Bighorns' Last Stand

One-hundred and thirty-three years ago this week Custer made his famous last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. It's a fine time to remember not only the battle, but also the animal that gave the place its name

This week in 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and 267 of his troops in the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment died in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Between 36 and 136 members of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, led by Sitting Bull, were also killed.

A remarkable victory for the native American tribes, the battle is the most famous chapter of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77.

The Little Bighorn River was named after the bighorn sheep, an American and Siberian species of sheep known for their large curved horns. The males are known for their head-to-head combat, putting on fierce displays of butting horns that can weigh up to 30 pounds.

Both the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae), a unique subspecies and Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, a distinct population segment of Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), are endangered.

This iconic animal has been in decline mainly because of the farming of domestic sheep, which graze over lands historically used by the bighorn. Mining, water depletion, homesteading and hunting haven't helped these dwindling populations either.

If legislators don't step in to create protections of these animals, they will soon be facing their own last stand.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) letter urging Forest Supervisor Edward Monnig and Acting BLM California State Director James W. Abbot to close high elevation domestic sheep grazing in the eastern Sierra Nevada to protect Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep

RELATED POSTS

• Dreaming of Sheep (May 12, 2009)
• Battle of the Little Bighorn (December 5, 2008)

image: male bighorn sheep, near Jasper, Alberta (credit: Alan D. Wilson)