LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD INDIAN MEMORIAL, CROW AGENCY, MONTANA - 1997
U.S. Tour and Exhibition - 1997
More than 120 years after the conflict, the US government sponsored the Little Bighorn Battlefield Indian Memorial Competition to commemorate and honor those Native Americans who fought in this historic battle. The small circular memorial site is within view of General George Custer’s 7th Cavalry monument on the Crow Agency, Montana. The predominant theme for this national design competition was “Peace Through Unity”.
The new memorial design, in keeping with ancient beliefs, is approached along a spiraling path allowing visitors to see the memorial from all sides and view the surrounding landscape in 360 degrees. Visitors read and look beyond a glass panel of information, entering the site as immigrants entered this country, looking West. A black iron “arrow” or “wedge”, suggestive of industry, breaks the red stone ring inscribed with a chronological time line of “broken” government treaties serving as the walking path for visitors. Outside this ring is the "winter count" circle of pictographic images etched on individual stones, each representing a significant event for every quarter century from the time of European discovery of North America leading up to the 1876 battle.
At the center of the memorial is a large locally excavated stone precisely sliced into two halves with polished reflective faces. Each is etched with pictographic symbols representing “peace” and “unity” and oriented to reflect and layer both symbols, one through the other, from the entry point. Both these half stones are separated and “pierced” with a round hole, that aligns precisely with the 7th Cavalry monument, giving one pause to contemplate the incompatibility of the two cultures.
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