Between 1874 and 1876, thousands of citizens illegally entered the Black Hills in search of gold, as gold panners, newspaper articles, and frontier stories spread reports of great wealth and encouraged the rush into the region. The military made vain efforts to control the tide of illegal gold seekers, but before long 10,000-12,000 people had flooded the area, building towns and mining camps. To quell the rush, the government planned the Newton-Jenney Expedition in 1875 to determine a price tag on the region's wealth. In 1876, the Manypenny Commission offered the Sioux an agreement providing compensation in food, land, and houses while reducing the Great Sioux Reservation by removing the Black Hills. The treaty was not negotiated but offered as a last resort to tribal leaders facing many changes on the Great Plains, and the commission failed to obtain the required number of signatures to make the agreement legal. However, Congress still passed an act putting forth the agreement in 1877. The Newton-Jenney Expedition valued the Black Hills at $6,000,000, but this did not sway the Lakota/Dakota Sioux tribes, who stressed that the region was theirs under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The government then withdrew its troops, leaving prospectors to enter or remain at their own risk.

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Photo: Adams Museum & House, Inc.

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Custer, South Dakota · USA