The last refuge, the final fortress of a nation is marked by neither monument nor marker. It is a badlands mesa known as the Stronghold. The Stronghold was where Sioux Indians made their last stand for a nomadic lifestyle, yet the site is not even listed on maps.

    The Stronghold gained a place in history in 1890, just before the tragedy at Wounded Knee. Many events of that year can be traced to a spiritual revival known as the Ghost Dance or Messiah movement. This movement predicted a mystical return to a world with buffalo, and without white settlers. Ghost Dance followers began slipping away from reservations, where the new religion had been forbidden. A thousand followers set out to find a secluded place to dance the Ghost Dance and await the new world.

    Such a place was the Stronghold, fifteen miles southwest of Scenic. This curious formation was so remote that few whites knew of it. The walls of the Stronghold drop 300 feet into the badlands. One can reach the broad top only by first ascending Cuny Table, then crossing a narrow neck of land jut wide enough for a wagon. On this "bridge" of land, a few armed men could defend against hundreds.. Here the Indians dug shallow rifle pits or trenches still visible today. The Stronghold was truly a natural fortress, complete with gurgling springs and abundant grass.

    Some historians feel that Big Foot and his band were en route to the Stronghold when they died at Wounded Knee. Sitting Bull had similar plans when he was killed by reservation police trying to arrest him.

    The U.S. Army labeled Indians on the Stronghold as "hostiles." But no effort was ever made to take the Stronghold by force, even though western South Dakota was the surrounded by the largest peace-time concentration of troops in the history of the frontier. Indians eventually abandoned their windswept mesa because of sever winter weather.

    Cavalry patrols spent the remaining winter months in maneuvers to keep Indians away from the Stronghold. Today this natural fortress is a forgotten monument to a proud people.

10/01/03