Fort Abraham Lincoln

On the west side of the river just south of  Bismark, Fort Abraham Lincoln housed the Seventh Cavalry under command of Lt Col Custer. It was built in 1873 one year after the nearby Fort McKeen Infantry post proved inadequate to protect surveyors and builders of the Northern Railway from attack. 

We crossed the bridge in early morning and spent a couple of hours in the park. First at another Mandan village site. This reconstruction was done by Civilian   Conservation Corps Workers in the 1930's under supervision of a Mandan who maintained the traditional knowledge and ways to build their earthlodges.   

To give an idea of scale, Behind the fire ring are benches for park visitors to sit on during programs! can you imagine cutting the trees and the skill it took to construct this tribal meeting house with traditional tools?  I felt pretty small standing by the fire ring. 

Lewis & Clark camped in this area Oct 20 1804.  Chief of a nearby village, Sheheke Shote (White Coyote), was born at this village. He helped out the Corps with food, facing a harsh winter. "If we eat, you shall eat." Without the Mandan corn they traded for, the men would surely have starved. Sheheke took up Lewis & Clark's offer to travel to Washington DC to meet the "Great White Father" as they called Jefferson; he took his wife and two year old and stayed there three years. 

It started to rain as we rode to the top of the hill to the Infantry Post Fort McKeen. 

The Cavalry post was down by the river and well visible from this vantage point. 

It was from this post that Custer and his men left for the Little Big Horn River in May of 1876,  and many of them died in battle on June 25th.  

Custer built himself quite the mansion for his day:  4500 sq ft and 5 fireplaces! We've intersected the so called "Custer trail" a number of times since we crossed the Montana/North Dakota border. This post was quite a hub of planning and dispatch for the territory. In 1877 solders were also dispatched from here to pursue the Nez Perce on their way to Canada. 

I cannot imagine what it would be like to see action in the military, or be raised to be a warrior.  I thought again of Chief Sheheke's words "If we eat, you shall eat," as two cultures met one another. What might this land look like today if the story between Native and Euro Americans had unfolded differently?