Big Indian is a prominent sandstone summit in Monument Valley on Navajo Nation land in southeastern Utah, rising sharply above the desert and visible from Highway 163. Its name comes from a profile long seen as resembling the face of a Native American looking across the valley, and the United States Board on Geographic Names made that name official in 1964 after rejecting alternatives. The butte is formed from softer Organ Rock Shale capped by harder De Chelly Sandstone, a geologic contrast that helps create Monument Valley’s striking buttes and mesas. Its runoff drains to the San Juan River basin in a semi-arid high-desert climate.