Custer's Heart

So much has been written about the Battle of the Little Bighorn that it is nearly impossible to present new information. But here is a curious tidbit from the Helena Herald of 1890 noting a legend told by the Sioux Indians. As the only human survivors of the deadly encounter, the Herald noted, the Sioux alone can tell the true history of the infamous event. The Sioux claim that on the hill where Custer fell, a peculiar plant now grows. This plant had never been seen there before the battle and it is not known to grow anywhere else. It is a very odd plant with broad, flat leaves that curve like a sword. Its edges are sharp as a saber and will slice through the skin like a razor blade. Those who unknowingly pick this plant drop it right away as its leaves are strangely cold and clammy. The plant bears a beautiful golden blossom that is shaped exactly like a heart. In the center of the flower there is one small spot of brilliant red, like a drop of blood. The Indians regard this plant with awe. They call it Custer’s Heart and refuse to touch it. They claim that the blossom crushed in the hand leaves a blood red stain that is impossible to remove.


John H. Fouch snapped this first known photograph of the battlefield in 1877. He titled it "The place where Custer fell."
Image from Traveler's Guide to the Great Sioux War, courtesy James Brust

From Montana Moments: History on the Go

Cattle Drives

Cattle drives might be a thing of the past, but supposedly there are still three cows to every person in Montana. Some still practice cowboy skills. And for greenhorns like myself, there are learning opportunities if you know where to look. I will be honing my limited skills at a cow horse cutting clinic this weekend! 



B.B. Sheffield cattle roundup in coal creek badlands, Diamond W Ranch, Calabar, Montana, date unknown.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 981-624

Jesuit missionaries in the Bitterroot Valley and some of the early traders, including Johnny Grant in the Deer Lodge Valley, drove the first shorthorn cattle herds to Montana long before the gold rushes of the 1860s. James Liberty Fisk noted cattle grazing in the Prickly Pear Valley in 1863. But it was Nelson Story who drove the first herd of Texas longhorns into Montana in 1866 in a legendary drive fraught with danger. Story invested a good portion of his $30,000 fortune in gold dust on this venture. He purchased a thousand head of cattle at ten dollars a head and hired twenty-five of the most experienced, toughest cowboys. Armed with colt revolvers, these men were full of courage and grit driving the huge herd through dangerous territory in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. At Fort Laramie, Story armed his men with new Remington breech-loading rifles for protection along the dangerous Bozeman Trail. It was needed, too, as Sioux attacked the group, wounded several drovers, stole some cattle, and stampeded the herd. At dusk, drovers rode into the Sioux camp and, in a daring raid, recovered their stolen cattle.  Sioux again attacked several times more.  At Fort Reno, the army ordered Story to halt, promising that Indians would kill them all. But defying orders, Story and his men drove the cattle by night, and in December 1866, after nine months, they arrived in the Gallatin Valley. Livestock and open range ranching quickly became a huge industry, and skilled cowboys were essential. Roundups gathering the herds for spring branding and fall shipping were the pulse of the cowboy life. As the Northern Pacific steamed across America’s last frontier in 1883, overland cattle drives, once a necessity to move livestock to market, became a thing of the past. Barbed wire encroached and the open range and the vast herds of yesteryear disappeared. Cowboys and their way of life passed into legend.

Trail of Destruction

On this day in 1854, Irish nobleman Sir George Gore arrived in St. Louis to prepare for a hunting trip of astonishing destruction. An Oxford educated scholar and avid hunter, Sir George had thrilled to tales of the American west and organized a three-year hunting trip. His party soon set out from Westport, Missouri, under sanction of the American Fur Trading Company; famed mountain man Jim Bridger was guide. The caravan included 110 horses, 20 yoke of oxen, 50 hunting hounds, and 28 vehicles, 16 of them carrying Sir George’s luggage. When the party camped, a large green and white striped canvas wall tent provided Sir George’s shelter. French carpet, heating stoves, a brass bedstead, a steel bathtub, an oak dining set, and a commode with a fur-lined seat and removable pot promised Sir George all the comforts. For two years he passed the evenings enjoying sumptuous banquets, fine wine, and literary discussions with Bridger. By day Sir George pursued game on his gray thoroughbred named Steel Trap. Aside from trophy heads, he rarely retrieved the meat, instead leaving it to spoil. After he devastated the Yellowstone valley in 1856, Crow estimates of his terrible waste there included 105 bears, more than 2,000 bison, and 1,600 elk and deer. Sir George's reputation preceded him, however. In the Black Hills, en route to St. Louis, his party fell prey to a band of Sioux. Stripped naked and forced to abandon their goods, the arrogant hunter and his party experienced survival for real. During his stay in Montana, Sir George left one lasting legacy. He named the Yellowstone’s local tributary “Glendive” from which the town, some twenty-five years later, took its name.