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The Homestead Act
Gave 160 acres of land to settlers who paid a fee and lived on the land for five years. This land brought farmers to the Plains to homestead. -
Discovery of 1874
In 1874, General Custer led an expedition team into the forbidden Black Hills Reserve to find rumored gold in the area. He did confirm that there was gold "from the grass roots down". -
Battle of Little Bighorn
On July 25, the Sioux Chieftain Sitting Bull gathered Sioux and Cheyenne warriors along the Little Bighorn River in present day Montana. They were then joined by another chief by the name of Crazy Horse and his warriors. The army was then ordered to round up the warriors and move them to reservations. Lieutenant Colonel Custer was ordered to scout the encampments, but Custer wanted the glory of leading a major victory. He divided the regiment and was soon out numbered by thousands and lost. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
In 1865 a comitee in congress began a study and report of the Indian uprisings and wars in this area, which soon led to the condition of the indian tribes. This would lead up to an agreement between the indians and settlers that would give the Indians their sacred Black Hills as a reservation known as The Treaty of Laramie. That would soon end when General Custer and some miners found gold in The Black Hills. Custers men fought and lost to the Indians and fled to fight another day. -
Fetterman Massacre
The Fetterman Massacre was the single most bloodiest attack by the Sioux tribe. Army men were on duty on a fort on the Bozeman Trail, used by miners to reach the gold mines in Montana. A Sioux military leader, Crazy Horse, acted as bait to lure troops into their trap. He tricked the fort's commander into sending a group of about 80 soldiers to pursuit. Hundreds of warriors were waiting in ambush and wiped out the entire group of 80. The incident is known by the name of the Fetterman Massacre. -
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was there way of to express there culture was being decimated. They decided upon this when asking the prophet, Wokova. He told them that they could regain their former greatness if they performed this ritual. Reservation officials became more and more concerned as the ritual spread and decided to ban the dance and arrest whoever was the cause of it. Thinking it was Sitting Bull, they came to arrest him and during a scuffle, he was shot and killed. -
Wounded Knee
Because of the events that occured during the Ghost Dance, hundreds of Lakota Sioux fled in fear after Sitting Bull's death. They all then gathered at a creek called "Wounded Knee" in southwestern South Dakota. During this, the army went there to collect the Sioux's weapons. No one has record of how or why a pistol fired but when it did, the final Indian/US conflict began. More than 200 Sioux and 25 soldiers died. The native americans had lost their struggle.
