Fort Laramie and the Treaty Years, 1842 to 1871::

Increasing Resentment among Sioux and Whites: 1842 to 1851

The Oglala began encountering white men and their families coming west in increasing numbers in their - "creeping slowly up the Platte" as one author has put it. The emigrants were complaining of being threatened by the Sioux. The emigrants brought with them diseases that the Sioux had never encountered before. In 1849, for example, Asiatic cholera struck most of the western Sioux camps. The US established a military post at an old trading post in Sioux country, called Fort Laramie. There was increasing resentment among the Indians that their lives and their territories were being trespassed upon.

In 1851, the US persuaded various Plains nations to sign the Fort Laramie Treaty. Article 2 of the treaty declared: "The aforesaid nations do hereby recognize the right of the United States Government to establish roads, military and other posts, within their respective territories."

The territories of the signatory Indian nations, including the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho, were clearly delineated. The Black Hills was situated within Sioux territory. The government also guaranteed that Indian tribes would be given rations of food and clothing, known as annuity goods. However, the treaty failed to recognise the disparate nature of the western Sioux, each band and camp of which occupied different regions of the Plains, and each one politically discrete.

Instead, the treaty lumped together all the different bands into one nation. In fact, only a few band leaders, selected by the traders, had been allowed to sign the treaty. No Oglala leader signed, only those of the Brulé and Missouri River Sioux. For some reason, at the treaty council where the signing took place, Brave Bear, a Brulé, was made 'head-chief' of all the Teton Sioux, even though, up to this time, no such category as a head-chief had existed among the Sioux.

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