Re: "mutilated" point

Posted by Ohwah Tahgu Syam on December 04, 2000 at 19:28:27:

In Reply to: Weir Point at Little Bighorn posted by Frank Bodden on November 24, 2000 at 17:27:29:

Frank,

Seymore Broccoli, the first Native American park ranger at the battlefield, writes about this very subject in "White Labels on Red Places." It seems that this geophysical anomaly (minus the white man's road, of course)is as it was in 1876, and much further back beyond that time. Broccoli continues that one of the reasons the Crow (pre-Lakotah) valued this part of the high ground to the east of the water was because of the odd land formation, which resembled a small hill that had been cut in half. There was and is no logical explanation for the apparent split in the earth. Water erosion is ruled out for obvious gravitational reasons, which leaves man or animal. No animal would do such a thing at a spot like that, and there was/is no oral tradition relating to any human creating the cut. Therefore, it became a place of big medicine. The Crow claimed to have given it a name which, when translated, meant "unusual" or "weird". For years after the battle, it was known, in English, simply as Weird Point.

Then in 1894, an eastern politician who loved the American West, Theodore Roosevelt, after doing research on the battle and visiting the site, noticed the uncanny coincidence between the English name of the split hill, and the name of the man who observed so much from that spot. TR decided that instead of an almost comical tag, Trooper Weir's name should be attached to the place. So, having connections everywhere, TR got his way.

Hiya, ho.

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• Re: "mutilated" point Frank Bodden 19:47:34 12/04/2000 (0)

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: Frank,

: Seymore Broccoli, the first Native American park ranger at the battlefield, writes about this very subject in "White Labels on Red Places."  It seems that this geophysical anomaly (minus the white man's road, of course)is as it was in 1876, and much further back beyond that time.  Broccoli continues that one of the reasons the Crow (pre-Lakotah) valued this part of the high ground to the east of the water was because of the odd land formation, which resembled a small hill that had been cut in half.  There was and is no logical explanation for the apparent split in the earth.  Water erosion is ruled out for obvious gravitational reasons, which leaves man or animal.  No animal would do such a thing at a spot like that, and there was/is no oral tradition relating to any human creating the cut.   Therefore, it became a place of big medicine.   The Crow claimed to have given it a name which, when translated, meant "unusual" or "weird".  For years after the battle, it was known, in English, simply as Weird Point.  

: Then in 1894, an eastern politician who loved the American West, Theodore Roosevelt, after doing research on the battle and visiting the site, noticed the uncanny coincidence between the English name of the split hill, and the name of the man who observed so much from that spot.  TR decided that instead of an almost comical tag, Trooper Weir's name should be attached to the place.  So, having connections everywhere, TR got his way.

: Hiya, ho.


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