Cultural conflicts erupted across the western Great Plains during the 1860s as expanding railroads and frontier posts in traditional hunting grounds affected various tribes in the northern plains, while restrictions on westward settlement disturbed the government and made war likely without compromise. A treaty commission began talks at Fort Laramie in April 1868, and with 17 articles of agreement and political pressure, the first chiefs signed on April 29, with other chiefs consenting throughout the year until the final signing on November 26. After Senate approval, President Andrew Johnson declared the treaty effective in February 1869, temporarily halting frontier clashes. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty created the Great Sioux Reservation, a 26 million-acre reservation for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Sioux bands, including land west of the Missouri River, north of the North Platte River, and east of the Bighorn Mountains.

Photo: South Dakota State Historical Society

Photo: Custer State Park

Photo: National Archives

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Custer, South Dakota · USA