Timeline
- July 5, 1825: The United States agreed to take the Sioux Indians under their protection.
- 1830: Indian Removal Act- justified the U.S. government’s unreliable promises.
- 1851: Fort Laramie Treaty - marked boundaries of the Lakota Nation but word of gold spread and miners trespassed on their grounds.
- April 29, 1868: Fort Laramie Treaty: Parties agreed to stop all wars for peace between them.
- February 28, 1877: Black Hills Act: Congress took back the Black Hills portion of the 1868 Treaty Reservation (7.3 million acres) given to the tribe without the consent of three-fourths of the adult male Indians. This confiscated the rights of the land and hunting in the area. However, Congress gave the Sioux Indians all aid necessary for civilization and subsistence rations for survival. Congress agreed that the Indians would be subject to the laws of the United States, extending the First and Fifth Amendment.
- Fall, 1883: Last Sioux buffalo hunt took place.
- 1888: Cow herds on the Sioux reservation were killed by anthrax disease, causing an issue to the Indians.
- January, 1889: Wovoka, a Paiute Indian, arose from the dead (recovered from scarlet fever) after a total eclipse of the sun. The legend says that he learned from the eclipse through an almanac and planned his resurrection with the eclipse. This spread throughout the Indian Nation. His belief was that if Indians danced, sang, and prayed to certain rituals, the buffalo and deceased relatives would return. This resulted in the creation of the Ghost Dance.
- March 2, 1889: The United States gave an additional nine million acres of the 1868 treaty reservation, and divided it into six smaller reservations by the Act of Congress. The Indians living on the reservation could not leave their reservations without a pass from the Indian agent.
- Remainder of 1889: The United States lied and cut the rations given by half as soon as they secured the purported signatures of the 1877 Black Hills act. This created famine and death to the Sioux.
- May 29, 1890: L. Hyde, a citizen of Pierre, South Dakota, believed that the Sioux were planning an outbreak during the gathering of the Ghost Dance due to the large crowd of Indians.
- Summer of 1890: More gatherings of the Ghost Dance occurred which scared white people living south and west of the Sioux reservations. They became alarmed and believed there would be an Indian uprising.
- October 20, 1890: To restore order, Agent Royer of Pine Ridge Agency requested six to seven hundred troops at Pine Ridge.
- November 20, 1890: Report that Sioux were on the warpath.
- November 22, 1890: Governor Mellette of South Dakota created the "Home Guard," a militia to guard homesteaders along the west edge of the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River reservations.
- December 15, 1890: Chief Sitting Bull murder by federal Indian police commanded by Agent McLaughlin. Sitting Bull's men fled with half-brother, Chief Big Foot, so seek revenge.
- December 28, 1890: Chief Big Foot’s capture by white leader, Colonel Forsyth.
- December 29, 1890: Sioux ceremonial Ghost Dance and the Battle of Wounded Knee Massacre.
- January 3, 1891: A burial party picked up about 146 bodies of the dead Indian. Without a ceremony, they dug a mass grave to bury the dead.