The Black Hills were promised to Native Americans “for as long as the grass shall grow.” Maybe those same promises wouldn’t have been made if American settlers knew about the gold that lies beneath those hills. That land had been reserved for the Crow Nation in the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851), but was reassigned as a Lakota (Sioux) reservation in the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie fifteen years later. Now, gold has been discovered beneath the Black Hills by General Custer. The United States has given the Lakota an ultimatum: leave the land peacefully or be deemed “hostiles” and forcibly expelled from the region. The Lakota decided to do the opposite. Chief Sitting Bull, who holds command over Lakota forces in the Black Hills, was soon joined by Cheyenne and Sioux forces from across the Plains to assemble in an area known to them as the Greasy Grass.

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Here you, as Native American leaders, have met to consider how to ward off the approaching forces of General Custer. Will you meet them with force and risk casualties? Will you attempt to negotiate at the expense of your land? This will be no easy task; the Americans want nothing but the gold. Good luck, delegates.

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