Since the 1850s, the tension between white settlers and the Plains Tribes began simmering. The settlers encroached on the tribes’ lands, resulting in frequent clashes. The Civil War paused that pressure, but after 1865, clashes sparked conflicts like Red Cloud’s War. To settle the disputes, the Sioux and their allies signed the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, granting the sacred Black Hills to the Sioux. Both sides wanted to relieve tension over land, resources, and settler encroachment.
The Black Hills Gold Rush: 1874
The tipping point came with an 1874 gold rush and the Custer Expedition. The Expedition went to the Black Hills to build a fort and search for gold. Prospectors found loose gold, indicating gold deposits. Soon, thousands of hopefuls flocked to the Black Hills, staking their claims and establishing towns like Custer and Deadwood. The Black Hills, plus west of the Missouri River, by the 1868 Treaty, made the area off-limits to settlement. The Sioux and two allied tribes – the Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne, grew angry as the U.S. government didn’t or refused to remove any whites.
The U.S. formed a commission to buy the Black Hills, hoping to avoid conflict, but this failed as the tribes refused to sell. Frustrated, on January 31, 1876, the U.S. government ordered all tribes to return to their reservations or be labeled “hostile.” Few obeyed as many tribal bands left; some headed for their annual gathering.
A Vision: 1876
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterBy June 1876, seven thousand Lakota and their allies had gathered at Rosebud Creek, Montana, for their religious Sun Dance festival and buffalo hunt. Chief Sitting Bull, the Lakota Sioux leader, participated and had a vision: soldiers attacked the Sioux but “fell from the sky like dead grasshoppers.” Because of Sitting Bull’s reputation, his vision boosted the tribes’ morale before the battle.
Movements and Clashes: 1876
The U.S. government knew the tribes had gathered, bolstered by more from the reservations. Cavalry and infantry units, already campaigning to force the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes back to the reservations, moved into Montana, searching for their opponents. The Sioux camp was located on Rosebud Creek, Montana.
On June 17, 1876, Sioux warriors and seven companies of the 7th Cavalry clashed at the Battle of Rosebud Creek. Neither side gained an advantage; the U.S. troops later stated fierce Shoshone and Crow scouts, bitter enemies of the Sioux, kept American losses down. The commander here, Major Reno, reports back to where the enemy encampment’s location is.
Later, the Sioux camped on the Little Bighorn. On June 24, after the 7th, Cavalry under Custer stopped for the night near their opponents with over 700 soldiers organized into twelve companies. The next day, June 25, Custer divided his command into a three-pronged attack to surround the Sioux’s village in the Little Bighorn Valley. The Sioux moved too, now aware of the soldiers’ presence.
The first 7th Cavalry command, under Captain Reno, stopped just shy of the Sioux village, stunned at its size. The Sioux next attacked, killing many and driving him back across the Little Bighorn River, where he stopped. More companies under Captain Benteen joined him, and they dug in. The Sioux did not press their attacks.
Custer’s Last Stand: 1877
The last moments of Custer and his men remain unclear, with many conflicting versions. Some accounts stated Custer created three more groups, pushing for the Sioux village. The common theory is that Custer was attacked by warriors defending their village and families, and maybe hundreds more warriors moving in after pounding Breen and Reno. No matter, the Sioux and their allies vastly outnumbered Custer’s 210 soldiers.
The soldiers retreated towards Last Stand Hill while getting picked off by the Sioux warriors. Custer may have rallied at the Hill, but story versions vary. Some stated the U.S. soldiers got overwhelmed, while others remembered vicious hand-to-hand combat. Legends state Sioux wives participated in the battle, distracting soldiers and killing any wounded found.
Custer’s nude body was located two days after the battle, with bullet wounds to the head and side. All the soldier’s corpses suffered mutilation after the fighting. What occurred became the U.S. Army’s worst defeat until then, with 268 killed. The Sioux’s victory proved fleeting. By September 1876, the Americans rushed in massive reinforcements, harrying the Sioux relentlessly. Soon all Native Tribes had surrendered, and later, the U.S. took away the Black Hills by 1877.
