Journey to Pine Ridge, 1871 to 1900::

The Black Hills Crisis: 1875

Whist the agency Sioux were busy making their complaints about agency conditions, more and more whites were scouring the Black Hills for gold. Red Cloud and other Oglala chiefs, Spotted Tail and his Brulé chiefs, and delegations from the Missouri River agencies were all summoned to Washington in the spring of 1875. After much cajoling by the Indian Office, these agency Indians, rather glumly, said that maybe they should sell the Hills, but that they could do nothing without consulting their people. It was finally agreed that a commission be sent to meet all the Sioux in the fall and bargain for the purchase of the Black Hills.

The Washington delegation of Sioux leaders returned to the Black Hills region and sent out runners to the Powder River leaders to consult on the proposition to sell the Hills. The older men in the agencies tended to want peace, and to secure it, they claimed, meant they may have to sell the Hills. The younger men vehemently opposed any suggestion that they give in to the whites who were, little by little, stealing their land.

A Black Hills commission arrived in Red Cloud Agency to prepare for the council with the Sioux. In his instructions to the commission, the Secretary of the Interior informed the commissioners that they were to try, not only to purchase the Hills, but to induce the Sioux to sell their interests in the Bighorn and Powder River lands too. Although the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty had stipulated that the provision for feeding the Sioux was to last four years only, the ration system would continue in order that the government's interests be served.

The northern Sioux, including Crazy Horse and his people, still roamed freely outside of the Great Sioux Reservation, in defiance of government orders. They soon sent word to the agency Sioux that it would be extremely dangerous for any Sioux chief to agree to the demands of the government. The 1868 Treaty had stipulated that three-quarter consent must be obtained from all adult Sioux males before any future cessions of Sioux land be undertaken. The commission quickly realised the futility of this provision.

The commission suggested to Washington that force might be the only way to make the Sioux capitulate. The refusal of the Sioux to move to the Missouri River was also argued to be a violation of the treaty. Therefore, the commission suggested, maybe the government had no option now but to seize the Black Hills by force.

The government itself was in an embarrassing position. They had pledged in the 1868 treaty that they would exclude all whites from Sioux lands, that military force would be used to remove those whites who disregarded Sioux rights and invaded their land. The treaty also permitted the Sioux rights to drive out invaders by force. But the Black Hills were now teeming with white invaders, and the military were doing little to keep them out.

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