A short granite monument placed in 1881 at Fort Keogh then moved to the Custer Battlefield site and finally to the Custer National Cemetery at the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument stands with a modern explanatory plaque about an insensitive term used for Indians in Sec A of the cemetery.
The Bear Paw Monument now marks a mass grave of Ft. Keough Army soldiers who died in the Nez Perce War, but it was originally conceived of as a monument, not a tombstone.
Soldiers stationed at Fort Keough who died during the Nez Perce War of 1877 were buried on post. In 1881, the Bear Paw Monument was erected at Fort Keough near where the soldiers had been buried.
When Fort Keough was abandoned, the soldier's remains were exhumed and they were reburied on Last Stand Hill at the Little Big Horn Battlefield. The Bear Paw Monument was also removed when Fort Keough was abandoned, and brought to the Custer battlefield site.
It had become Army practice to exhume and rebury the remains of soldiers from abandoned Indian-war-era forts on Last Stand Hill at the Little Big Horn battlefield. By the 1920s, the Army decided that these interments were better located in mass graves in the Custer National Cemetery nearby.
In 1924, the Fort Keough soldiers were exhumed again, and moved finally to a mass grave in section A of the Custer National Cemetery at Little Big Horn Battlefield.
The Bear Paw Monument was again moved and replaced at Section A by the the Fort Keough soldier's final mass grave.
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The Bear Paw Monument has a small aluminum marker holding some additional information about the terminology used on the Memorial.
The original monument text reads as follows:
"To the Officers and Soldiers Killed
Or Who Died of Their Wounds Received in Action
In the Territory of Montana
While Clearing the District of the Yellowstone
of Hostile Indians"
The other sides of the monument lists names and units of these deceased soldiers.
The small aluminum addendum plaque reads as follows:
"BEAR PAW MONUMENT
This monument was originally erected at Fort Keough in 1881 to honor US Army casualties from the 1877 Nez Perce War.
PLEASE NOTE: “Hostile Indians” is in historical context with a term used for Native American enemies of the United States during the 19th century. This historic structure is protected by the 1966 Historic Preservation Act and cannot be changed to reflect modern social norms."