I suspect that you ignored me after our unfortunate tit-a-tat (mea culpa), so you may not see this post. But if you do - grant me a moment of memoir to accompany a travel suggestion ..........
In 1998 - the year my Dad died - my youngest child, DS3, and I did a road trip from Washington, where we live, to western Minnesota, where my parents were living. My Dad was in advanced Alzheimer's, and it was the last time we saw him alive. We were there the first week of August, for my Dad's Birthday. At that stage he had regressed mentally to a stage where he didn't know who I was, let alone any of my children. But he seemed to know that his birthday was coming and I can't say he rallied. But it did seem that his decline arrested in the leadup to his birthday. There was even a moment when I thought he remembered that I was his son, and with that he briefly realized that DS3 standing in front of him was his grandchild. Didn't last for more than a few minutes though. Within a week of that event he entered into a steep decline, and was dead within one month.
That's a bit of digression but it is a bit of a lead-in. On the way out to MN, we took the north route, I-94 through North Dakota. Yosemite, Black Hills, On the return we came via I-90, through South Dakota and SE Wyoming. I had long wanted to see Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Ever since I was in grade school the Little Big Horn story fascinated me - and especially so after I was old enough to realize that Custer probably got what he deserved.
I was struck by the contrast between Wounded Knee and Little Big Horn. Skipping over details and polemics, in my estimation Wounded Knee is of at least equal importance to Little Big Horn in the history of native tribal relations in the Mountain West. Little Big Horn was the big triumph of the native peoples in the expansion conflicts. Wounded Knee was the death knell.
But Little Big Horn is a National Monument, under the National Park Service, while Wounded Knee is simply a crossroads and cemetery in one of the most impoverished areas in the US. Yet everyday, the residents placed fresh flowers at their monument.
Wounded Knee isn't a National Monument, but it is their monument. They remember, well over a century later.
So, if you are SoDaking, I suggest doing some research and a visit to Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee. And I'm pretty sure there are not any 4-yr colleges to visit on the reservation.
