Black Hills Exploration Ends
A Golden Agricultural Paradise
Bear Butte, Dakota
August 15, 1874
Upon orders from General Phil Sheridan, an official army expedition into the Black Hills started out from Fort Abraham Lincoln on July 2. Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the expedition of 1,000 men, including a geologist. His assignment? Explore the country and report in detail what it is like.
Preliminary findings are exciting. The heavily wooded Hills has many valleys covered with the best of grasses. The soil is beyond all doubt of the most fertile character. Pure spring water abounds. Of greatest excitement is the discovery of gold which may be as rich as to yield $100 per day per prospector.
The Black Hills expedition has found the Hills the most desirable portion of Dakota. Although the Black Hills is the most sacred of Lakota places, very few Indians have been encountered by the expedition. Some worry that the Lakota will view the expedition as a treaty violation.
By Dr. D. Jerome Tweton
Source
Originally published as The North Star Dakotan student newspaper, written by Dr. D. Jerome Tweton and supported by the North Dakota Humanities Council
Subject Matter
Social Studies