Cont...
In
the Black Hills of South Dakota, on the Great Sioux Reservation, a military
expedition under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was
charged with finding a site for a proposed fort. Rumor had it that there was
gold in the Black Hills, so Custer took along professional miners. When they
did indeed find gold, the
news spread across the country like wildfire. Thousands
of miners and town builders poured into the area, a violation of the Fort Laramie
Treaty of 1868 which promised that whites would stay off of Indian lands. Because
of this, many Indians left the reservation and went to live on the lands which
had not yet been ceded in the Montana Territory.
Below
is a picture of Custer's Black Hills Expedition.
1875
The Grant administration came under increasing pressure to purchase the rich
lands from the "agency Indian" Lakotas, (the "good" Indians,
who cooperated with the U.S., signed treaties, and lived on reservations.) Two-thirds
of the Lakotas fell into this category, including the great Lakota war chief
Red Cloud, while the other one-third were "non agency" hunting bands,
who opposed any association with the U.S., did not recognize the treaty of 1868,
and would not live on reservations, instead roaming around in an attempt to
follow their traditional way of life. These hunting bands tended to influence
and intimidate the reservation Indians, leading them off of the reservations
during the hunting seasons. The hunting bands followed war chiefs such
as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall and Crow King.
The Grant administration met with agency Indian leaders,
trying to purchase the mineral rich Black Hills area from them, but due in part
to the intimidation of the hunting bands, the Indians refused to sell their
land. At this point the government decided that the hunting bands must be broken,
brought under control, and put back on the reservations.
December 1875 - Runners were sent to the hunting bands, warning them that they
had until Jan 31st to move on to the reservation, or else be reported as "hostile"
to the
Col.John Gibbon & Battlefield Map
War
Department. The Indian bands did not take these threats seriously, thinking
that they were, for the most part, at peace with the whites.
Gen.
Phil Sheridan came up with a three-pronged plan to round up the "hostiles",
as they came to be called. Three army groups would converge on the area
from three different directions, rounding up or killing hostile Indians along
the way, in an attempt to drive them all onto the reservations.
April & May
Three different army columns, totaling around 1600 men, left from Fort Ellis,
Montana, Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota, and Fort Fetterman, Wyoming territory,
to meet up in southeast Montana territory and attack any non-compliant Indians
they could find.
June
The Montana and Dakota
columns met up and joined on the Yellowstone River, where the steamboat Far
West was moored (pictured left). The boat was a place for the commanders
to meet, as well as storage for supplies for the campaign. This group included
Lt. Col. Custer, and was led by General
Alfred H. Terry.
The
Montana column was under the command of Col. John Gibbon. At this time the Wyoming
column, under the command of General George Crook, was still on its way up from
Wyoming.