America's Forgotten People Our Road Trip to Montana USA
Pictures and Story ByJason Rupp and Carla Marie Rupp
Native Americans have tragically been treated poorly, but what do we know about their modern life? We feel that in many ways Native Americans are an overlooked and forgotten people. It shouldn’t be this way and the people we met at the Crow Montana Indian Reservation were more than willing to be filmed and documented. They were willing to be seen and their voices heard.Our Montana USA road trip brought us plenty of new Native American friends and new insights.
Anyone can come and visit the Native American Indian territories of the United States. We drove to Montana to get an unusual glimpse into how Native Americans are living and some amazing families invited us into their lives and homes with such hospitality at the Crow Indian Reservation.
We were invited to try “Indian fry bread” at the Trading Post restaurant. This Native American staple food we found to be delicious. Here we met Jonathan, a Crow Tribe artist who makes “solar art” which means he uses the sun to burn wood into fantastic art and friendly pictures.
We also met Lewis, who told us stories around the historic photographs and artifacts on the walls at the senior center. He invited us to his home. a small ranch, where we met his extended family members and his horses. “Louie” also sang his favorite songs to us on his porch. We also took him with us to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, a government national park. We brought our new native friend Louie along for perspective.
Little Bighorn Battlefield is
where the U.S. government leader George A. Custer and his men lost the battle to the Native Americans they fought. It’s often referred to as “Custer’s Last Stand at the Custer Battlefield”, but the Native Americans see the Battle of Little Big Horn differently. The Battle of the Little Bighorn is known to Native Americans as “The Battle of the Greasy Grass”. It was a significant event viewed from their perspective as a victory against the encroaching U.S. Army, rather than a tragic last stand for Custer and his men. Native American warriors, primarily Lakota, Sioux, and Northern Cheyenne, successfully defended their families and way of life against Custer ‘s 7th Cavalry, inflicting a major defeat against U.S. forces. Besides learning of the history, the surrounding land here is awesome to see, and we recommend not missing it.
An estimated seven million Native American Indians live in the USA, and there are approximately 574 Indian tribes. The word “Indians” means “People of the land.” We loved the people we met on this road trip. If you would like to find out more about them, Crow Nation News – CNN on Facebook is an excellent source of information about the Crow people. We also hope you can watch some of the YouTube videos on the Jason Rupp channel highlighting these beautiful, humble people of Montana USA. These are the people you may not hear about anywhere else. The forgotten people.
Jason Rupp and Carla Marie Rupp are freelance travel journalists and are reached at [email protected] and [email protected].