By Gary & Joy Gilbert

Webmaster's Note: Gary & Joy Gilbert are members of the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield. They provide countless volunteer hours to the National Park Service not only at LBH but at Ft. Bowie as well. The Friends’ organization gives a big thank-you to Gary and Joy for their hard work.

In January 2002 we volunteered to work at the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. We worked on the Touch Screen Project for the Visitors Center under John Doerner, Chief Historian in the White Swan Memorial Library.

The Touch Screen Project includes the registry for the National Cemetery, the 7^th U.S. Cavalry in 1876, Indian warriors at the Little Big Horn, a description of Forts in the area, weapons used in the battle, and other military units in the Sioux War of 1876.

We left the battlefield in April 2002 thinking our work was completed. John continued to work on the project, then asked us to return in September 2003 to try to get it finalized and ready for submission to the touch screen vendor.

The 7^th Cavalry data, the rosters of the other military units in the 1876 campaign, and the Cemetery Registry were brought up to date and all checked for errors. Our biggest task was the Indian warriors at the Little Big Horn Battle. We knew there were some errors, duplications, and missed warriors. The work already completed on this would be our guide, but we would start from scratch and check, revise, and add to the data.

Other writers had made lists of warriors or named Indians, but we felt it was important to research and verify each name as much as possible to help our list be accurate. The original “warriors” list had been on the Friends’ website, and viewers were sending emails to John and Bob Reece with corrections. So looking up all references, and even cross-referencing, became an interesting and absorbing task.

Researching the warrior names was difficult and confusing. We found some Indians listed with more than one name – and then often cited as two different warriors. One warrior might be listed by a Sioux and Cheyenne name -- suddenly one warrior has become two. One author listed a "Limping Black Elk", a Cheyenne; but when we checked that reference the "L" in limping was not capitalized. We finally determined the warrior was Black Elk who was limping at the time. Another author quoted from Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer, by Thomas Marquis  a warrior by the name of Little Shield, but we found the citation he gave in the Marquis's book was the name “Long Shield”. So some errors were made in the past and unfortunately would be repeated, which we especially tried to avoid doing.

We were grateful for the amazing knowledge John Doerner shared with us when we were stumped. Also the well-stocked library at the White Swan Memorial Library provided us nearly all our reference material. We felt we were on a never-ending task; yet no project gets done without deadlines. When we left in October, we knew the data for the project was complete enough to submit for the Touch Screen. We, too, have probably made mistakes and have not found all the warriors; which means it will be revised as necessary.

We had great people to work with and felt good about providing a service.  Living and working at the battlefield was wonderful. We are joggers, and just being able to run the battlefield road daily, after the visitors were gone, was awesome; yes, we sometimes had to look over our shoulders, feeling the “ghosts” of the battlefield when we’re out there alone. We wish they would tell us their names! 

VIPs (Volunteer in the Parks) Gary & Joy Gilbert reviewing and entering data.	Gary & Joy – husband and wife team providing countless volunteer hours to the National Park Service

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