The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and the Cheyenne refused to cede ownership. Traditionally, American military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially because of their numbers, but some Native Americans believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the American campaign.
Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation
Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa, was one of the principal Sioux leaders.
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn along with 268 soldiers.
Custer and the last of his men were killed and buried here. The Indian village was on the other side of the line of trees marking the Little Bighorn River. To visit the old battlefield today it is necessary to enter the Crow Indian Reservation – it was exactly the same in 1876.
The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man, c. 1831 – December 15, 1890
Scenes of battle and horse raiding decorate a muslin Lakota tipi from the late 19th or early 20th century
January 17, 1891: Young Man Afraid of His Horses at camp of Oglala band of Lakota at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 3 weeks after the Wounded Knee Massacre, when 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 U.S. soldiers died
Lakota parfleche, c. 1890, Speed Art Museum