagle said. He is the descendant of Sunka, who fought that day, and he said his father, Charging Thunder, also was there.
Goodhouse, speaking from family memory, said stories still move through his life. He recalled what his grandfather would tell him about their ancestors in the Hunkpapa camp when troops attacked. His grandfather’s great-grandfather, Striped Face, was shot but mounted his horse and joined the fight.
“There’s this kind of energy there that still lives on because we have this direct narrative that was handed down,” Goodhouse said.
And in the hours leading up to Thursday’s ceremonies, that narrative didn’t feel archived. It felt practiced—sung, ridden, and carried forward—by people standing on the same wide stretch of grass where their history began, and by those insisting it continues.
Little Bighorn Battle of Greasy Grass Native American commemoration horse races oral histories Custer Sitting Bull Crazy Horse Standing Rock Crow Agency
So is this like a reenactment or are they actually doing ceremonies? Because the title makes it sound both ways.
150 years and they still have to “prove survival”?? That’s sad honestly. I feel like everyone forgets this happened and it’s not just some tourism thing.
Custer got killed, so that’s kind of the point right? Like the horses and dances are just to celebrate him losing? I dunno, I might be mixing it up with the regular history stuff.
I saw something about horse riders coming from all over and thought it was for like a rodeo. But it sounds more serious than that, like living memory. Still wild that it’s 150 years later and people are traveling hundreds of miles for it.