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The Black Hills of South Dakota
Located on the border between
South Dakota and Wyoming, the Black Hills are a geologic formation approximately
120 miles from north to south and 60 miles east to west. The westward
migrations of European-Americans by-passed the area, following the Platte River
to the south. The Native Americans of the region - the seven sub-tribes of the
Teton Sioux - considered their Paha Sapa to be sacred. Therefore the region was
entirely uninhabited until gold was discovered in the summer of 1874 by Lt. Col.
George Armstrong Custer.
Within months the lovely solitude of the Hills was shattered by the hordes of gold-seekers anxious to escape the recent "panic" of 1873, or just to see what was there. Famous characters like Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, and Poker Alice joined the throng headin' for the hills, and some of them ended up buried on Boot Hill - Deadwood's famous Mount Moriah. Of course, the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) had promised the Great Sioux Reservation to the Indians for "as long as the grass shall grow and the water flow" - which in this case was about nine years. The promise of vast riches were too much for the non-Indians from the states to resist and the treaty was abrogated by Congress in 1877. As it turns out, Congress had no authority to do so, and the ownership of the Black Hills was contested in the U.S. Courts for sixty years in the twentieth century, eventually awarding the Sioux tribes a monetary sum in 1979 for their loss. To this day, the money remains unclaimed. Tribal leaders are interested only in the return of their sacred Paha Sapa - and there the matter rests. Want to learn more? |
