The Dolores star., 1923-08-03

The Sioux will fight the white
man in the United States Court of Claims, and e-
gal documents and the oratory Of lawyers instead
of war club and lance will be his weapons For the
great Dakota nation has filed suit against the
United States for total of nearly S22OOOOUOO
which the Indians say is due them for lands seized
by the government Added to this amount is
enough interest to bring the total up to nearly
three quarters of billion of dollars making it one
of the largest suits filed in any court in this
country.
The biggest item in the bill which the Sioux are
trying to collect from Uncle Sam Is for S156OOO-
700 in payment for the Black Hills of South Dakota
which they say were taken from them by force of
arms and in violation of all sacred treaty oblCa-
lions SO they are going to make last fight
for their beloved "Pah-sap-pah" (Black Hills) for
which such tribal heroes as Red Cloud and Crazy
Horse, Gall and Spotted Tail once fought so vail
antly and unavangly.
Back of this legal action is a story through the
fabric of which runs shining thread of gold To
pick up that thread you must 90 back TO Fort
Laramie the old Fort Laramie of the American
Fur company, the Laramie of Jim Bridger and Kit
Carson and the other old-tIme long-hared noun
tain men. Past this famous post ran the Oregon
trail and over it in 1S49 were hurrying thousands
of men with their faces set toward the West to-
ward the gold fields of California
The reckless slaughter of game by the Argonauts
melted to fury the Ogalala and Brule Sioux When
the Indian depredations became unbearable a
Sioux, Cheyenne Arapahoe, Crow, Gros Ventre
Mandan and Arikara-was called at Laramie bv
the government. There in 1851 the tribes signed
a treaty guaranteeing undisturbed passage for
emigrant trains The lands guaranteed to the
Sioux included the Black Hills
But as the tide of emigration flowed on and con
tinued to frighten away the buffalo, the Brule
Sioux renewed their attacks on wagon trains
Then Gen. William S. Harney appeared on the
scene with 1,2OO soldiers. AT the Battle Of Ash
Hollow, Neb, he won victory which many CON
slider little more than a massacre of Indians who
were trapped and would have surrendered if given
the chance. But he did his work so thoroupbIv
that the Sioux willing to sign a treaty nj
Fort Pierre in March, 1856 in which they again
promised to allow the gold-seekers to travel in
peace.
The Sioux were then left in undisturbed posses-
sion of the Hills for nearly decade. In the mean
time Spotted Tail and his Brules had renewed
their depredations along the Oregon trail and they
nearly put both the Overland Stage line and rho
Pacific telegraph out of commission The govern
ment was too busy with the Civil war to repeat
Harney's measures, however, and "Old Spot" was
pretty much boss of the whole trans Missouri
country.
In 1865 the thread of gold appears again This
time the gold was in Montana and Idaho and the
rush of miners there led to demand for better
route to the new dggings. Accordingly congress
authorized the construction of road from Fort
IT,,
to run diagonally across the country west of the
Black Hills and skirt the Big Horn mountains in
Montana and Wyoming. Incidentally, it ran
through the heart Of the Ogaala Sioux buffalo
range.
Red Cloud young Ogalala chief who had risen
to the position of the greatest leader of the Sioux
actively resisted this violation of the treaty of
1851. The government sent out commission to
treat for right-of-way. At first, neither Red
Cloud nor Spotted Tail would treat, but in June
1865, they were persuaded to come into Fort La
rame for council. In the midst of the council
Col. II. B. Darlington with force Of TOO soldiers
arrived at Laramie under orders to build forts
along the new road.
Red Cloud hoty denounced the white men for
trying to steal the road before the Indians had
chance to say yes or no." Are we to give I'M
the sacred graves of our ancestors to be blower
up for corn?' he demanded of his trbesmen 'Da-
kotas, I am for war; So he withdrew from the
council Spotted Tall, however was won over and