Great Sioux War of 1876 The Great Sioux War of 1876 , also known as the Black Hills War , was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne , against the United States . As gold was discovered in the Black Hills , settlers began to encroach onto Indian lands , while pressure was mounted by the federal government for the Indians to remain on the Sioux reservation . Traditionally , the United States military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story , especially given their numbers , but some American Indians believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the US campaign . An alternative interpretation suggests that the Indians would have called it " The Great Cheyenne War " . 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 . with its superior resources was soon able 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 . Background . The Cheyenne had migrated west to the Black Hills and Powder River Country before the Lakota and introduced them to horse culture about 1730 . By the late 18th century , the growing Lakota tribe had begun expanding its territory west of the Missouri River . They pushed out the Kiowa and formed alliances with the Cheyenne and Arapaho to gain control of the rich buffalo hunting grounds of the northern Great Plains . The Black Hills , located in present - day western South Dakota , became an important source to the Lakota for lodge poles , plant resources and small game . They were considered sacred to the Lakota culture . By the early 19th century , the Northern Cheyenne became the first to wage tribal - level warfare . Because European Americans used many different names for the Cheyenne , the military may not have realized their unity . The US Army destroyed seven Cheyenne camps before 1876 and three more that year , more than any other tribes suffered in this period . From 1860 on , the Cheyenne were a major force in warfare on the Plains . " No other group on the plains achieved such centralized tribal organization and authority . " The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 , signed with the US by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne leaders following Red Cloud ' s War , set aside a portion of the Lakota territory as the Great Sioux Reservation . This comprised the western one - half of South Dakota , including the Black Hills region for their exclusive use . It also provided for a large " unceded territory " in Wyoming and Montana , the Powder River Country , as Cheyenne and Lakota hunting grounds . On both the reservation and the unceded territory , white men were forbidden to trespass , except for officials of the U . S . government . The growing number of miners and settlers encroaching in the Dakota Territory , however , rapidly nullified the protections . The US government could not keep settlers out . By 1872 , territorial officials were considering harvesting the rich timber resources of the Black Hills , to be floated down the Cheyenne River to the Missouri , where new plains settlements needed lumber . The geographic uplift area suggested the potential for mineral resources . When a commission approached the Red Cloud Agency about the possibility of the Lakota ' s signing away the Black Hills , Colonel John E . Smith noted that this was " the only portion [ of their reservation ] worth anything to them " . He concluded that " nothing short of their annihilation will get it from them " . In 1874 , the government dispatched the Custer Expedition to examine the Black Hills . The Lakota were alarmed at his expedition . Before Custer ' s column had returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln , news of their discovery of gold was telegraphed nationally . The presence of valuable mineral resources was confirmed the following year by the Newton - Jenney Geological Expedition . Prospectors , motivated by the economic panic of 1873 , began to trickle into the Black Hills in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty . This trickle turned into a flood as thousands of miners invaded the Hills before the gold rush was over . Organized groups came from states as far away as New York , Pennsylvania , and Virginia . Initially , the United States Army struggled to keep miners out of the region . In December 1874 , for example , a group of miners led by John Gordon from Sioux City , Iowa , managed to evade Army patrols and reached the Black Hills , but the Army ejected them three months later . Such evictions , however , increased political pressure on the Grant Administration to secure the Black Hills from the Lakota . In May 1875 , Sioux delegations headed by Spotted Tail , Red Cloud , and Lone Horn traveled to Washington , D . C . in an eleventh - hour attempt to persuade President Ulysses S . Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their territories . They met with Grant , Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano , and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Edward Smith . The US leaders said that the Congress wanted to pay the tribes $ 25 , 000 for the land and have them relocate to Indian Territory ( in present - day Oklahoma ) . The delegates refused to sign a new treaty with these stipulations . Spotted Tail said , " You speak of another country , but it is not my country ; it does not concern me , and I want nothing to do with it . I was not born there . . . If it is such a good country , you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone . " Although the chiefs were unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution , they did not join Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the warfare that followed . That fall , a US commission was sent to each of the Indian agencies to hold councils with the Lakota . They hoped to gain the people ' s approval and thereby bring pressure on the Lakota leaders to sign a new treaty . The government ' s attempt to secure the Black Hills failed . While the Black Hills were at the center of the growing crisis , Lakota resentment was growing over expanding US interests in other portions of Lakota territory . For instance , the government proposed that the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad would cross through the last of the great buffalo hunting grounds . In addition , the US Army had carried out several devastating attacks on Cheyenne camps before 1876 . Combatants . The number of Indian combatants in the war is disputed with estimates ranging from 900 up to 4 , 000 warriors . The seven bands of the Lakota Sioux in the 1870s numbered perhaps 15 , 000 men , women , and children , but most of them were living on the Great Sioux Reservation and were noncombatants . An Indian agent in November 1875 said the Indians living in the unceded areas numbered " a few hundred warriors . " General Crook estimated that he might face up to 2 , 000 warriors . Most of the Sioux who remained in the unceded territory where the war would take place were Oglala and Hunkpapa , numbering about 5 , 500 in total . Added to this were about 1 , 500 Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho for a total hostile Indian population of about 7 , 000 , which might include as many as 2 , 000 warriors . The number of warriors participating in the Battle of the Little Bighorn is estimated at between 900 and 2 , 000 . The Indians had advantages in mobility and knowledge of the country , but all Indians were part - time warriors . In spring , they were partially immobilized by the weakness of their horses which had survived the long winter on limited forage . Much of summer and fall they spent hunting buffalo to feed their families . About one half of the Indian warriors were armed with guns , ranging from repeating rifles to antiquated muskets , and one half with bows and arrows . The short , stout Indian bow was designed to be used from horseback and was deadly at short range , but nearly worthless against a distant or well - fortified enemy . Ammunition was in short supply . Indian warriors had traditionally fought for individual prestige , rather than strategic objectives , although Crazy Horse seems to have instilled in the Sioux some sense of collective endeavor . The Cheyenne were the most centralized and best organized of the Plains Indians . The Sioux and Cheyenne were also at war with their long - time enemies , the Crow and Shoshoni , which drained off many of their resources . To combat the Sioux the U . S . army had a string of forts ringing the Great Sioux Reservation and unceded territory . The largest force arrayed against the Indians at one time was in summer 1876 and consisted of 2 , 500 soldiers deployed in the unceded territory and accompanied by hundreds of Indian scouts and civilians . Many of the soldiers were recent immigrants and inexperienced on the frontier and in Indian warfare . Cavalry soldiers were armed with . 45 caliber , single - action revolvers and the Springfield Model 1873 , a single - shot , breech - loading rifle which gave the soldiers a large advantage in range over most Indian weapons . Launching the war . Grant and his administration began to consider alternatives to the failed diplomatic venture . In early November 1875 , Major General Philip Sheridan , commander of the Division of the Missouri , and Brigadier General George Crook , commander of the Department of the Platte , were called to Washington , D . C . to meet with Grant and several members of his cabinet to discuss the Black Hills issue . They agreed that the Army should stop evicting trespassers from the reservation , thus opening the way for the Black Hills Gold Rush . In addition , they discussed initiating military action against the bands of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne who had refused to come to the Indian agencies for council . Indian Inspector Erwin C . Watkins supported this option . " The true policy in my judgement , " he wrote , " is to send troops against them in the winter , the sooner the better , and whip them into subjection . " Concerned about launching a war against the Lakota without provocation , the government instructed Indian agents in the region to notify all Lakota and Sioux to return to the reservation by January 31 , 1876 , or face potential military action . The US agent at Standing Rock Agency expressed concern that this was insufficient time for the Lakota to respond , as deep winter restricted travel . His request to extend the deadline was denied . General Sheridan considered the notification exercise a waste of time . " The matter of notifying the Indians to come in is perhaps well to put on paper , " he commented , " but it will in all probability be regarded as a good joke by the Indians . " Meanwhile in the council lodges of the non - treaty bands , Lakota leaders seriously discussed the notification for return . Short Bull , a member of the Soreback Band of the Oglala , later recalled that many of the bands had gathered on the Tongue River . " About one hundred men went out from the agency to coax the hostiles to come in under pretense that the trouble about the Black Hills was to be settled , " he said . " . . . All the hostiles agreed that since it was late [ in the season ] and they had to shoot for " tipis " [ i . e . , hunt buffalo ] they would come in to the agency the following spring . " As the deadline of January 31 passed , the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs , John Q . Smith , wrote that " without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull ' s submission , I see no reason why , in the discretion of the Hon . the Secretary of War , military operations against him should not commence at once . " His superior , Secretary of the Interior Zachariah Chandler agreed , adding that " the said Indians are hereby turned over to the War Department for such action on the part of the Army as you may deem proper under the circumstances . " On February 8 , 1876 , General Sheridan telegraphed Generals Crook and Terry , ordering them to commence their winter campaigns against the " hostiles " . The Great Sioux War of 1876 – 77 had begun . Reynolds ' campaign . While General Terry stalled , General Crook immediately launched the first strike . He dispatched Colonel Joseph J . Reynolds with six companies of cavalry , who located a village of about 65 lodges and attacked on the morning of March 17 , 1876 . Crook accompanied the column but did not play any command role . His troops initially took control of and burned the village , but they quickly retreated under enemy fire . The US troops left several soldiers on the battlefield , an action which led to Colonel Reynolds ' court martial . The US captured the band ' s pony herd , but the following day , the Lakota recovered many of their horses in a raid . At the time , the Army believed they had attacked Crazy Horse ; however , it had actually been a village of Northern Cheyenne ( led by Old Bear , Two Moons and White Bull ) with a few Oglala . Summer expeditions . In the late spring of 1876 a second , much larger campaign was launched . From Fort Abraham Lincoln marched the Dakota Column , commanded by General Terry , with 15 companies or about 570 men , including Custer and all 12 companies of the Seventh Cavalry . The Montana Column , commanded by Colonel John Gibbon , departed Fort Ellis . General Crook commanded a third column that departed Fort Fetterman to head north . The plan was for all three columns to converge simultaneously on the Lakota hunting grounds and pin down the Indians between the approaching troops . Battle of the Rosebud . General Crook ' s column was the first to make contact with the northern bands in the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17 . While Crook claimed a victory , most historians note that the Indians had effectively checked his advance . Thus the Battle of the Rosebud was at the very least a tactical draw if not a victory for the Indians . Afterward General Crook remained in camp for several weeks awaiting reinforcements , essentially taking his column out of the fighting for a significant period of time . Battle of the Little Bighorn . Lt . Col . George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were ordered out from the main Dakota Column to scout the Rosebud and Big Horn river valleys . On June 25 , 1876 , they encountered a large village on the west bank of the Little Bighorn . The US troops were seriously beaten in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and nearly 270 men were killed , including Custer . Custer split his forces just prior to the battle and his immediate command of five cavalry companies was annihilated without any survivors . Two days later , a combined force consisting of Colonel Gibbon ' s column , along with