Researchers find.....?

[BrokenSword]

Researchers find artifacts after fire.

www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T11F1O1&show_article=1

[gocav76]

BrokenSword, Has anyone ever done a archaeological survey of the site of the Indian Village at Little Bighorn? And if so what did they find?

[BrokenSword]

gocav76-

Ya, know? I don't know. The soldiers immediately after the battle went over it and reported several findings. Hardly archaeology.

The 'area' had been used for camps by the NA from well before the Custer fight. I know that various skeletons (well at least one) found there date from long before the battle.

Good question. Somebody here will know. You can bet on that.

AND...they'll probably have some various theories on such things as how many beads and from what tribes or how many hawk feathers as opposed to eagle feathers were discarded and later recovered and JUST what it all means.

NOTHING gets by these folks.

M

[crzhrs]

As far as I know no professional archaeology has been done at the village site. Most of the land is in private hands, including Jason Pitch (?) who has done a lot of digging in the area.

I believe most of the site is now farm/ranch land.

Still, they is must be a lot of artifacts not found that could possibly shed some light on the village size, location, etc.

But the question would be: who & when were they left there?

[harpskiddie]

Let's face it. There has been a railroad line, spur line and station built there; a stage line/wagon road followed by construction of a highway, expanded and redesigned into a freeway; farming, including extensive plowing and irrigation ditch digging, carried out for over a hundred years; private roads 'dozed out; seasonal floods of the river every few years; and probably most important, frequent use by various and sundry Indian bands DURING THE SAME ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIOD but over the course of many years. So they could not even sort out their "layers."

Given that much, if not most, of the detritus of the camps was gathered up into various and sundry [this has now become my favorite phrase-of-the-day] piles and burned, and all of the foregoing mentioned by others [and also the wealth of materials already recovered and either disposed of or now in various and sundry repositories], I doubt that any "scientific" examination of the land is going to develop anything more than is already known [by somebody or other, or as we professionals say "various and sundry others" et al].

MY next candidate for archaeological excavation is EVERY MARKER ON THE BATTLEFIELD, so that maybe some of the spurious markers can finally be winnowed out. Walter Camp wanted Godfrey to try to have this done, although he didn't specify by archaeologists, back in the early 20th century. Obviously, nothing happened [aside from one of the supers telling Camp he was nuts when he postulated that there were too many markers].

Anyhooo - Happy Thanksgiving. Go Lions!! Go Cowboys!! Go Giants!! Go Redskins!! Who's playing anyway?

Gordie,
MC
and resident ditch digger......................................

[gocav76]

Perhaps I should have asked if any relic hunting has been done. With all the captured equipment and personal items taken by the Indians-I was just curious if anything had been found in the past 20-30 years.

[crzhrs]

I think Jason Pitch has found quite a lot of stuff, but mostly soldier artifacts in/around the Reno line.

Not sure if any Indian stuff was picked up.

As far as researching the markers go . . . wasn't something like that done back in the 80s which revealed nothing under a number of markers or more than 1 person's remains?

[Scout]

The strangest thing ever dug at the LBH? a Plesiosaur was unearthed while the park was digging a grave at the Custer Battlefield in the 70's.

[harpskiddie]

Well, yeah, Horse, but very limited, and nothing was done about those markers where nothing was found. I suppose the whole thing is rather a mare's nest, since you have the gummint involved. The fact of the matter is that there are more than 50 spurious markers in various and sundry places. It's one thing for a guy like me to "investigate" and research and determine for himself which markers might well be spurious, and to "remove" them from consideration in his theorizing, and quite another to have some formal review with the object of actually removing or moving [some need to be moved too] an actual marker which ostensibly indicates the death site of an actual soldier of the United States Army.

The Veterans' Associations, organizations such as LBHA and CBHMA et al, as well as Historical Societies, NPS types, Members of the Congress, the Army would all be weighing in. You'd have committee hearings to determine which committees could legitimately hold hearings.

Can you imagine little Gordie Harper with a map in his hand saying, "Armstrong Custer's marker needs to be moved to the top of the hill, and you need to put a sign up that it should be where the Monument is. Marker # [insert number here] must be removed." and etc etc etc [and blah...]? What a laugh that would be. And that's just a couple.

There have been literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of artifacts recovered over the years from the valley, including soldier remains from the fight, and Indian remains not dating from the fights. It likely started, believe it or not later in 1876 [the troops picked over the Indian stuff pretty throughly before departing], and has continued ever since. Some of what was left of Charley Reynolds was removed in 1877. You can bet that members of the reburial and clean up crews picked up whatever of interest that was visible, or uncovered during their work.

Ranchers prior to Jason Pitsch had also made finds. Most of this stuff was never recorded, let alone cataloged for posterity. I believe that the Museum at Garryowen has lots of it.

Gordie,
MC

[crzhrs]

I can imagine you in the dead of night with a pen flashlight moving the markers around. I bet no one would notice them moved either!

PS: Watch out for rattlesnakes!

[harpskiddie]

I am the King of Snakes, as any woman who has ever known me will attest. I am expert at handling all and sundry varieties of hissers. I was trained by Strother Martin.

Gordie,
MC
and hisser kisser...............................................