Evening on the Crow Reservation

On the reverse, the artist has noted that the hills to the left are the location of "Custer's Battlefield," referring to the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn during the Great Sioux War of 1876. In this pivotal engagement, General George Armstrong Custer and his force of seven hundred men of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army were crushingly defeated by the Montana territory Native American tribes. At the time, the rapidly increasing numbers of Americans moving West to the Great Plains caused tensions to rise with the native inhabitants who felt their lands were being encroached upon. With many more Native Americans joining the battle than predicted and several U.S. Army members including Custer killed, "Custer's Last Stand" revealed the amazing strength of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes under leaders such as Crazy Horse and was the beginning of the end of the Indian Wars.