The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and
various subgroups of the Sioux people that occurred in the latter half of the
19th century. The
Teton Sioux tribes were comprised of
Oglala,
Hunkpapa,
Brule,
Miniconjou, Blackfoot,
San Arc,
Two Kettle in the nineteenth century. Santee,
Lakota,
1854 - 1890
The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in
Wyoming, when Indian warriors killed 29 U.S. soldiers after their chief was shot
in the back, in what became known as the Grattan Massacre. The U.S. exacted
revenge the next year by killing approximately 100 Sioux in Nebraska.
By 1862, the
Santee Sioux had given up their traditional
homelands, which comprised most of southern Minnesota, in exchange for a narrow
reservation on the southern bank of the Minnesota River. As compensation for
their lands, the Sioux were to receive cash annuities and supplies that would
enable them to live without the resources from their traditional hunting
grounds. Because of administrative delays, however, both the cash and food had
not arrived by the summer of 1862. Crop failures the previous fall made the late
food delivery particularly distressing to the Indians. Encroachment by settlers
on reservation land and the unfair practices of many American traders also
fueled Sioux suspicions and hatred.
Travelers along the Bozeman Trail soon found
themselves under fierce attack by hostile Indians. Under
the terms of the
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, the U.S. government had
set aside the Powder River country, through which the
Bozeman Trail ran, as
Oglala and
Brulé Sioux,
Arapaho, and
Cheyenne hunting land. Thus, these tribes objected
to the intruders and attempted to turn back their wagons
and herds. In 1865, responding to the demands of the
settlers for protection, the U.S. Army sent a column
under General Patrick E. Connor to the region. Connor
constructed a stockade,
Fort
Reno, 169 miles north of
Fort
Laramie at the forks of the Powder River, but his
attempt to subdue the tribes failed.
The Sioux War of 1866-68 clearly established the
dominance of the Oglala Sioux over U.S. forces in
northern Wyoming and southern Montana east of the
Bighorn Mountains. The
treaty of 1868 between the Sioux nation and the
United States thereby recognized the right of the Sioux
to roam and hunt in the areas depicted in gray on the
map. This territory was called unceded in recognition of
the fact that although the United States did not
recognize Sioux ownership of the land, neither did it
deny that the Sioux had hunting rights there. This
provision clearly established the solemn rights of the
Sioux to perpetual ownership of the reservation.
After receiving his instructions and leaving Custer for the
last time, Reno recrossed to the left bank of Reno Creek and followed the stream
to its confluence, with the Little Bighorn, where he briefly stopped to water
the horses. Five minutes later, Reno's battalion forded the Little Bighorn and
deployed into a line across the narrow, flat valley. For the first time, Reno
could see the edge of what now appeared to be an enormous Indian village.
The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890 near
Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Cankpe Opi Wakpala) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment
commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's (Big Foot) band
of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted
them 5 miles westward to Wounded Knee Creek where they made camp.
Through Dakota Eyes - Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the
Minnesota Indian War of 1862," oral history is the only game in town. Every
selection in the book is an oral story from Indians or mixed-blood Indians about
the disastrous uprising that killed hundreds of soldiers, settlers, and Indians.
One of the editors of "Through Dakota Eyes" is none other than Gary Clayton
Anderson, the premier scholar on Dakota history.
Fort Phil Kearny: An American Saga - There recently
was written a book on Fort Phil Kearny and the Fetterman
Massacre that defended William Judd Fetterman's role in
the fiasco that took place on December 21, 1866. Life on
the Wyoming frontier was not a place one would relish to
be during this time period. It is true that Colonel
Henry Carrington was ill-suited to be placed at the helm
of this command. However, the author makes a strong case
for Carrington in this book.
Troopers with Custer: Historic Incidents of the Battle
of Little Big Horn - More incisively than many later
writers, Brininstool considers the causes of Custer's
defeat and questions the alleged cowardice of Major
Marcus A. Reno. His exciting reenactment of the Battle
of the Little Big Horn sets up the reader for a series
of turns by its stars and supporting and bit players.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - First published in
1970, this extraordinary book changed the way Americans
think about the original inhabitants of their country.
Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and
ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men,
women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it
tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives
to a dynamically expanding white society. During these
three decades, America's population doubled from 31
million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to
the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of
settlers pushing westward to make new lives.
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