Terry ' s headquarters staff and the Dakota Column infantry , reached the area and rescued the US survivors of the Reno - Benteen fight . Gibbon then headed his forces to the east , chasing trails but unable to engage the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors in battle . Battle of Slim Buttes . Reinforced with the Fifth Cavalry , General Crook took to the field . Hooking up briefly with General Terry , he soon moved out on his own but did not find a large village . Running short on supplies , his column turned south and made what became called their " Starvation March " to mining settlements to find food . On September 9 , 1876 , an advance company from his column stumbled across a small village at Slim Buttes , which they attacked and defeated . After reaching Camp Robinson , Crook ' s forces disbanded . Crackdown at the agencies . In the wake of Custer ' s defeat at the Little Bighorn , the Army altered its tactics . They increased troop levels at the Indian agencies . That fall , they attached most of the troops to the Army for operations . They seized horses and weapons belonging to friendly bands at the agencies , for fear they would be given to the resisting northern bands . In October 1876 , Army troops surrounded the villages of Red Cloud and Red Leaf . They arrested and briefly confined the leaders , holding them responsible for failing to turn in individuals arriving in camp from hostile bands . The US sent another commission to the agencies . According to historian Colin Calloway , " Congress passed a law extinguishing all Lakota rights outside the Great Sioux Reservation . " The Lakota never legally ceded the Black Hills to the United States . Mackenzie ' s campaign . Colonel Ranald S . Mackenzie and his Fourth Cavalry were transferred to the Department of the Platte following the defeat at the Little Bighorn . Stationed initially at Camp Robinson , they formed the core of the Powder River Expedition that departed in October 1876 to locate the northern villages . On November 25 , 1876 , his column discovered and defeated a village of Northern Cheyenne in the Dull Knife Fight in Wyoming Territory . With their lodges and supplies destroyed and their horses confiscated , the Northern Cheyenne soon surrendered . They hoped to be allowed to remain with the Sioux in the north . They were pressured to relocate to the reservation of the Southern Cheyenne in Indian Territory . After a difficult council , they agreed to go . When they arrived at the reservation in present - day Oklahoma , conditions were very difficult : inadequate rations , no buffalo left alive near the reservation , and malaria . A portion of the Northern Cheyenne , led by Little Wolf and Dull Knife , attempted to return to the north in the fall of 1877 in the Northern Cheyenne Exodus . They succeeded in reaching the north . After they divided into two bands , that led by Dull Knife was captured and imprisoned in an unheated barracks at Fort Robinson without food or water . When the Cheyenne escaped on January 9 , 1878 , many died at US Army hands in the subsequent Fort Robinson massacre . Eventually the US government granted the Northern Cheyenne a northern reservation , the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in present - day southern Montana . Miles ' campaigns . Another strategy of the US Army was to place troops deep within the heartland of Lakota Territory . In the fall of 1876 , Colonel Nelson A . Miles and his Fifth Infantry established Cantonment on Tongue River ( later renamed Fort Keogh ) from which he operated throughout the winter of 1876 – 77 against any " hostiles " he could find . In January 1877 , he fought Crazy Horse and many other bands at the Battle of Wolf Mountain . In the months that followed , his troops fought the Lakota at Clear Creek , Spring Creek and Ash Creek . Miles ' continuous campaigning pushed a number of the Northern Cheyenne and Lakota to either surrender or slip across the border into Canada . Miles later commanded the US Army during the Spanish - American War . Diplomatic efforts . While military leaders began planning a spring campaign against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne who had refused to come in , a number of diplomatic efforts were underway in an effort to end the war . As the winter wore on , rumors reached Camp Robinson that the northern bands were interested in surrendering . The commanding officer sent out a peace delegation . About thirty young men , mostly Oglala and Northern Cheyenne , departed the Red Cloud Agency on January 16 , 1877 to make the dangerous journey north . Among the most prominent members of this delegation was a young Oglala named Enemy Bait ( better known later as George Sword ) . He was the son of the prominent headman Brave Bear . The delegation found Crazy Horse on the Powder River , but found no indication that he was prepared to surrender . Other Oglala camps