The
Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the
Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred in 1876 and 1877 between the
Lakota Sioux, Northern
Cheyenne, and the United States.
The cause of the war was the desire of the U.S. government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and Cheyenne refused to cede ownership to the U.S. Traditionally, the United States military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially given their numbers, but some Indians believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the U.S. campaign.
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Among the many battles and skirmishes of the war was the
Battle of the Little Bighorn, often known as Custer's Last Stand, the most storied of the many encounters between the U.S. army and mounted
Plains Indians. That Indian victory notwithstanding, the U.S. leveraged national resources to force the Indians to surrender, primarily by attacking and destroying their encampments and property. The Great Sioux War took place under the presidencies of
Ulysses S. Grant and
Rutherford B. Hayes. The Agreement of 1877 (19
Stat. 254, enacted February 28, 1877) officially
annexed Sioux land and permanently established Indian reservations.
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