A Life Changing War

The Dakota Indians have participated in countless wars, but one of the most life changing battles was the war for the Black Hills of South Dakota. In the mid 1770’s, the Dakota Indians began to move to, and settle in, the Black Hills. Here they lived peacefully until the first non-Indian settlers began to appear in the 1840’s. Among these newcomers was General George Armstrong Custer, who tried to take the Black Hills from the Indians, in 1874, and convert them all to reservation life. When the Native Americans did not agree to this proposition, the United States declared war upon them. All the Native American tribes of the Black Hills banded together to fight, under Sioux chief Sitting Bull and Cheyenne war leader Crazy Horse. Throughout the six years that this war lasted, the U.S. troops and the Indians had many encounters, which, at different times, fell in the favor of each side. By January of 1877, all chiefs and tribes, except that of Sitting Bull’s, had surrendered to reservation life. Because the United States did not believe the war to be truly over until every tribe was living on a reservation, U.S. troops spent the next four years attempting to persuade Sitting Bull and his followers to oblige. Finally, on July 19, 1881, he agreed. The long and bloody war for the Black Hills eventually came to an end when Sitting Bull arrived at Fort Buford, South Dakota, in mid 1881.


By Kristin Jacobsen