Broken Promises

Broken Promises. The Story of our History. The Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 held implications that would impact the destiny of the Lakota people for generations. The government promised in the 1868 treaty to care for them by building an agency on the reservation with commensurate facilities and to provide food, clothing and annuities at specified rates over 30 years. (1) The treaty also "promised them education, land ownership and cultivation, and seeds and implements to get them started". In return the Sioux agreed to be confined to the reservations. The federal government would remove all military forts in the Powder River area and prevent non-Indian settlement in their lands. , , The treaty guaranteed that any changes to this document must be approved by three-quarters of all adult Sioux males. Agencies were established to monitor the Dakota and Lakota who lived on the Reservation and soon Army forts were built to protect the Indian agents and support staff. Those Lakota living off the reservations complained bitterly when the Federal Government permitted the Northern Pacific Railroad survey crews into the unceded territory in direct violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. , However, the most famous and well-documented violation of the Sioux rights was the 1874 Black Hills Expedition of geologists and soldiers under George Custer, sent by the Federal Government, to explore the Black Hills and report on the extent of gold deposits. , The government admitted this expedition was illegal: it justified the survey stating it was only to gain information about mineral wealth in the Black Hills. , Once the geological reports of Gold in the Black Hills leaked to the general Public, a stampede of miners poured into the area. By law, these gold seekers were trespassing in the area defined as Sioux Country in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. , Half-hearted attempts by the military to keep miners out of the area were unsuccessful, and by 1875 the Black Hills were overrun by prospectors. , Rather than enforce the 1868 Treaty, the government called a council to again change the terms of the treaty. , , The Lakota and Dakota bands from all agencies overwhelmingly rejected any proposal to sell or negotiate away their rights to the Black Hills. , Food and clothing were being distributed only to those living on the reservations to encourage them to give up their traditional way of life. Winters were harsh and rations where often late so many Indians continued to leave the reservations to hunt in the unceded territory as provided in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. , Needless to say, tension between the Indians, government officials and those trespassing into Sioux Country were at an all-time high during the spring of 1876. , Some of the events that occurred in 1876 included the Little Big Horn, the deaths of Charles Nolin near present day Sturgis, Preacher Smith near Deadwood and Battle of Slim Buttes in Harding County. These events were certainly, in part, the result of the failed promises of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. , 1. "American Carnage" 2004 Jerome A. Greene. , 2. Http//www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/historical_gs_reser. , 3. Paul Horstead with Ernest Grafe and Jon Nelson Crossing The Plains with Custer ,