![]() In 1868 the federal government entered into a series of treaties with the Lakota resulting in the Fort Laramie Treaty which established the Great Sioux Reservation including all lands from the Missouri River west to the Bighorn Mountains of western Wyoming. The Black Hills of South Dakota by Kathy Weiser-Alexander. Another expedition was sent in 1859-60 led by Captain W.F. Warren was assigned the task of making a thorough reconnaissance of the plains of South Dakota, including the area known as the Black Hills. Trouble escalated when bands of Lakota began to raid nearby settlements, then retreating to the Hills.īecause of this, Lieutenant G.K. The Army established outposts nearby, but they seldom entered the Black Hills. The Lakota never welcomed the white man to their hunting grounds and as immigration increased there was a marked decline in American Indian-white relations. While other adventuresome trappers also explored the hills, most avoided the area because it was considered sacred by the Lakota. Lewis and Clark heard tales about the Black Hills from other traders and trappers, but it wasn’t until 1823 that Jedediah Smith and a group of about 15 traders actually traveled through them. As European immigrants flooded the eastern United States, white settlers gradually moved westward seeking fertile land and suitable town sites. When the expedition returned east in 1806, their writings were widely read by would-be settlers headed for the upper Missouri Valley. Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea, guiding them. The young Shoshone woman helped to guide Lewis and Clark all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The 31-member party met little resistance from the Indians as they passed through South Dakota. Along the Missouri River, the expedition was joined by French trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his 15-year-old wife Sacagawea, whom the Frenchman had won in a gambling match. When President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase with Napoleon of France, the 828,000 square-mile purchase included all of what would later become South Dakota. In 1803, Jefferson sent his personal secretary Meriwether Lewis and his friend William Clark to explore the new territory. Adventurers Francois and Joseph La Verendrye claimed the region for King Louis XV in 1743 by placing an engraved lead plate on the bank of the Missouri River near present-day Pierre. The lands soon became sacred to the Lakota Sioux, who called them Paha Sapa, which means “hills that are black.”Īt about the same time as the Lakota migration to the region, French Canadian explorers began mapping the Missouri River and trading with the Indians for pelts and hides to be shipped back East. However, when the Lakota arrived in the 18th century, they drove out the other tribes and claimed the land for themselves. Sioux Indians on Horseback, by Heyn, 1899
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