The Lakota Sioux, who began to contest control of this area with the Crow in the 1840s to 1860s as they pushed westward, continued to call the river the Greasy Grass. Native Americans called the river the Greasy Grass before the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, and Lakota people still commonly refer to the Battle of the Little Bighorn as the Battle of the Greasy Grass.