When the Civil War ended, Ulysses S. Grant was a national hero and a logical candidate for president. He won the election of 1868. On this date in 1872, he won a second term in an election that had major ramifications for Dakota Territory.
The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty designated the Black Hills as the Great Sioux Reservation, off-limits to whites. But in 1874, Grant approved an expedition into the Black Hills led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Custer’s mission to find a site for a new Army post was permitted, but searching for gold was not. When Custer claimed to have found gold, prospectors made a beeline to what quickly became known as “the new El Dorado.”
At the time, the United States was in the second year of an economic depression. As miners swarmed into the Black Hills, Western newspapers and congressmen demanded that Grant annex the entire reservation. The Lakota held the Black Hills in high esteem and were alarmed by the incursion of the prospectors.
Grant had taken office committed to a Peace Policy. He found himself forced to choose between the Indians, who had not yet gained the right to vote, and Americans who would be voting in the next election. Grant chose the latter. When Lakota chiefs went to Washington to protest the incursion by prospectors, Grant told them he had no power to prevent miners from moving into the Black Hills. The chiefs were disgusted and disappointed by Grant’s response as they returned to the reservation.
In 1875, a commission went to the Black Hills in one last attempt at negotiation. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, two very influential chiefs, refused to participate. The commission returned to Washington, telling Grant that his “ample and liberal” offer had been refused. Grant abandoned his Peace Policy, and a year later, Custer led the 7th Cavalry out of Fort Abraham Lincoln to the massacre at Little Bighorn.
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the Lakota were entitled to damages for the loss of their land. The Lakota have never collected the money, which has grown to more than one billion dollars with interest. They say the Black Hills are not for sale.
Dakota Datebook by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- The White House. “Ulysses S. Grant.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/ulysses-s-grant/ Accessed 10/1/2024.
- Smithsonian Magazine. “Ulysses S. Grant an Illegal War Against the Plains Indians, Then Lied About It.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ulysses-grant-launched-illegal-war-plains-indians-180960787/ Accessed 10/1/2024.
