Little Bighorn, Battle of the

Little Bighorn, Battle of the

 or Custer's Last Stand

(June 25, 1876) Battle at the Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory, U.S., between federal troops led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and a band of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. The U.S. government had ordered the northern Plains tribes to return to designated reservations and had sent troops under Gen. Alfred H. Terry to enforce the order. Terry hoped to surround an Indian encampment at the mouth of the Little Bighorn, but a party of some 200 soldiers led by Custer launched an early attack and was slaughtered. Government troops subsequently flooded into the area and forced the Indians to surrender.