Black Hills And Gold Dust

The Sioux lost their sacred land due to the 1874 discovery.

- Mark Boardman

Prospectors came running, and the town of Deadwood was created.

The Sioux considered the Black Hills to be sacred, the center of the earth and a place to speak to the Great Spirit. They had controlled the area for many decades. The U.S. government confirmed that in the Treaty of Fort Laramie that ended Red Cloud’s War in 1868.

The agreement set up a Great Sioux Reservation that covered modern-day western South Dakota. Whites were forbidden to enter—but that didn’t last for long. Especially when gold came into play.