MEMORIAL DAY AT THE LITTLE BIGHORN

At the edge of the Great Plains, beneath a Western Big Sky
just off I-90 halfway between Billings and Gillette
through a tollbooth up above the Crow casino
rest stop without picnic tables, gift shop run by boy scouts
public address system announces the next lecture in fifteen minutes
solemn menfolk  holding the hands of their wives and children
not just bearded burly white guys but also a few Lakota sporting gray pony tails
every truck and van in the parking lot with bumper stickers supporting the troops

Behind the visitor’s center on a covered patio overlooking Last Stand Hill
an overly enthusiastic ranger dressed in green camo relives the massacre
“How could such a well-armed cavalry be overrun by heathen savages?
Only military cemetery in the world with tombstones placed to mark where each Soldier fell.”
Rounded marble monuments lie scattered down the treeless hillside
dry coulee once awash with red blood
today covered by yellow grass filled with buzzing locust
signs caution tourists “beware of snakes”
“stay on paved pathways” to prevent further erosion
“use of metal detectors prohibited” in search of battlefield artifacts

Sioux in the audience asks:  “And so where are the dead warriors?”
Our guide points to the far side of the road a stone circle six feet deep
topped by an iron sculpture depicting Warriors on horseback
inscribed with a list of names and a culturally sensitive 21st Century narrative
etched into marble about the clash of nations
Europeans thirsting for gold and Manifest Destiny
nomads striving for an existence not burdened by the ownership of land

“Just imagine Custer’s surprise,” our host continues gesturing to the river below
“When he came upon a city of teepees under the cottonwoods
Cheyenne and the Oglala, Sans Arc and the Brulé, Blackfeet and the Uncpapa;
this was not just Custer’s Last Stand but also that of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull
just imagine if there were burial sites for those First Peoples who died in revenge
from Big Hole to Buffalo Gap, from Stronghold to Wounded Knee
a genocide that could not be contained by this entire valley.”

Back in the parking lot I noticed yet another more substantial graveyard
occupying an irrigated green lawn set below a line of pines
filled with white granite squares in neat columns and rows
evenly spaced so that a mower could be driven between
National Cemetery designed for an additional legion of patriotic souls
children of Montana who served their country overseas
in Germany and Japan
in Korea and Vietnam
in Iraq and Afghanistan
driven into frenzied murder by rallying cries
echoing the memories of the Alamo and Custer
the Maine and Lusitania
Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center

And it was then that I imagined
just beyond  those unmarked burials of Native Americans
suggested by the uniformed storyteller
yet another invisible martyr’s boneyard
extending all the way to the Continental Divide
filled with victims of wars fought throughout Asia and Europe
a necropolis so vast and endless
that everyone on this Earth
are all either dead victims or living witnesses
pushing up dandelions or placing flowered wreaths
without time enough to wait
until the next sun rises
without lifespans to spare
until a blue moon falls out of the sky
without the patience to pause
until pale faces and red skin are the same color
as this life is too short and precious
and there are more important things to celebrate
than the crusades of brave Warriors and noble Soldiers.

— Casey Bush[1]

Images: Little Bighorn Cemetery overview by Durwood Brandon,[2] Iron sculpture by Native artist Colleen Cutschall honoring the Native Americans,[3] Pastoral Scene[4]

[1] http://www.oregonpoeticvoices.org/poet/341/ additional resources: http://oregonpoeticvoices.org/series_list/
[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Bighorn_cemetery_overview.jpg public domain per  jeremykemp
[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Little-bighorn-memorial-sculpture-2.jpg Indian Memorial at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. "GNU Free Documentation License"
[4] http://chimac.net/2011/03/28/beautiful-pastoral-scene/ Stuff Worth Knowing About (Used without permission)