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By Bornali Halder
© 2002 by Bornali Halder
Url: http://www.lakotaarchives.com/lakridgepr.html
In the spring of 1871, the Indian Office sent an agent to Fort Laramie to persuade the Sioux there to accept an agency further north. Red Cloud, and other leaders such as Red Dog, High Wolf, Little Wound, Red Leaf, and White Tail were gathered there with their bands. The leaders refused to move and the agent cut off their rations. In such a way, the resistant Sioux were forced to move.
This agency came to be called Red Cloud Agency and was situated just west of the Nebraska-Wyoming line. Not all Oglala moved to Red Cloud Agency. A few remained on Powder River, meeting up with other Oglala on the Yellowstone - camping, hunting, holding Sun Dances, and attacking and raiding both Indians and whites.
Then, towards the end of 1871, Spotted Tail, Red Cloud and other leaders led their small bands of agency Oglala and Brulé back south, where they camped and hunted game. 4800 Oglala and 1200 Brulé gathered there in the buffalo range. Those Indians that remained at Red Cloud Agency during the winter of 1871 to 1872 were known as 'loafers', and included some mixed-bloods, and some of the so-called 'friendly' Oglala who flocked to the agency for their daily rations.
The Red Cloud Agency was relocated even further north, to the White River in Nebraska, which was close to the Pine Ridge country and the Black Hills. For a long time the Sioux had tried to protect the Black Hills from white contact. The Hills lay in the heart of Sioux country. The move to White River brought whites ever closer to the sacred Black Hills.
By this time the country north of the Platte was full of new American settlers. The new Red Cloud Agency was closer to the Powder River camps of Oglala, and these Oglala (including Crazy Horse's warrior camp) often came to the new agency to protest against the white invasions of their country. Clearly this was not the response the Peace Policy people in the east expected, dreaming of a time when Indians could be turned into Christians, earning their living tilling the land.
The situation at Red Cloud was extremely volatile. The Powder River Sioux were frequently antagonistic toward the agency Sioux who, they thought, were too sympathetic to white demands. Word was sent to Fort Laramie. In 1874, General Smith marched his men from the fort. Warned of their approach, some Oglala, particularly the Powder River bands, wanted to fight. Others, particularly the agency Sioux, advocated peace. However, as the troops drew near, the Powder River Sioux, and many agency Indians, including Red Cloud, fled.
The western Sioux were making raids near the Platte River, and seizing control of the agencies. Fearing a fresh Indian war, US troops were sent out to the agencies. The government had established Red Cloud Agency with the hope that it and its rations would attract the wilder bands of Sioux who would eventually be lulled into settling down there, and thus withdraw the threat of a fresh war in the Powder River region. However, a US commission found that, though the new agencies were indeed attracting the 'hostiles' by their thousands, these Indians were doing little more than stirring up the agency Sioux and provoking serious trouble on the very edge of Nebraska and Wyoming white settlements.
At the same time, Custer and his Seventh Cavalry discovered gold in the Black Hills. Parties of prospectors at various towns on the Missouri River made plans to invade the Hills in Custer's wake, despite the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which had promised that no white person would be able to enter into Sioux country, without the express permission of the Sioux.
The Sioux were outraged and called Custer 'the Chief of all the Thieves', and his trail 'the Thieves' Trail'. They threatened to attack all whites on their land. The northern Sioux returned to the agency in the fall of 1874, in extremely bad humour. Military troops were camping nearby.
But during this time, Red Cloud was having his own problems. He became increasingly demoralised at witnessing a greater submission among his people at the agency as they became more and more accustomed to government handouts and agency life. His people were steadily losing their older, wilder spirit and becoming more placated. They were also becoming less willing to follow his lead.
Lacking the support of this own people, Red Cloud complained to the troops of the poor conditions at the agency. He complained that the Indian agent was stealing from the Oglala, that the quality of rations was poor; that agency officials were committing fraud. The troops refused to make a report to Washington.
