Nomadic by Nature Most native Americans in the North American Plains were nomadic in nature, meaning the roamed from place to place following food, which was the Buffalo. Their religion was the Spirit of Nature

Sioux Uprising In 1862 the government offered small reservations to the Dakota Sioux in Minnesota with annuities (food and supplies) but when the Sioux realize the annuities were way to small and were often taken by American traders, they rebelled. When government withheld annuities the Sioux under Chief Little Crow asked for food on credit or they would starve. The government denied them. The Sioux began to attack settlers on the northern plains.

Fetterman’s Massacre *The US Army began to send out patrols to control the Native Americans *In 1866 the Lakota Sioux under the leadership of Chief Red Cloud attacked and defeated the US Army in Montana in a conflict named after the US Army leader Colonel William Fetterman.

Sand Creek Massacre In the 1860s, tensions between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Native Americans and the miners in Colorado increased. Bands of Native Americans attacked wagon trains and ranches in Colorado. The territorial governor ordered the Native Americans to peacefully surrender at Fort Lyon. Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle brought hundreds of Cheyenne to negotiate peace and the US Army attacked and killed most of the Cheyenne. This event prompted government to created the Indian Peace Commission which called for two large reservations for Native Americans to reside on and to be controlled by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs).

Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. Born near the Grand River in Dakota Territory, he was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

Little Big Horn In 1976, the Lakota Sioux Indians left the reservations to hunt what little buffalo were left at the Bighorn Mountains in southeastern Montana. US Army sent General Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry to attack the Lakota and Cheyenne and every single US Soldier was killed including Custer.

Last Battles The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, refused to move to a reservation in Idaho in 1877. They fled, but later were forced to surrender and move to Oklahoma. At the Lakota Sioux reservation in 1890, the Lakota were ordered by a government agent to stop the Ghost Dance–a ritual that was celebrating the hope that the whites would disappear, the buffalo would return, and Native Americans would reunite with their ancestors. Many Lakota were killed. This was the final Native American resistance to federal authority.

Grand River and Standing Rock Reservation

General George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Today he is most remembered for a disastrous military engagement known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Moving here from England, Custer spent much of his boyhood living with his half-sister and brother-in-law in Monroe, Michigan, where he attended school, before entering Military School.

Location: Battle of Little Big Horn

Battle of Little Big Horn Chief Sitting Bull led the Lakota and Cheyenne Tribes in a revolt against the American soldiers killing all of them.

Custer’s Last Stand Custer was killed by Crazy Horse, under Sitting Bulls Tribes. Crazy Horse and White Bull mounted a charge that broke through Custer’s line and Custer was killed. It is believed Custer’s men panicked and ran and they were struck down from behind.

Crazy Horse (1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. Known as the Native American who killed General Custer at Little Big Horn

Crazy Horse Last Photo-Dispute abhorred being photgraphed. Crazy Horse was stabbed resisting arrest on Sept 5, 1877.

Sitting Bull Originally named “Jumping Badger” Sitting Bull eventually surrendered and was placed on a reservation. He eventually performed in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Until he retired from the show and lived at the agency Village Reservation were he was shot and killed for performing the ritual “Ghost Dance

Buffalo Bill Cody William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), near LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes, which he toured in Great Britain and Europe as well as the United States. (Wiki)

Anne Oakley Calamity Jane James Butler “Wild Bill Hickock Will Rodgers Sitting Bull And Wild Bill Cody

Reservations Some people thought that the situation between whites and Native Americans could be improved if Native Americans could assimilate, or be absorbed into American society as landowners and citizens. This included breaking up reservations into individual allotments, where Native Americans would live in families and support themselves.

Dawes Act These allotments became the policy when Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887. The United States to surveyed American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted United States citizenship. The Dawes Act was a failure. Few Native Americans had the training or enthusiasm for farming or ranching. They found the allotments too small to be profitable.

Current South Dakota Reservations

SOUTH DAKOTA Tribes Link