Native Leader Speaks Out On Little Bighorn National Monument
“Montana’s Indigenous People survived these attempts at erasure; to disregard this history undermines future generations and risks the repetition of these atrocities.” – Lance Fourstar
Last March Donald Trump issued an executive order titled, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Without getting into the details of the order, suffice it to say it is Trump’s effort to reshape historical facts to fit his bigoted view of history as a 1950’s western movie. And now it has landed in Montana at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
In a flurry of activity to comply with Trump’s order at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, exhibit text that described the United States being “hungry for gold and land” and breaking promises to Native Americans was ordered changed or removed. Another text describing how U.S.-run boarding schools for Indigenous children “violently erased cultural identities and language” was also deemed not to comply with Trump’s policy.
The whitewashing of history has attracted the ire of many people in Indian Country. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council voted unanimously, 11-0, to oppose any changes to existing displays at the monument. Northern Cheyenne fought at the battle along with Lakota and Arapaho Tribes. Northern Cheyenne Vice President Ernest Littlemouth said, “We’re here just to confront what Trump’s trying to do. We want to teach our youth our history. That’s why we got the signage up there.”
Fourstar, who is currently running for the House District 31 in the Montana Legislature, said, “Removing mentions of the United States breaking promises to Indigenous People and the violent erasure of cultural identities in U.S.-run boarding schools is an affront to historical truth. The effects of intergenerational trauma from these policies remain apparent today. We must protect the truth to ensure these harms are never repeated.”
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576908326703
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/01/27/national-parks-signs-censorship/