West 2008: Tuesday, July 22, and Wednesday, July 23, 2008

After visiting Farragut State Park, we spent the night at Coeur D’Alene, and set out the next morning in a different direction. Up to this point we had been traveling more or less in a westerly direction. But from this point on we would be traveling mostly east as we began the long return trip to Ohio. But there was still much to see.

Less than an hour out of Coeur De’Alene, we stopped at Old Mission State Park where a church is preserved. It was built by Native Americans, the Coeur D’Alene tribe, and staffed by Jesuit priests who lived on the premises. Originally called the Mission of the Sacred Heart in Cataldo, Idaho, it was designated as a Registered Historical Landmark in 1962. The original building was erected in 1848 after moving the site of the church some 35 miles from the valley of the St. Joe River which was subject to flooding.

The native Americans had heard about "medicine men" who wore black robes and carried a black book, and they wanted some of these men to come and be part of their tribes. Scouts were sent to St. Louis to request that such men come west to minister to them. In response, priest Pierre-Jean De Smet moved to the area and established the church in 1842.

The building was designed by another priest, Antonio Rivalli but built by the members of the tribe using a construction method known as wattle and daub. The wattle consists of strips of wood or small branches that are used to form a lattice. The daub, usually made of mud, sand, animal dung and other natural substances, is daubed over the lattice work to form a wall. There were no nails used in the original construction.

Other buildings were added to the complex, including a parish house in which the priests lived and other buildings used to house guests and for use as a port for boats on the Coeur D’Alene River which runs along the property.

The church building was restored in 1976 and is now maintained as an Idaho state park. The parish house now serves as a temporary visitor center while the new center is being constructed. There is a small cemetery down the hill from the church. The church building itself is said to be the oldest standing building in the state of Idaho. It represents the blending of Native American and American cultures.

After visiting the mission, we drove out of Idaho and back into Montana, staying in Billings overnight. The next day we continued southeast into Wyoming. Just before we reached the Montana-Wyoming border, we stopped at another place of significance in American history, a place that was the scene of a bloody battle between Native Americans and Americans.

Lt. Colonel George A. Custer, assigned to lead the 600 men of the Seventh Cavalry stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, and more than 1100 miles from his home in Monroe, Michigan, set out on May 17, 1876 on orders from President Ulysses S. Grant to put down an Indian uprising in the valley of the Little Bighorn River in the Montana Territory. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills region helped to set the stage for the battle. The United States government had given a large area of eastern Wyoming to the Lakota tribe as a permanent reservation. The area included the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota. The discovery of gold brought unruly fortune seekers to the area in violation of the treaty made with the Indians. Efforts to quell this invasion failed.

An alliance was made between the Lakota and the Cheyenne, and the Indians began conducting raids on settlements and travelers. The government ordered them to stop or they would be identified as hostile and dealt with by military force.

The indians declined, and the Seventh Cavalry was sent to settle the problem.
Custer and his men arrived at the Little Bighorn in late June of 1876 and located the Indian camp on June 25. His opponents were the Lakota leader Sitting Bull and Chief Crazy Horse and the more than 1200 warriors they commanded. It is generally conceded that Custer underestimated the numbers and determination of the Indians and divided the cavalry into three separate battalions thus weakening his ability to defeat the Indians. He apparently did not realize that the Indian forces outnumbered his nearly three-to-one.

In two days of intense and bloody battle, the Seventh Cavalry was decimated. More than a third of the 600 men under Custer’s command were killed. The Indians lost no more than 100 warriors.

It was on the hill now called Last Stand Hill where Custer and his men died. It was Custer’s Land Stand. As it turned out, it was the Indian’s last stand as well. The government demanded harsh retaliation from the Indians and redrew the boundary lines putting the Black Hills region outside the reservation. In a few years, westward advancement by white settlers intensified and the Indians had little choice but to see their lands occupied by settlers.

Today, the battlefield is the site of a national monument that recognizes the clash of two cultures that took place here. In this peaceful spot it is difficult to image the horror of the battle that took place here. Monuments to the soldiers and to the warriors are both included in the area which lies within the Crow Indian Reservation where Indian horses today may wonder onto the roadway.

Brave men on both sides of the battle gave their lives for what they believed to be the truth. But perhaps those from both sides who worked together to build a mission in nearby Idaho were closer to the truth.

Photos: Old Mission church built by Couer d'Alene tribe and staffed by Jesuit priests in Idaho in 1848. Battle of the Little Bighorn National Monument, Montana, where Lakota and Cheyenne tribes defeated Lt. Col. George A. Custer and the Seventh Cavalry in 1876.