By the fall of 1875, all Sioux hunting rights south of the Platte had been sold. Whilst out on their last hunting expedition that winter, the Oglala and Brulé saw how depleted the buffalo stocks had become.
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.
Large, well-organised groups of white settlers and gold prospectors began entering the Black Hills. There, they "laid out towns, organized local governments, and began to demand that the troops protect them from the Indians on whose lands they were trespassing" (Hyde 1937:249).1 The Grant administration reacted by demanding that all hostile Sioux come in to the various Sioux agencies by a specified date.
The deadline date for assembly at the Sioux agencies was given as 31 January 1876. Word reached the agency Sioux around Christmas and agency runners were then sent out to the wilder bands roving north. There was hardly sufficient time for the Indians to arrange to move. Moreover, the winter that year was incredibly harsh and many Sioux failed to be delivered of the message in time. The severe weather conditions also made some Sioux leaders, such as Crazy Horse who was camped out near Bear Butte at the time, report back that for the time being they could not make the journey. In reality, he and Sitting Bull moved their bands further north.
Though Red Cloud was in favour of a war against the whites, in favour of supporting the northern Sioux hostiles, his agency Indians were not so keen and tried to restrain him. As a result, Red Cloud's "hostility went no further than talk" (Hyde 1937:260) - something Red Cloud later regretted.
Meanwhile, the northern Sioux were preparing for war. They defeated the US at the Battle of the Rosebud in 1876. That same year, Sitting Bull, Gall, Crazy Horse and their bands successfully defeated and killed Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Afterwards, these Lakota Sioux left the Little Bighorn for the seclusion of the mountains and freedom from the annoyances of military presence. Crazy Horse moved west and Sitting Bull pressed north, pursued by troops, eventually crossing into Canada. Other Sioux leaders led their bands towards the Yellowstone River.
Soon, word was coming into the agencies that Washington was talking of starving the Sioux in order to force them into moving on to specified areas of land. Congress were regarding the fact that the Sioux were refusing to give up the Black Hills as 'evil'. The agency Indians were considered, by the government, to be supplying arms and ammunition to the wild bands of Sioux.
After the Custer defeat at Little Bighorn, the Interior Department ordered that the four big Sioux agencies - Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock - be turned over to the military on 26 July 1876.
Another commission arrived in Sioux Country and received a cold response at Red Cloud Agency. However, as soon as it became clear to the agency Sioux that they would be starved if they resisted, they were quickly induced to sign away their beloved Black Hills and their freedom. Spotted Tail also signed once he realised that resistance was futile, as did the Missouri River Sioux chiefs.
None of the chiefs, it seems, remembered the stipulation in the 1868 treaty that three-fourths of all adult Sioux males had to consent to such a binding land cession. The agreement was being forced through with only a few leaders' names. The US military also appealed to these Sioux to give it some of their young men to enlist in the fighting of the wild Sioux. The agency Sioux resolutely resisted this request.
The military embarked upon their winter campaign by destroying a northern Cheyenne band who had run away from Red Cloud Agency in June through fear of forced removal to Indian Territory, and who had been camping around the head of Powder River. These Cheyenne fled to join Crazy Horse and his camp. The US drove Crazy Horse's camp of around 600 lodges out of its winter encampment. Crazy Horse moved east. But by the early summer of 1877, most of the hostiles, including the young Oglala warrior, had arrived at Camp Robinson, near the agency, to surrender to the military.
The Black Hills had been lost and so had the unceded hunting territories. Early summer of 1877 witnessed the forced removal of Cheyenne to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The hostiles had promised upon their surrender that they would remain quietly at Red Cloud Agency. Crazy Horse grew morose and sullen at the agency, and made it clear to all who would listen that he would not hesitate to escape should the opportunity arise. However, as the Sioux began to realise that their situation was grim, that they had finally lost the war and their land for good, even members of Crazy Horse's own band failed to support their leader. The agency chiefs, including Red Cloud, considered Crazy Horse to be a trouble-maker, and agreed, in September 1877, to work with the troops to arrest him.
