Peace Through Unity

Indian descendants of participants in the Battle of the Little Bighorn helped form the vision of the Indian Memorial, whose Peace Through Unity theme was conceived by Enos Poor Bear, Sr. and Austin Two Moons, who inspired others and provided wisdom, guidance, and prayers toward the goal of an Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Earlier seeds of peace and reconciliation were sown in 1926 during the Semi-Centennial observance of the battle, when former adversaries including General Edward S. Godfrey of the 7th Cavalry and White Bull, nephew of Sitting Bull, both veterans of the battle, gathered on the battlefield, shook hands, exchanged gifts, and symbolically buried the hatchet. On June 25, 1985, Austin Two Moons began the annual Prayer for World Peace event, a sacred ceremony open to the public that became an important battlefield tradition, and after his death in 1994, Donlin Many Bad Horses, a Northern Cheyenne elder, continued to lead it each year on June 25.

Crow Agency, Montana · United States