Black Hills War

The Treaty Of Fort Laramie (1868) established the Great Sioux Reservation , which included the Black Hills , claimed by the Lakota since their victory over the Cheyenne in 1776 . Often considered "terra incognita," the presence of Gold in the Black Hills was generally known, but not publicly announced until after the George Armstrong Custer Expedition of 1874 . Following this, people suffering from the Panic Of 1873 began a gold rush to the Black Hills, in violation of the Treaty and federal law. Further angering the Lakota and their allies was the consistent failure of the United States Army to keep intruders out. Eventually, Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull), Tasunka Witko (Crazy Horse) and their people waged war against the intruders and the United States. Many historians today believe that the US Grant Administration deliberately provoked the war, as a new gold rush and the opening of the Black Hills would aid recovery from the economic depression which had lasted three years. Following unseasonable and unreasonable demands for Lakota families and hunters to report to the various agencies in the middle of the winter of 1875-76, Grant approved orders for the Army to round up the bands by force, and in the Spring of 1876, a coordinated campaign involving three columns of troops operating in what is today a five-state region was launched. It resulted in the Battle Of Rosebud (1876) where the Lakota, under Tasunka Witko, defeated one of the three Army columns moving to find and force the tribes home. Days later, Colonel George Armstrong Custer 's 7th Cavalry attacked a camp of the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies on the banks of Greasy Grass Creek Little Big Horn River , and the resulting Battle Of The Little Bighorn (1876) saw the Sioux and Cheyenne , under the leadership of Tatanka Iyotake and Tasunka witko, defeat the 7th Cavalry killing 258 soldiers (43% of the regiment present) in one of the worst defeats of the Indian Wars for the United States Army . However, in later battles in the summer and fall of 1876, including the Dull Knife Fight and the Battle Of Slim Buttes , cavalry and infantry units defeated the Lakota war parties and forced the Lakota people to return to the agencies. The war was finally ended with another treaty, in which the Lakota ceded a 50-mile strip along the western border of their reservation, and some additional lands, giving the US title to the Black Hills and legalizing the previously-illegal gold hunters and camp followers in Custer City , Deadwood , and other boom towns in the Black Hills.

NOTES

Named Campaigns — Indian Wars

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Black Hills War