Custer's Last Stand, SE Montana

Little Bighorn NM memorializes an infamous defeat on June 26, 1876, of Lt Col George Custer and his troops of the 7th Cavalry by the Northern Plains Indians. With the U.S. economy in a recession, news of gold in Black Hills, South Dakota, caused unforeseen events like the Indian treaty being broken by eager gold seekers swarming the region. Inspired by Sitting Bull and war leaders such as Crazy Horse, Lakota and also Cheyenne left the reservation in an attempt to resume their ancestral way of life in the unceded territory on what is now the MT-WY border. President Grant ordered the tribes to return or be treated as his hostiles by military force. While the Indians won the battle, the U.S. Army response to the 247 soldier deaths triggered a massive increase in resources to win the Sioux Wars. Further westward expansion continued at an aggressive pace.

Black Hills SD

Finished just before WWII over 14 years, Mount Rushmore captures four key presidents six stories high in an astounding feat of artistry and innovation led by a Danish-American sculptor. Nearby the Crazy Horse monument begun in 1948 by a Polish-American sculptor symbolizes the native people being forced to live in shrinking reservations and to change their way of life of living off the land and the bison. Crazy Horse led successful Indian factions against the U.S. Cavalry and after he surrendered was stabbed in the back while in captivity. Today work is still slowly being completed on the huge sculpture which will include Crazy Horse on a horse pointing to his lands, where "his dead lie buried."

Badlands NP, SD

Originally derived from Indian and French words of similar meaning, the term "badlands" has since been applied throughout the world to terrain similar to that encountered in the White River country: partly barren, semi-arid to arid regions where clays and other non-resistant layers are sculpted by erratic precipitation into convoluted formations.

Missouri River, Chamberlain SD

In 1804, in present-day South Dakota, Lewis and Clark met with three tribes living along the Missouri River. The talks had varying degrees of success, and as they left, one chief promised, "We shall look at the river with impatience for your return." But years later tension between the native people of the Great Plains and increasing numbers of white European settlers exacerbated by broken treaties, shrinking reservations, and a gold rush in the Black Hills inevitably resulted in violent resistance (1854-1890.)

The Missouri up to Council Bluffs Iowa and Omaha Nebraska

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson's principal interest was understanding the geography for water travel for the purposes of commerce. A huge part of the expedition was also meeting the various Indian tribes across the land and introducing them to the U.S. For the most part Lewis and Clark and their men were greeted a little warily but warmly, and these meetings are a fascinating part of their 4,000 mile journey and the westward expansion of the USA.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

In 1803 President Jefferson directed Lewis and Clark to explore the vast Louisiana Purchase and the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. They traveled by keelboat and long canoes up the Missouri River starting in St Louis where it meets the Mississippi. By roadtrek, we tracked them to beautiful Kansas City. Now we're following the "Mighty Mo" up the Iowa/Nebraska border to South Dakota and beyond, where the longest river in North America flows through the Great Plains.