Big Horn Mountains
BIG HORN MOUNTAINS
BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, a range of the Rocky Mountains that lies mainly in north central Wyoming, but also extends into southern Montana. American fur traders frequented the mountains, and, in 1811, Wilson Price Hunt crossed the Big Horns in the overland Astoria expedition.
The Fetterman Massacre took place in the Big Horns near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, in 1866. In 1876, the Battle of Little Bighorn between the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the Seventh Cavalry under George Custer became an important landmark in relations between the U.S. Government and the Indians of the Great Plains.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fox, Richard Allan, Jr. Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle: The Little Big Horn Reexamined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
Freed, Elaine. Preserving the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
Smith, Duane A. Rocky Mountain West: Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, 1859–1915. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
Dan E.Clark/h. s.