AFTER the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Indians dispersed.
American Horse made the decision to take his lodges to a US treaty agency in Dakota Territory.
He crossed path with troops commanded by General George Crook. On September 9, 1876, at Slim Buttes.
In 1888, the US Army collected the scattered Indian remains and exhumed the buried soldiers. A memorial monument was erected at the Slim Buttes Battlefield.
The small town of Ludlow, SD, near Cave Hills, got its name from Maj. William Ludlow, the engineering officer who accompanied Lt. Col. George A. Custer on his expedition through the Black Hills.
Fort Meade was established during the winter of 1878-79 by the 1st & 11th infantry as well as the reorganized 7th Cavalry. The 7th Cavalry, re-formed after the disastrous Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, constituted the first permanent garrison of the post. Its commander, Colonel Samuel D Sturgis, was on of the founders of the nearby town that bears his name. It was at Fort Meade that the Cavalry horse Commanche, the only living thing found on the Little Big Horn Battlefield, was officially retired with military honors.
(FORT MEADE MUSEUM .ORG)