Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
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Name	Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
Caption	Signing at Fort Laramie, 1868
Date signed	February 8, 1868
Location signed	Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory
Parties	United States of America; Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho
Language	English, Lakota

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) was a landmark agreement between the United States and several Plains tribes—principally the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho—negotiated at Fort Laramie in what was then Wyoming Territory. The treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation and attempted to bring an end to the Sioux Wars and broader conflicts on the Northern Plains. It had immediate political, military, and cultural consequences involving actors such as Ulysses S. Grant, William S. Harney, William Tecumseh Sherman, and tribal leaders including Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Crazy Horse.

Background

Tensions leading to the treaty arose from clashes along the Bozeman Trail and competition over the Black Hills after the California Gold Rush and the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Incidents such as the Fetterman Fight (also called the Battle of the Hundred in the Hand) and the Grattan Massacre illustrated contested sovereignty over the Powder River Country. Federal policy debates in the United States Congress and positions taken by officials like Isaac Stevens and William H. Seward influenced the milieu. The treaty followed failed precedents including the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851), and unfolded amid broader post-American Civil War reconstruction politics and westward migration driven by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Transcontinental Railroad projects.

Negotiation and Signatories

Negotiations at Fort Laramie involved commissioners appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant and military oversight by officers like William S. Harney and William Tecumseh Sherman. Native delegations were led by prominent figures such as Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Sitting Bull (though his presence was limited), Crazy Horse, Little Thunder, and Chief Two Moons of the Cheyenne. Signatory representatives for the United States included garrison commanders and civilian commissioners tied to the Indian Peace Commission. The treaty roster linked chiefs from the Oglala Sioux, Brulé Sioux, Hunkpapa Sioux, Miniconjou Sioux, and allied bands, along with Northern Arapaho leaders such as Black Coal.

Terms of the Treaty

The agreement recognized the Great Sioux Reservation including the Black Hills as "unceded" lands and guaranteed tribal ownership, hunting rights on adjoining lands, and provisions for annuities and supplies delivered at agencies like the Red Cloud Agency and the Spotted Tail Agency. The United States pledged to abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail—notably Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith—and to construct schools and farming assistance through agents associated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The treaty also provided for peace, prisoner exchanges, and defined boundaries adjacent to the Crow Reservation and lands claimed by the Arapaho. Compensation, annuities, and agricultural implements were enumerated, and mechanisms for dispute resolution referenced federal circuits and military enforcement such as Department of the Platte oversight.

Implementation and Enforcement

Implementation required cooperation among federal agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the War Department, and congressional appropriations committees in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Enforcement mechanisms relied on military withdrawal from the Powder River Country, the establishment of agency schools staffed by personnel from institutions like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School model, and annuity distributions at treaty agencies. Conflicts arose over allotment of supplies, delays in annuities allocated by the Indian Appropriations Act processes, and the role of Indian agents such as Ely S. Parker and local superintendents whose actions affected tribal compliance. Judicial questions sometimes reached the United States Supreme Court in later years.

Conflicts and Violations

Soon after signing, violations proliferated: prospectors ignored treaty protections to enter the Black Hills after discoveries tied to the Custer Expedition and George Armstrong Custer’s 1874 campaign; migrants and the Northern Pacific Railway pressured lands; and military interventions resumed, culminating in clashes including the Battle of the Little Bighorn and continuing Red Cloud's War skirmishes. The federal government’s seizure of the Black Hills after the 1876–77 Sioux Wars contravened treaty terms, prompting legal disputes such as United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians decades later. Treaty's guarantees were undermined by statutes like the Dawes Act and policies from Indian Commissioner offices that prioritized allotment and assimilation over collective sovereignty.

Aftermath and Legacy

The treaty’s collapse reshaped federal Indian law, prompting litigation and acts of congressional appropriation culminating in the Indian Claims Commission and the 20th-century United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians award. Cultural memory centers on the treaty in places such as the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and museums like the National Museum of the American Indian. Political activism by leaders associated with the American Indian Movement and tribal governments spurred renewed claims and protests tied to the Black Hills, including efforts to reject monetary settlements in favor of land restoration endorsed by tribal councils and figures like Russell Means and Leonard Peltier advocates. The treaty remains a focal point in scholarship at institutions such as Harvard University, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, South Dakota State University, and archives in National Archives and Records Administration collections, continuing to influence debates over indigenous sovereignty, restitution, and federal-tribal relations.

Category:Treaties of the United States