nearby , however , were more willing to hear the message and to seriously consider surrendering at the agencies . In late February , part of the delegation continued on to find the Northern Cheyenne , where they delivered the same message . The influential Brulé headman Spotted Tail also agreed to lead a peace delegation out to meet with the " hostiles . " Departing his agency on February 12 , 1877 with perhaps two hundred people , Spotted Tail moved north along the eastern edge of the Black Hills . They soon found a large village of Minneconjou under Touch the Clouds near Short Pine Hills on the Little Missouri River . After several days of councils , they agreed to go in and surrender at the Spotted Tail Agency . Spotted Tail ' s delegation continued on to the Little Powder River where they met with Minneconjou , Sans Arc , Oglala and a few Northern Cheyenne , including leaders such as Roman Nose , Black Shield , Lame Deer and Fast Bull . Most of these bands also agreed to go in to the Spotted Tail Agency to surrender . Crazy Horse was not in the camp , but his father gave a horse to a member of the delegation , as evidence that the Oglala war leader was ready to surrender . Not to be outdone by General Crook ' s diplomatic efforts , Colonel Miles sent out a peace initiative from his Tongue River Cantonment . Scout Johnny Brughier , aided by two captive Cheyenne women , found the Northern Cheyenne village on the Little Bighorn . They met in councils for several days . His effort would lead to a large contingent of Northern Cheyenne eventually surrendering at the Tongue River Cantonment . On April 13 , a second delegation departed the Red Cloud Agency , led by the noted Oglala leader Red Cloud , with nearly 70 other members of various bands . This delegation met Crazy Horse ' s people " en route " to the agency to surrender and accompanied them most of the way in . Surrenders . The continuous military campaigns and the intensive diplomatic efforts finally began to yield results in the early spring of 1877 as large numbers of northern bands began to surrender . In April 1877 , an aide of General Crook ' s wrote to a friend : " I am now fully satisfied that the great Sioux War is now ended and that we will have once more a chance to have peace . " A large number of Northern Cheyenne , led by Dull Knife and Standing Elk , surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency on April 21 , 1877 . They were shipped to Indian Territory the following month . Touch the Clouds and Roman Nose arrived with bands at the Spotted Tail Agency . Crazy Horse surrendered with his band at Red Cloud on May 5 . The famed Oglala leader Crazy Horse spent several months with his band at the Red Cloud Agency amidst an environment of intense politics . Fearing that he was about to break away , the Army moved to surround his village and arrest the leader on September 4 , 1877 . He slipped away to the Spotted Tail Agency . The following day , Crazy Horse was brought back to Camp Robinson with the promise that he could meet with the post commander . Instead , he was taken to the guard house under arrest . During his struggle to escape , he was fatally bayoneted by a soldier . Flight to Canada . While many of the Lakota surrendered at the various agencies along the Missouri River or in northwestern Nebraska , Sitting Bull led a large contingent across the international border into Canada . General Terry was part of a delegation sent to negotiate with the bands , hoping to persuade them to surrender and return to the US , but they refused . Not until the buffalo were seriously depleted and troubles began to surface with other native tribes in Canada , did they finally return . In 1880 – 81 , most of the Lakota from Canada surrendered at Fort Keogh and Fort Buford . US forces transferred them by steamboat to the Standing Rock Agency in the summer of 1881 . Aftermath . The Great Sioux War of 1876 – 77 contrasted sharply with the Bozeman War fought a decade earlier . During the 1860s , Lakota leaders enjoyed wide support from their bands for the fighting . By contrast , in 1876 – 77 , nearly two - thirds of all Lakota had settled at Indian agencies to accept rations and gain subsistence . Such bands did not support or participate in the fighting . The deep political divisions within the Lakota continued well into the early reservation period , affecting native politics for several decades . In 1889 – 90 , the rise of the Ghost Dance movement found a large majority of its followers among the non - agency bands who had fought in the Great Sioux War . While much more numerous in total population , the bands of the Lakota generally were independent and made separate decisions about warfare . Many bands did ally with the Cheyenne , and there was intermarriage between the tribes . An alternative view is that the Plains Indians considered the war of 1876 – 77 to be " The Great Cheyenne War " .