Rosebud Battle Commemorative and Reenactment

June 20, 2026

News – Sheridan Media

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The Custer Battle will hold its 150-Anniversary this year, on June 26. A lesser known but a very important battle, The Battle of Rosebud Creek, or, in Cheyenne terms, The Battle Where the Girl Saved her Brother, was fought 150 years ago on June 17, 1876. It preceded the famous Custer Battle by a little over a week.

A commemoration program was held on June 17, at the Rosebud Battlefield, which is a Montana State Park and a National Historic Landmark. The battlefield is not far from the present-day town of Decker, Montana. Even though the day was windy, the event drew a large crowd.

There was a presentation of the colors by lead by Northern Arapaho Warriors and Cpl. Billy Farris. Donovan Taylor of the Northern Cheyenne gave the blessing for the day.

Kqyn Kuka, FWP (Fish, Wildlife and Parks) tribal liaison and Raymond Schell, FWP Park manger, welcomed the crowd to the event, and introduced the speakers.

Raymond Schell described what happened at the battle.

Schell added about the heroic events of the battle, and the battlefield today.

One speaker was Frank Starr, president of the great plains’ region, representing 16 tribes, Kuka introduced him, saying the Oglala and the Sioux are coming together today because it is the 150-anniversary of the battle.

Keynote speaker was Dr. Leo K. Killsback. He was raised in Busby, Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. He is the author of a two-volume set of books about they Cheyenne people; “Traditional Leadership and the Warriors of the Cheyenne Nation” and “A Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood, Traditional Law and the Covenants of the Cheyenne Nation.”

Both books were published by Texas Tech University Press in 2020. He was also commissioned to design the commemorative plaques at the Rosebud Battlefield.

He said that the Rosebud Creek area is sacred to the Cheyenne. He is a sixth generation descendant of chief Dull Knife. He talked about when the soldiers under Ranald Mackenzie attacked their village near what is now Kaycee in the winter, and burned their village and winter food supply.

He gave a description of the Battle where The Girl Saved her Brother, and said that Crook’s scouts told the soldiers to hide behind trees and rocks, “But they didn’t listen,” he said.

At the start of the battle, Killsback said,

He described what it must have been like for Buffalo Calf Trail Woman, who rode into the battle to rescue her brother, who had been wounded in the fighting.

After the talks, the horseback riders arrived at the battlefield and was a living history reenactment of the girl saving her brother.

The Northern Cheyenne, the Crow Nation, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, the Northern Arapaho, the Oglala Sioux tribe, the Rosebud and Standing Rock Sioux tribes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe of Oklahoma, Fort Peck Tribes, the U.S. Army, and the Kobold Family, who once owned the land that is now the state park, were all recognized at the event.