In addition to George Armstrong Custer, the operation into Montana in 1876 involved such figures as Sitting Bull, Ulysses Grant, Crazy Horse and Marcus Reno, among others.

The Great Souix War of 1876 was the result of increased tensions stemming from treaty violations following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. These discoveries, confirmed by George Custer in 1874, had caused a flood of prospectors in the region, as well as a cash strapped government to look to negating the Fort Laramie Treaty in order to secure the mineral wealth of a land sacred to the indigenous peoples.