{ { Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of the Little Bighorn
| partof = the Great Sioux War of 1876
| image =
| caption = The Battle of Little Bighorn by Charles Marion Russell
| date = June 25–26, 1876
| place = Near Little Bighorn River, Crow Indian Reservation, Big Horn County, Montana, U.S. | coordinates = | map_type = Montana | map_relief = | map_size = | map_marksize = | map_caption = Location within Montana | map_label = Little Big Horn Battlefield | territory = | result = Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho victory | combatants_header = Native Peoples | combatant1 = | combatant2 = | commander1 = | commander2 = | units1 = Nations of the plains | units2 = 7th Cavalry Regiment | strength1 = 1,100–2,500 warriors | strength2 = c. 700 cavalrymen and scouts | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | campaignbox = }}
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.
Most battles in the Great Sioux War, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn, were on lands those Indians had taken from other tribes since 1851.Stands In Timber, John and Margot Liberty (1972): Cheyenne Memories. Lincoln and London. p. 170, note 13.White, Richard: "The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", The Journal of American History, Vo. 65, No. 2 (Sep. 1987), pp. 319–343 [342]. The Lakotas were there without consent from the local Crow tribe, which had a treaty on the area. Already in 1873, Crow chief Blackfoot had called for U.S. military actions against the Indian intruders.Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1873. Washington 1874, p. 124. The steady Lakota invasion (a reaction to white encroachment into the Black Hills) into treaty areas belonging to the smaller tribes ensured the United States a firm Indian alliance with the Arikaras and the Crows during the Lakota Wars.Dunlay, Thomas W. (1982). Wolves for the Blue Soldiers. Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860–90. Lincoln and London. pp. 112–114.
The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, who were led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall and had been inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake). The U.S. 7th Cavalry, a force of 700 men, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (a brevetted major general during the American Civil War), suffered a major defeat. Five of the 7th Cavalry's twelve companies were wiped out, and Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, his nephew, and his brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded (six died later from their wounds), including four Crow Indian scouts and at least two Arikara Indian scouts.
Public response to the Great Sioux War varied in the immediate aftermath of the battle. Custer's widow Libbie Custer soon worked to burnish her husband's memory and during the following decades, Custer and his troops came to be considered heroic figures in American history. The battle and Custer's actions in particular have been studied extensively by historians. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument honors those who fought on both sides.
Background
Battlefield and surrounding areas
In 1805, fur trader François Antoine Larocque reported joining a Crow camp in the Yellowstone area. On the way he noted that the Crow hunted buffalo on the "Small Horn River". St. Louis-based fur trader Manuel Lisa built Fort Raymond in 1807 for trade with the Crow. It was located near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers, about north of the future battlefield. The area is first noted in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
In the latter half of the 19th century, tensions increased between the Native inhabitants of the Great Plains of the US and encroaching settlers. This resulted in a series of conflicts known as the Sioux Wars, which took place from 1854 to 1890. While some of the indigenous people eventually agreed to relocate to ever-shrinking reservations, a number of them resisted, sometimes fiercely.