In June 1876, massive US Army detachments were sent to southeastern Montana to subjugate the Sioux and Cheyenne. A key unit in the campaign was the crack Seventh Cavalry ; at its head was the flamboyant Lt Col George Armstrong Custer .

Few if any US soldiers have achieved the fame or opprobrium of Custer. During an erratic career, he graduated last in his class at West Point in 1861; was the US Army's youngest-ever major general; was suspended for ordering the execution of deserters from a forced march he led through Kansas primarily to see his wife; and became notorious for allowing the murder in 1868 of almost 100 Cheyenne women and children.

On June 25, 1876, Custer's was the first unit to arrive in the Little Bighorn Valley . Disdaining to await reinforcements, he set out to raze a tepee village along the Little Bighorn River - which turned out to be the largest-ever gathering of Plains Indians. As a party of his men pursued fleeing women and children, they were encircled by two thousand Sioux and Cheyenne warriors emerging from either side of a ravine. The soldiers dismounted to attempt to shoot their way out, but were soon overwhelmed; simultaneously, Custer's command post on a nearby hill was wiped out. Archeologists have discounted the idea of Custer's Last Stand as a heroic defiance in which Custer was the last cavalryman left standing; the battle lasted less than an hour, with the white soldiers being systematically and effortlessly picked off. The most decisive Native American victory in the West - led by Sitting Bull - was also their final great show of resistance. An incensed President Grant piled maximum resources into a military campaign that brought about the effective defeat of all Plains Indians by the end of the decade.

The monument is 56 miles southeast of Billings, with the entrance one mile east of I-90 on US-212. You can trace the course of the battle on a five-mile self-guided driving tour through the grasslands (daily: 8am-dusk; $10 per car), following the high ridge overlooking the valley, or on a narrated bus tour (spring-fall; $10). White-marble tablets mark where individual soldiers fell, and a sandstone obelisk stands above their mass grave on "Last Stand Hill" (Custer himself lies in West Point Military Academy). Dioramas in the visitor center and museum (mid-April to May 8am-6pm; June-Aug 8am-8pm; rest of year 8am-4.30pm; $10 per vehicle; tel 406/638-2621) outline the battle, while the US military cemetery nearby holds soldiers from all America's wars (free passes available).

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

• Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Montana cities


All U.S. city guides