Little Bighorn

The Battle of Little Bighorn or "Custer's Last Stand" was the the battle between the American Colonel, George Custer, and his men and the Indian warrior, Sitting Bull, and his men in 1876. Custer wanted to take control of the Native Americans' land in the area. In this area, the Black Hills of the Dakota Indian territory, there was gold found and prospectors rushed to the hills. The Black Hills were considered holy to the Native Americans and Settlers were not allowed to settle here due to the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.





Custer and his men believed they were attacking a small band of Indians next to the Little Bighorn River, and to his surprise there were over 2500 warriors there to greet him and his 265 men. Badly outnumbered, Custer and his men were massacred and all of them were brutally murdered. The battle was over by the afternoon on june 25th, 1876 after only a few hours of fighting. A call for revenge was sounded throughout the East. The U.S. cavalry then sent more troops in the coming months and eventually subdued the Indians.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/states/montana/mt_littlebighorn.htm
sittingbull.org