On a barren, windswept hill in eastern Montana there stands a tall obelisk inscribed with the names of the 268 men of the 7th Cavalry Regiment who lost their lives on June 26, 1876, in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Custer's Last Stand, as it is also called, is remembered by most Americans as a shocking defeat for the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. But for Native Americans, it is remembered differently. Although it was a battlefield victory for the combined force of Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors, it represents the last chapter in their struggle to preserve and defend their homeland and traditional way of life. There has been no equivalent memorialization for the Indian dead, which gives War Cry - created in recognition of their heroic sacrifices - its power and poignancy.
