
If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent, and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington city, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained. The Indians desire peace, and they now pledge their honor to maintain it. The government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. Tappan, duly appointed commissioners on the part of the United States, and the different bands of the Sioux Nation of Indians, by their chiefs and headmen, whose names are hereto subscribed, they being duly authorized to act in the premises.įrom this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall for ever cease. Government and the Sioux Nation.ĪRTICLES OF A TREATY MADE AND CONCLUDED BY AND BETWEEN To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. Custer's detachment was annihilated, but the United States would continue its battle against the Sioux Tribe in the Black Hills until the government confiscated the land in 1877. In 1876, Custer, leading an Army detachment, encountered an encampment of Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Bighorn River. Soon, the Army was ordered to move against wandering bands of Sioux hunting on the range in accordance with their treaty rights. Once gold was found in the Black Hills, miners were soon moving onto the Sioux hunting grounds and demanding protection from the U.S. Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills, accompanied by miners who were seeking gold. Though the reservation land was set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people, in 1874 Gen. Government established the Great Sioux Reservation, consisting of a large portion of the western half of what is now the state of South Dakota, including the Black Hills, which are sacred to the Sioux people. They also agreed not to attack railroads or settlers. The goal of the treaty was to bring peace between White settlers and the tribes, who agreed to relocate to the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory. All the tribes involved gave up many thousands of acres of land that had been promised in earlier treaties, but retained hunting and fishing rights in their older territory.

In the spring of 1868, a conference was held at Fort Laramie, in present-day Wyoming, which resulted in a treaty with the Sioux (Brule, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arcs, and Santee) and the Arapaho.
#Over the land of the free and the home of the brave meaning series
Government set out to establish a series of treaties with Native tribes that would force American Indians to give up their lands and move further west onto reservations. This led to an act to establish an Indian Peace Commission to end the wars and prevent future conflicts. They produced a "Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes" in 1867. In 1865, a congressional committee studied the uprisings and wars in the American West. Government and Native tribes.įrom the 1860s through the 1870s, warfare and skirmishes broke out frequently on the American frontier.

This struggle over land has defined the relationship between the U.S. Government's drive for expansion clashed violently with Native Americans' resolve to preserve their lands, sovereignty, and ways of life.
