Over 30 years ago, my family drove around the American West on our one final giant mega-vacation. One of the many, many things I remember from that trip was stopping at a historical marker somewhere really open and grassy, a hill overlooking a plateau or basin. One could see a spectacularly vast, peaceful, grassy area, completely uninhabited-looking.
But the historical marker, as I recall it, noted that this ground was ideal for bison herds, and that for hundreds of years it had been a battleground for Native Americans (presumably over hunting privileges?). The bloody, but invisible, history of the supremely peaceful-looking grassland made a big impression on me. it seemed like a significant place, even though I had not previously heard of it.
But I can no longer remember what it was called, where it was, even what state it was in. It wasn’t Little Big Horn; I would have known that, and I remember the cemetery from Little Big Horn as a separate thing. I have the impression the battles the marker talked about were nameless clashes of Native Americans and not part of the European conquest, although that’s hazy.
I know it has to be east of the Rockies, as we turned back at the Continental Divide. I feel like it was probably on the northern leg of our trip, returning east through Montana and Wyoming et. al., but that could be imaginary.
I just ran a bunch of Google queries without seeing anything I recognized as the place.
I know it’s a long shot, but any guesses? Something might jog my memory.
It could be the Rosebud battlefield. Although the famous battle that warrants the historic site was between the Cavalry and the Lakota, there’s also a buffalo jump on the site. Those were sometimes the object of prehistoric inter-tribal warfare, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some evidence of earlier battles at the site.
I went there a couple years ago and don’t recall any sign like you describe, but these Indian War sites tend to get reinterpreted fairly frequently so it could be that the sign you saw isn’t there any more.
There may well be dozens of known sites of battles on the Great Plains between different Indian groups that didn’t involve whites. But the only one known to me is the Crow Creek massacre site in South Dakota: Crow Creek massacre - Wikipedia
As I recall it, I saw the area from a roadside overlook of some sort. There was a sign which did not name any specific battle, just that the area had been the site of numerous fights over the centuries.
edit: It was a grassy area with some water, not likely in the southwestern desert, for example.
That sounds very much like the monument where Custer fell at the Battle of Little Bighorn (near what’s now Crow Agency, Montana – I lived right down the road from 2004-2006). It’s right off of I-90, and the monument is visible from the road.
This one certainly is in the middle of a sea of grass, with not much else visible. Standing on the empty prairie, with the wind whispering up ghosts from the past, and imagining a young warrior struggling, through his injuries, to warn his tribe of an attack, gave me shivers when we visited it in 2nd grade.
I found a few state parks and archaeology digs where you guys might have visited on your vacation. They are all Buffalo Jumps where tribal warfare probably occurred for the hunting privileges.
If you plug the lat/long coordinates into Google Earth (make sure photo option is on), you can veiw photos from each site, and may be able to recognize the one you visited.
Big Hole National Battlefield, Montana? It’s more famous as the place where the Nez Perce fought with the cavalry, but is also a very old camping ground for Indian tribes.
I seriously doubt that’s it. 30 years ago, Wounded Knee was still a near war-zone in the aftermath of the AIM occupation and the shootout at Pine Ridge. It was definitely not a place a family on vacation would go, and it’s not really anywhere you would just be driving through.
Your absolutely right, I did a cursory view and did not even consider the timing. The OP’s description of the place sounds like Wounded Knee, but there are many other sites that are more probable!
I somewhat agree, knowing AIM was very active - but that was more like 40 years ago - 1973. Plus, AIM was not attacking tourists and the Bigfoot Highway was a very nice scenic byway between I-90 down to I-80. Description-wise, it sounds right, but Sailboat would have to weigh-in on whether or not we are talking 70’s or early 80’s for me to give it more gravity.
