BILLINGS, Mont. - History is like art - it means different things to different people.

Seattle painter Thom Ross combined those sometimes fluid concepts - art and history - in a display of more than 200 larger-than-life wood cutouts going up near the Little Bighorn Battlefield on June 24.

Each cutout depicts a character in the fight between the 7th Cavalry, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and warriors in the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.

"They tower over you," Ross said of his plywood-and-paint creations. "You can climb into it (the display) and walk around in it. I want you to physically react to these things."

Ross expects individuals to react differently. He said he is not trying to make a statement about the infamous fight - also known as Custer's Last Stand - or to persuade anyone that either side was right or wrong.

"Art pulls out that which is in you that is dormant or you don't understand," he said. "I know they are made out of plywood, but they are all mirrors."

The display, called an environmental installation project, will be posted for three days in Medicine Tail Coulee, land next to the battlefield that is owned by Ken Real Bird. The project is not associated with the Little Bighorn National Monument.

Real Bird said a mutual friend introduced him to Ross.

"He (Ross) approached us about putting on this display," Real Bird said. "We agreed to put it on. It would be worth the trip to come over to the reservation to see it."

Ross, a Western-history buff, said that, for 15 years before he launched into the cutout project, he thought about making art related to the 1876 battle that killed Custer, a Civil War hero. Ross estimated that he has read 80 books about Custer, Sitting Bull and other aspects of the battle.

"It's a very addicting subject," he said.

Ross is intrigued by the Battle of the Little Bighorn because, he said, it was a historically insignificant fight that was turned into a near-myth. He sees the basic story, about an underdog besting a hero, repeated throughout history. In many cases, including this one, the story takes on mythic proportions.

"The nation was shocked by this defeat. Rather than hide this under the rug and say that's embarrassing, they elevated it to the ranks of superhero," he said. "What we want history to be is one thing. What it is is another."

When he was finally ready to make battlefield art, Ross wasn't satisfied with the idea of merely painting a picture. Paintings are small and have been done many times already, he said.

Instead, he turned to a medium he had used before - life-sized or larger plywood cutouts. Ross and Guy Watkins spent about two days making each cutout. The pieces average more than 6 feet tall and depict specific characters and vignettes from the battle.

Ross created his first life-sized cutout, of Clint Eastwood in the movie "Dirty Harry," in 1976. It was displayed on a train trestle in California that is featured in the movie.

The painter developed a project a few years later in Jackson, Wyo., featuring 154 ravens perched on fence posts along Highway 22 between Jackson Hole and Teton Pass.

More recently, Ross was commissioned to make a steel cutout for the Seattle Mariners stadium, SAFECO Field.

If you go…

Thom Ross's Little Bighorn Battlefield piece will be on display near the battlefield in Medicine Tail Coulee on June 24-26 and is free to the public.

The pieces will be displayed in Ketchum, Idaho, from June 30 to July 4 and in Jackson from July 7 to 10.