Battle of the Greasy Grass

Perhaps the most famous battle between the cavalry and native American Indians began on this day in 1876. June 25, Sitting Bull led the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne in a dramatic victory over the 7th Cavalry led by General George Armstrong Custer in a two-day battle near the Little Bighorn River in Montana.

General George Armstrong Custer, after graduating last in his West Point class, became a Civil War cavalry hero. Custer's Last Stand was in the Battle of the Little Bighorn where he was killed along with five companies of the 7th Cavalry. Check out the National Park Service Little Big Horn Battle Monument.

There is no Indian monument, but in 1991, Congress ordered construction of an Indian Memorial. In 1996, a design was chosen with the theme "Peace Through Unity." The memorial honors the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho.
"If this memorial is to serve its total purpose, it must not only be a tribute to the dead; it must contain a message for the living...power through unity..." Enos Poor Bear, Sr., Oglala Lakota Elder

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