The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is part of the Great Sioux Nation known as Sicangu Oyate, or Burnt Thighs, and called Brule by the French. The Great Sioux Nation recognizes our land base in accordance with the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The Great Sioux Nation extended from the Big Horn Mountains in the west to the eastern Wisconsin. The territory extended from Canada in the north to the Republican River in Kansas in the south. The Great Sioux Nation was reduced in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty from the Big Horn Mountains in the west to the east side of the Missouri River, the Heart River in North Dakota in the north and the Platte River in Nebraska to the south. This includes the entire western half of South Dakota.
The Black Hills are located in the center the Great Sioux Nation. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota/ Dakota people and today considered an important part of our spiritual lives. A direct violation of the 1868 Treaty was committed in 1874 by General George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry. The 7th Cavalry entered the Black Hills, the center of the Great Sioux Nation and found gold in the Black Hills. The Gold Rush started the conflict between the United States and Great Sioux Nation. The Great Sioux Nation opposite this violation of the treaty. The United States Government wanted to buy or rent the Black Hills from the Lakota people. The Great Sioux Nation refused to sell or rent their sacred lands.
The 7th Cavalry under General George A. Custer was requested to bring the Sioux bands in and place them on the reservation lands. On June 15, 1876, the Battle of the Little Big Horn between the 7th Cavalry and Lakota Nation with their allies Cheyenne and Arapahos at Greasy Grass, Montana took place. The Sioux Nation won a victory over General George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry.
The Great Sioux Nation scattered, some to Canada and others surrendered to the reservations. The United States Government demanded that the Lakota nation move to the reservations. The people finally surrendered after being cold and hungry and moved on the reservations.
Panzeri, Peter. 1995. Little Big Horn 1876: Custer's Last Stand. 8th Ed. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing.
Many tribes resisted this policy. Wars were fought as a result. The Sac and Fox Indians in Wisconsin and Illinois reoccupied their lands after having been forced to move west of the Mississippi. They were defeated. The Seminole Indians refused to sign a treaty to give up their lands. They, too, fought and lost a bitter war to remain on their land.
Army in 1874, when General George A Custer said that gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. This was a sacred area to many tribes and had always been off-limits to white settlement since the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty. The government tried to purchase this land, but failed, so the Fort Laramie Treaty was set aside and ordered that all Lakota were to leave their land by January 31, 1867. Sitting Bull refused to leave so he and his tribe stood their ground. They later realized that there were more army men than Lakota, so they joined forces with other
The journey of exploration to the western territories brought the white man many great things, but they did face some opposition. The US government made plans to explore the Black Hills, after hearing of the gold it contained. This was not an easy task. The Sioux, with strong force, were not giving up their sacred land easily. The only way to gain the territory of the Black Hills was to wage war against the Sioux. The Battle of the Little Big Horn was one battle that the US will never forget. General George Custer led an army of men to take out the Sioux, one of the battalions was completely wiped out including Custer. The Sioux were very strong, but US had a lot more power and technology. Why did we get massacred? This question has been a mystery to many people throughout the years. Sergeant Windolph, of Benteen’s cavalry, and John F. Finerty, from General Crooks cavalry, bring us some personal accounts and memories of this tragedy.
Back in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. This act required the government to negotiate treaties that would require the Native Americans to move to the west from their homelands. Native Americans would be moved to an area called the Indian Territory which is Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Nebraska. Some tribes that were to be moved are Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. All of the other tribes had relocated in the fall of 1831 to the Indian Territory besides the Cherokee who did not relocate until the fall of 1838. They did not move from their homeland without a fight. Their homeland was parts of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They started this march in the fall of 1838 and finished in early
Unfortunately, this great relationship that was built between the natives and the colonists of mutual respect and gain was coming to a screeching halt. In the start of the 1830s, the United States government began to realize it’s newfound strength and stability. It was decided that the nation had new and growing needs and aspirations, one of these being the idea of “Manifest Destiny”. Its continuous growth in population began to require much more resources and ultimately, land. The government started off as simply bargaining and persuading the Indian tribes to push west from their homeland. The Indians began to disagree and peacefully object and fight back. The United States government then felt they had no other option but to use force. In Indian Removal Act was signed by Andrew Jackson on May 18, 1830. This ultimately resulted in the relocation of the Eastern tribes out west, even as far as to the edge of the Great Plains. A copy of this act is laid out for you in the book, Th...
The Dakota Nation didn’t just wake up one day and decide to attack the settlers. They had been insulted, oppressed and cheated for years. Eventually, the Sioux decided to stand up and take back their land. The Sioux were hunters, not farmers. When the US decided to buy the Sioux’s hunting grounds and give them farmland, they should have thought about the consequences. The Sioux missed their sacred hunting land and struggled to make their farmland prosperous. Not only that, but the Sioux believe that they belong in Minnesota. Some say Israel is the land of the Jews. Well, Minnesota is the land of the Sioux. Of course, the US didn’t exactly steal the Sioux’s hunting land. Technically, the US bought the Sioux out, however that would imply that the Sioux had a choice about selling or were even aware of what was taking place.
The Sioux band tougher led by Little Big Foot. They were heading to Pine RidgeReservation in South Dakota, when the army stopped them and held them at gun pointovernight. Big Foot’s group contained about 300 people two-thirds of them were women and children. While the soldiers numbered around 500 and were armed with automatic weapons. The next morning when the army began to disarm the Indians a shot rang out then the gun fire began leaving about 200 Indians dead in the snow. Thirty soldiers were also killed in the massacre. The soldiers that lost there lives were most likely killed by their own men in friendly fire. Wounded Knee is said to have been the last battle of the war but it was not so much a battle as it was a massacre. It was in fact the last exchange of fire between the army and the Sioux.
The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief’s sign the “Treaty of New Echota” in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee’s could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the ‘Trail of Tears,’ which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee’s were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar’s think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The ‘Trail of Tears’ was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.
Savages, Injuns, and Redskins are all names that have destroyed the honorable opportunity to be called an Indian. The Algonquian people, people that belong to the North American Indian family, in the Blackfoot (Blackfeet) tribe lived in present day Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan, and Canada. Even though in the early years they farmed, they are known for hunting buffalo mostly (Ditchfield 5). There are four closely related tribes that come together to form the whole Blackfoot tribe. There is the Northern Blackfoot (Siksika), The Bloods (Kainai), The Poorly dressed or Piegan (Pikuni), and the Blackfoot (8). The Blackfoot was a widespread tribe that dominated the Great Plains. The regions ranged (north to south) from Alberta, Canada to parts
The Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876, “Eye Witness to History. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from www.eyewitnesstohistory.com.
On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7thU.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013). At the conclusion of the battle, the stories of the Indians savagery were used to demonize their culture and there were no survivors from the 7thcavalry to tell what really happened.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
The Battle of Little Bighorn is one of the most, maybe even the most, controversial battle in American history. General George Armstrong Custer led his 210 troops into battle and never came out. Miscalculations, blunders, and personal glory led Custer not only to his death, but also being the most talked about soldier in this battle. But all the blame doesn’t just go on Custer’s shoulders; it also goes on Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, who both fought in the battle. Both the Captain and the Major both made serious mistakes during the fight, most notable Major Marcus Reno being flat out drunk during the course of the battle. All of these factors have led The Battle of Little Bighorn to being the worst lost to any Plains Indian group in American history.
with nature treating it with the mutual respect that it deserved. After all, abusing the land and wildlife could cause lasting repercussions that would be detrimental to their existence as a people. That their attack was directed at whites is purely arbitrary. The Sioux also executed an attack against the Pawnee who also threatened their way of life, simply in a different