1868 Fort Laramie Treaty


Every treaty crafted by the United States government with indigenous peoples across the American landscape--especially in the West--involved the federal government asserting and fighting for for what it wanted:  minerals, farming land, railroad corridors, dominance. The 1858 Fort Laramie treaty is no exception and its study might lead students to consider other treaties and how they came to be and how they influenced this region's history.  The 1868 Fort Laramie specifically defined an area covering half of present day South Dakota, parts of North Dakota, Wyoming,  and Nebraska as a permanent home for the Sioux, including the Black Hills which are sacred to the Sioux. The treaty also redefined and reduced  Crow territory, giving land which had previously been Crow to the Sioux.   Red Cloud, Ogallala Sioux, played an integral role in negotiating for the Sioux.   How did Indian people respond to this treaty and its implications for their survival? How did they try face physical conflict and abhorrent government policies.  When even the terms of treaties are violated, how have native peoples worked to defend their lives and lands and cultures?  Was compromise part of the process?

 

Secondary Sources

 

Goodyear III, Frank H. Red Cloud: Photographs of a Lakota Chief. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2003.

 

Larson, Robert W. Red Cloud: Warrior—Statesman of the Lakota Sioux. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

 

Frank Rzeczkowski, "The Crow Indians and the Bozeman Trail," Montana The Magazine of Western History  49, 4 (Winter 1999): 30-47.

 

Hebard, Grace R. and E. A. Brinistool.  The Bozeman Trail: Historical Accounts of the Blazing of the Overland Routes into the Northwest, and the Fight’s with Red Cloud’s Warriors, Volume II.  Cleveland, OH:  The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1922. 

 

Primary Sources at the Montana Historical Society 

 

Primary and Secondary Sources on the Internet

 

Fort Laramie Treaty, April 29, 1868: http://puffin.creighton.edu/lakota/1868_la.html

 

National Archives, Teaching with Primary Documents, Sioux Treaty of 1868:  http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sioux-treaty/

 

Sioux-Indians.com, Sioux History Timeline: http://www.sioux-indians.com/sioux-history.htm

 

Vertical Files at the Montana Historical Society 

Red Cloud

Fort Laramie Treaty