On June 25, 1876, combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho defeated the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the river the Lakota call the Greasy Grass.

The United States called it Custer’s Last Stand.

They named the monument after the man who lost. Custer Battlefield National Monument. For 115 years, the only names carved into the site belonged to the 7th Cavalry dead. The warriors who defended their families from a military attack were listed as the opposing force in someone else’s story.

In 1991, Congress renamed it Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Public Law 102-201. It took an act of Congress to remove one man’s name from a battle he lost.

In 2003, the Indian Memorial was dedicated — 127 years after the battle. Seventeen tribes contributed to its design. The Spirit Warrior sculpture faces Last Stand Hill. It took 127 years to add the other side of the story to a site that memorialized only one side three years after the fighting stopped.

On June 25, 2026 — the 150th anniversary — members and descendants of 19 tribal nations gathered at the battlefield. Encampments brought families from across the Plains. Chief Arvol Looking Horse. The Cheyenne River Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Cheyenne and Arapaho of Oklahoma, Crow Nation, Oglala Sioux. Ceremonies, drum groups, storytelling. The National Park Service, in partnership with the tribes, called it a commemoration.

Some of the people who were there call it something else.

They call it a victory.

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In Portland, a seven-piece band named 1876 plays powwow punk — melodic hardcore driven by powwow drums. Gabe Colhoff, Cheyenne and Blackfeet, named the band after the year. Not after the general. After the year.

The drums are not a gimmick. They’re powwow drums inside punk songs. Lyrics in English, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet. Joe Colhoff, Gabe’s brother, has been drumming with the band for four years. “It’s a unique instrument,” he told OPB, “and sets the tone for who we are.”

On June 27, 2026, 1876 headlined Victory Day 2026 at Off Beat in Portland. Ten acts. All ages. Second annual. The benefit raised money for the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation in Lame Deer, Montana.

Lame Deer is on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The Northern Cheyenne fought at the Greasy Grass 150 years ago. The money goes home.

Colhoff says the band plays for tribes, ancestors, and future generations. “We put all of our differences aside, and we had a common goal, and we accomplished that goal.”

He’s talking about the band. He’s also talking about June 25, 1876.

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The naming is the history.

“Custer’s Last Stand” was the first version. A story about what happened to one man. A defeat reframed as tragedy — the brave general overwhelmed — instead of what it was: a military loss by an attacking force against people defending their home.

“Battle of Little Bighorn” was the correction. Both sides acknowledged. It took 115 years and an act of Congress.

“Victory at Greasy Grass” is what the Lakota and Cheyenne have always called it. A victory. At the place they named. In the language they spoke before any of the English words existed.

“Victory Day” is what a punk band in Portland calls a benefit show for kids on the reservation 150 years later.

Each name is a step toward what the battle always was. Each step took decades of advocacy, legislation, and refusal to accept someone else’s framing. The first step — removing one general’s name from his own defeat — required Congress. The last step required seven musicians and a drum.

Punk was supposed to be the counterculture. Here the counterculture is the original culture. The powwow drum is older than punk by centuries. The punk is newer than the drum by decades. They put both in the same song, and neither blinks.

The band didn’t wait for the naming to catch up. They went straight to the word the battle always deserved.

Victory.

// NEON BLOOD