It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry and a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force.

In his official report dated April 7, 1879, Sanderson wrote: I accordingly built a mound out of cord wood filled in the center with all the horse bones I could find on the field.

The mound is ten feet square and about eleven feet high; is built on the highest point immediately in rear of where Gen'l Custer's body was found ...Lieutenant Charles F. Roe and the 2nd Cavalry built the granite memorial in July 1881 that stands today on the top of Last Stand Hill.

Constructed of sandstone, it takes the form of a circular low wall that is topped with sculptor Colleen Cutschall (Oglala and Sicangu)'s bronze figure procession Spirit Warriors.

[8] Then-Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell spoke at the dedication of the monument:  "[...] Come back sometime early in the morning after a rain when the fog is laying in the valleys and things are quiet and the moon is waning, and perhaps all you can hear is the sounds of nature.