Reva, South Dakota Reva, South Dakota Reva is an unincorporated community in Harding County, South Dakota, United States. Although not tracked by the Census Bureau, Reva has been assigned the ZIP code of 57651. The community has the name of Reva Bonniwell, the daughter of a first settler. The Battle of Slim Buttes occurred here on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876. It marked the first significant victory for the Army since the stunning defeat of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in
Elizabeth Bacon Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne who refused to be confined to the reservation system. After her husband's column was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, many in the press, Army, and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history, Libbie launched a one-woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. Her assistance to the author of the first Custer biography,