Fort Laramie 1868 and the Black Hills: abrogation by the Act of Feb. 28, 1877

What happened

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 set apart the Great Sioux Reservation, which included the Black Hills, "for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the Sioux. Article 12 said no cession of reservation land would be valid unless signed by at least three-fourths of adult male Indians. Article 16 said the country north of the North Platte River and east of the Big Horn Mountains "shall be held and considered to be unceded" Indian territory.

In 1874 Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led an Army expedition into the Hills, and the discovery of gold was widely reported. The Supreme Court later quoted one historian calling the government's efforts to remove intruders "feeble." In November 1875 the President decided the military should make no further resistance to miners in the Hills. After a commission failed to buy the Hills in 1875, a second commission in 1876 presented an agreement to Sioux chiefs and leading men. The Court wrote that it "was signed by only 10% of the adult male Sioux population." Congress enacted it as the Act of February 28, 1877, which the Court said had the effect of abrogating the treaty. In exchange the Sioux were promised subsistence rations for as long as they would be needed.

In United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians (1980), the Supreme Court held that the 1877 Act was a taking of tribal property that required just compensation. It upheld an award of $17.1 million, the Black Hills' 1877 value, plus interest from 1877. The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains reports that the tribe still refuses the payment and continues to seek the land itself.

Good to know. The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains says the unclaimed award had grown to more than $600 million by the late 1990s.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error