ajc architects continues to make progress on the new visitor center for the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. As the design takes shape, we wanted to reflect on the site’s history as the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (known to the Lakota and other Plains tribes as the Battle of the Greasy Grass) approaches.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 established the Great Sioux Reservation, granting the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires), of which the Lakota were the largest group, vast lands west of the Missouri River, along with rights to roam and hunt. In practice, the U.S. Government used the reservation system to suppress the nomadic way of life of Plains peoples, fueling tensions between tribes, white settlers, and the expanding railroads.

Those tensions came to a head when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. In violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sent to survey the region, opening the door to a flood of miners. War broke out, treaties were broken, and the U.S. Army declared the resisting tribes hostile.

Outraged by the invasion of their sacred lands and the decimation of the buffalo herds that sustained them, the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho united under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. By June 1876, their coalition had formed one of the largest gatherings of Plains Indians in history along the Little Bighorn River. This set the stage for the battle when Custer’s 7th Cavalry attempted to force them back to the reservations.

Learn more about the battle here: https://www.nps.gov/libi/learn/historyculture/battle-story.htm