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On the hills and in the gullies rising from the Little Bighorn River, dozens of marble markers stand where 7th Cavalry troopers fell 115 years ago.
Carved into the granite of a 12-foot obelisk that marks their mass grave are the names of the more than 250 soldiers who died under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
But almost nothing recognizes those who won the battle, the American Indians who sacrificed themselves to protect their families from what was tantamount to a government campaign of genocide. There are no listings of those who died following Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Two Moons into the last great victory of Indians against the U.S. Army on a hot Sunday in June 1876.
Park Superintendent Barbara Booher is bent on changing all that.
She is of Cherokee and Northern Ute descent, the first woman and first Indian to oversee the 640-acre park. Since her appointment in 1989, there have been few calm moments in her office.
For the past year, Booher has been campaigning for Congress to give the park a more neutral name - such as Little Bighorn National Battlefield - and to build a memorial to the unknown number of Indian warriors who were killed fighting Custer's men.
Custer buffs are up in arms - to the point that the Custer estate is threatening to remove his artifacts from the park museum if the name is changed.
"You can go out along the ridges and you wouldn't know who won this battle, would you?" Booher said. "One small wooden sign showing where an Indian fell - Lame White Man - and that's it.
"Nothing happened here for a long time because Indian people are brought up knowing that if you're hurt or disappointed, you're not supposed to show it. You're supposed to keep it inside.
"A producer for `Sesame Street' came out here recently to see if this could be a possible site for filming a program and explaining what happened. Then she decided not to because it was supposedly too complex. Complex? This is very basic."
Outside Booher's office in the park's privately operated gift shop and museum, you can learn how many men were awarded the Medal of...