Battle of Little Bighorn
Custer's Last Stand, the fight that frames the first season.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly called Custer's Last Stand and known to the Lakota and other Plains peoples as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was fought on June 25-26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana Territory. Combined Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho forces defeated the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army; it was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
Quick Facts
- Conflict
- Battle of the Little Bighorn
- Part of
- the Great Sioux War of 1876
- Date
- June 25–26, 1876
- Location
- Near Little Bighorn River, Montana, U.S.
- Result
- Lakota
- Northern Cheyenne
- and Arapaho victory
- Combatants header
- Belligerents
Lore & Background
The Lakota incursions into the area were a reaction to their displacement around Fort Laramie and to white encroachment into the Black Hills, which the Lakota hold sacred. The first season of Deadwood is set in 1876, six months after the founding of the camp and soon after Custer's Last Stand. Later that year General George Crook pursued the Sioux from the Little Bighorn on an expedition that ended in Deadwood in early September, known as the Horsemeat March.
Reader's Guide
The battle happens off screen; it matters to the series as the backdrop for the illegal camp in the Black Hills and for the army's presence in the camp.
More in History & Cultural Context
Elsewhere in Deadwood
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