Crazy Horse did flee the agency, but was caught by agency Sioux who turned him over to the military. In the ensuing tussle between the young warrior, other leaders of the Crazy Horse band and members of the military, Crazy Horse was stabbed and killed. To this day it is unclear as to who killed him. There are those who say it was a military man, there are others who say it was an agency Sioux.
The US was attempting to relocate the Sioux east to the Missouri River. Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and other agency leaders went to Washington to seek a compromise with President Hayes. Hayes promised that if their people wintered at the Missouri then in the spring they would be able to choose any location on the now-much diminished Great Sioux Reservation that suited them, and have their agencies relocated there. In 1878, the Oglala finally settled at Pine Ridge Agency and the Brulé at Rosebud Agency, where they have both remained ever since.
The 1887 Dawes Act gave Indians the right to individually own and farm allotments of reservation land. All surplus lands were then sold and opened up to white settlement. By the late 19th century, the Sioux were isolated to small, worthless pockets of land within the ever-shrinking Great Sioux Reservation. Agencies had been created within the Reservation: Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock. The Sioux land base was further reduced with the establishment of separate reservations, when the Sioux signed an agreement with the US in 1889 to break up the Great Sioux Reservation. These agencies then became individual reservations to which the Sioux were confined, and the Great Sioux Reservation was broken up once and for all.
As the 19th century drew to a close, the Sioux attempted one last stab at victory. A messianic movement known as the Ghost Dance was being promoted by a Nevada Paiute known as Wovoka. Wovoka had had a vision in which he had been taught a dance to take back to his people. By dancing in a certain way for a prescribed number of days, the buffalo would once again roam the earth in great numbers, the ancestors would rise from their graves, and Indians would no longer suffer in hunger and poverty. It was a welcome, cathartic message to Indians of the west who had undergone much upheaval and suffering over the course of the century.
Wovoka's message and dance drew Indians from afar to hear him preach. Visitors such as Arapaho and Cheyenne related the Ghost Dance and the prophet's message to their own people. Rapidly the trance-inducing dance and its message spread from California through Oklahoma. It was Kicking Bear, a Teton Sioux leader, who brought it to the Lakota in the late nineteenth century.
Once the Great Sioux Reservation had been broken up into tiny individual reservations, and the surplus land had been opened up to non-Indians at bargain prices, railroads surveyed and built lines across the Sioux's lost territory. On the reservations, the Sioux were encouraged to live on individual allotments and support themselves by agriculture. White farmers hired as instructors by the Bureau of Indian Affairs would teach them this vital and honorable skill.
Since the Sioux reservations lay in the semi-arid zone of the Plains, European agriculture was unsuccessful. Most of the land was better suited to range. But hunting was no longer an option for the Sioux, with the Black Hills, Powder River, and Bighorn countries lost, and the buffalo exterminated. Reliance upon government rations increased. When the government cut rations drastically in 1890, the Sioux faced starvation. A number of people began dancing the Ghost Dance. A group of Sioux occupied an area of the Badlands inaccessible to the US troops, and danced there day and night.
On 20 November 1890, US troops marched onto the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. More troops were deployed in and around the other Sioux reservations. Big Foot, leader of the Miniconjou band of Lakota Sioux, was on the Army's list of potential troublemakers. He was invited to Pine Ridge by the Oglala there to negotiate a settlement of Sioux grievances. Troops were sent out to intercept Big Foot and his camp. They escorted the camp to Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation. On the morning of the 29th of December, fighting broke out between the Sioux and the troops. 39 US soldiers were killed. Over 153 Sioux were killed, most of them women and children in the Big Foot camp.
In the wake of the massacre, the Ghost Dancers surrendered. The Sioux settled back into their reservation villages and usual levels of rations were resumed.
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