George Armstrong Custer was a United States Union Army Commander who was responsible for maintaining the peace in the Ancient West during the latter half of the 19th century. His famous "last stand" occurred in 1876 after a fatal ambush by American Indians in Montana near the Little Bighorn River.
When Commander William T. Riker stated that he didn't like the silence at Nelvana III and that he would have expected a greeting party, Captain Jean-Luc Picard commented that he reminded him "of another noteworthy commander in a similar circumstance, George Armstrong Custer when his Seventh Cavalry arrived at the Little Big Horn." Riker only wished that they may have better luck. (TNG: "The Defector")