Without ever holding political office, Secretary of War Cameron had to immediately contend with the Great Sioux War and quickly become acquainted with the bureaucracy of the War Department. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, miners began to invade Indian territory given by the federal government to the Sioux tribe under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. In addition, the federal government planned to put a route of the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Sioux and Cheyenne buffalo hunting grounds. After negotiation for the sale of Sioux land failed in May 1875, President Grant ordered all non-treaty bands to return to the reservation. When Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse refused to comply, Secretary of Interior Zachariah Chandler handed over the jurisdiction of the hostile Indians to the War Department on January 31, 1876, launching the Great Sioux War.