History of Montana degree of longitude northward to the boundary line of the British possessions. The boundaries of Montana territory did not change during its existence. Montana was admitted to the Union as the state of Montana on November 8, 1889. The Battle of the Little Bighorn—also called Custer's Last Stand and the Battle of the Greasy Grass—was an armed engagement between a Lakota (Sioux)-Northern Cheyenne-Arapaho combined force and the 7th Cavalry of the United States Army. It occurred June 25–June 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory near present-day Hardin, Montana, on land that today is part of
Little Bighorn River battle by the History Channel. The alternative name usage in the 1800s by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow of "Greasy Grass" for the "Little Bighorn" is reflected in current day nomenclature at the Little Bighorn battlefield. A prominent ridge on the Little Bighorn Battlefield that overlooks the eastern banks of the Little Bighorn River has retained the name of Greasy Grass Ridge, and is the site of critical events of the battle. In Lakota, the Little Bighorn River is called . Upstream from the point where the Little Bighorn issues from the Little Horn Canyon canyon, the stream flow is