When the Battle of the Little Bighorn is fought again this summer, cameras will be rolling.
The re-enactment committee of the Hardin Area Chamber of Commerce signed a contract last week with a Nashville, Tenn., production company to make a one-hour feature film of the event, according to committee Chairman Al Sargent.Sargent said representatives of the company, Lawson-Warren, told him they have interested television programmers all over the United States, Europe and in New Zealand.
Lawson-Warren also is considering a one-hour videotape that would be sold nationwide. The re-enactment committee will receive royalties from the proceeds, Sargent said.
The feature will be called "Moon of the Shedding Pony," which is how the Cheyenne Indians described the month of June, Sargent said.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought on a hot June day nearly 114 years ago a few miles from the site of the re-enactment.
The story of the battle will be told through the eyes of Mark Kellogg, a reporter for the Bismarck, N.D., Tribune who covered was covering the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne. Kellogg died with Lt. Col. George Custer and more than 200 members of the 7th Cavalry in a two-hour battle June 25, 1876.
Kellogg's last words on his final dispatch to his editors were: "I go with Custer and will be at the death."
The re-enactment, scheduled June 22-24, will be the first in 15 years. It was a popular tourist attraction in the 11 years it was performed between 1964 and 1975, and the committee thinks it will be popular again.
The chamber gets an average of five to seven calls a day from interested people, Sargent said.
Tickets will be $8 a person or $20 a family. Performances begin at 1 p.m. June 22, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. June 23 and at 1:30 and 4 p.m. June 24.
About 40 Custer riders already are rehearsing, and more are needed, he said. Indian riders also are preparing for the battle's re-enactment.
Volunteers also are needed to play settlers and tribal members in the production, Sargent said. Experienced riders with their own horses are preferred, but those who can ride but need a horse will also be considered.
The story is based on an historical outline supplied by Joe Medicine Crow, a Crow tribal historian, for the first re-enactment in 1964. It begins with the movement of white settlers to the West and the broken treaties that followed.
Sargent said the re-enactment revival is largely the result of the teamwork of the committee and volunteers eager to help.
"We have probably one of the strongest, most apt committees that I've ever seen," he said. "Everybody holds up their end."
The result is that the committee is about two weeks ahead of schedule, he said.
Any profits will stay with the committee for future re-enactments, he said.
The battle re-enactment is the centerpiece of Hardin's annual Little Bighorn Days, June 21-24. Other events include parades, barbecues, music, dancing and poetry.
Members of the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association also will meet in Hardin that weekend.