Black Hills

The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is somewhat of a geological anomaly. The region is considered sacred by the Native Americans of the plains. It is accurately described as an "island of trees in a sea of grass."

History

After the public discovery of gold in the 1870s, the conflict over control of the region sparked the last major Indian Wars on the Great Plains, the Black Hills War. The Black Hills are considered by the Lakota Sioux to be the axis mundi, or center of the world; the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) had confirmed their ownership of the mountain range before the discovery of gold; the Lakota had conquered the Black Hills by defeating the Cheyenne in 1776.

Related Topics:
Gold - 1870s - Indian Wars - Black Hills War - Lakota - Axis mundi - Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

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General George Armstrong Custer led an 1874 expedition into the Black Hills, and officially announced the presence of gold. The following year, 1875, the first detailed survey of the Black Hills was conducted by the Newton-Jenney Party. The surveyor for the party, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, was the first person to ascend to the top of Harney Peak, the highest point in the Black Hills.

Related Topics:
General George Armstrong Custer - Newton-Jenney Party - Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy - Harney Peak

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Following the defeat of the Sioux and their allies in 1876, the United States "purchased" the region (no actual purchase was ever completed and this area is under dispute to this day). In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Black Hills were illegally taken and that remuneration of the initial offering price plus interest — over $100 million — be paid. However, the Lakota wanted the return of their land rather than money, and refused the settlement. The Lakota Nation still demands its land back to this day and, with the help of former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, did attempt to introduce a bill into Congress for return of a portion of the Black Hills. The bill eventually failed due to lack of support from the South Dakota congressional delegation.

Related Topics:
Sioux - 1876 - U.S. Supreme Court - Bill Bradley - Congress

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In the gold rush of 1875ndash;1878, thousands of miners went to the Black Hills, and in 1880 the area was the most densely populated part of Dakota Territory with three large towns in the Northern Hills: Deadwood, Central City, and Lead. Around these also lay groups of smaller gold camps, towns and villages, while Hill City and Custer City lay in the Southern Hills, and railroads were already reaching the previously remote area. From 1880 the gold mines yielded about $4,000,000 annually, and the silver mines about $3,000,000 annually.

Related Topics:
Gold rush - 1875 - 1878 - 1880 - Dakota Territory - Deadwood - Central City - Lead - Hill City - Custer City

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Unlike the rest of the Dakotas, the Black Hills was primarily settled from the west and south, as a result of miners flocking to the Hills from earlier gold boom locations in Colorado and Montana. Today, the South Dakota side of the Black Hills is economically and socially more like Wyoming or Colorado than the Dakotas. The nearby reservations and Ellsworth Air Force Base make for a unique diversity in population unlike the rest of Wyoming or South Dakota.

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