Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) was a United States Army cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He was defeated and killed by the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. More than 30 movies and countless television shows have featured him as a character. He was portrayed by future U.S. president, Ronald Reagan in "Santa Fe Trail" (1940), as well as by Errol Flynn in "They Died With Their Boots On" (1941). In 1896, Anheuser-Busch commissioned from Otto Becker a lithographed, modified version 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